Watch the Tesla Model 3 assembly line in slow motion
Tesla is delaying a major announcement to focus on improving the Model 3 production process — so Elon Musk just shared a video of the assembly line in slow motion so that we can see the company is actually working on the new cars.
The automaker failed to meet its stated Model 3 production goals by a wide margin last quarter, so the car's manufacturing process is being called into question. A Wall Street Journal report claimed production bottlenecks arose because some parts were still being made by hand, a claim Tesla has vehemently denied.
Musk shared a new video of the assembly process on Instagram, showing his followers exactly how a Model 3 is put together in the factory. There were no human workers in sight, unsurprisingly, but the footage was much slower than you might expect from an automated assembly line.
Musk said the video only showed off the process at one-tenth speed.
He added in a tweet that the video wasn't edited to make the process easier to follow — the automaker actually slowed down the production process IRL. The line was being run at tenth-speed so that Tesla could develop better safeguards in case of a malfunction or other accidents.
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One of Musk's followers edited the video to show the actual speed once production is humming along at full power.
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Tesla hopes to ramp up the Model 3 production to meet its aggressive goal of producing 5,000 units per week by the end of the year, a tall order after only manufacturing 260 Model 3 vehicles from July to September. The Model 3 could be massively important as all-electric cars become more common — but Tesla has to actually get enough cars on the road to actually make a difference.
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.