Elon Musk Interview: 1-on-1 with Sandy Munro
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as a primary source on Tesla manufacturing and engineering decisions and Musk's grasp of product detail.
What it is
Sandy Munro interviews Elon Musk at Boca Chica about Tesla production, mega-castings, seats, structural battery packs and the difficulty of mass production.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2021 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends space_rock · 2021-02 · on “Elon Musk admits Tesla car quality flaws, says mass production is “hell””
Just watch the interview they used as source. Reading these articles is mostly noise and forcing a narrative [this video]
Recommends nickik · 2021-03 · on “Tesla orders its first 8k-ton Cybertruck casting machine”
Its not that much faster but Tesla claimed it removes 100s of robots and an incredibly long error prone assembly line. Also, when you weld lots of parts together you have tolerances stack up. Tesla developed its own aluminum that does not need to be heat-treated. It might still need some finishing, but not a very complex process. Check out this video of Musk and Sandy Munro (former Chief Engineer at Ford) talking about it: [this video]
Recommends nebula8804 · 2023-02 · on “The Cost of Shadow Work”
Wow so just like all the outsourcing nonsense that first started in the IT industry (and failed) and then crept into all the other industries (and are subsequently failing now) it was all done by stupid MBAs who couldn't think ahead past one quarter. The way that you explained the phenomenon makes me think that there is a business opportunity to capture customers by providing world class service. Auto companies are relearning why it does not make sense to outsource anything that a customer sees or touches. That is your profound knowledge and any supplier that is incentivized to maximize cost per unit will not care one bit about providing anything more that the minimum needed to get the contr
Cites rmason · 2021-02 · on “Visiting SpaceX and Meeting Elon Musk (9 min video)”
Sandy Munro interviewed Elon a week ago, mostly about Tesla engineering. Here's a background video on where they met at SpaceX and highlights of their tour. Here's a link to the interview referenced: [this video]
Cites Yeroc · 2021-03 · on “-2000 Lines of Code”
I heard Elon Musk state in an interview that they gave every new line of code 1 point and every deleted line of code 2 points so clearly at least Tesla seems to value fewer lines of code. Reference: [this video]
Cites AS37 · 2021-03 · on “Apple to build battery-based solar energy storage project in California”
> The main problem as EV manufacturers look to shave weight the batteries are going to become more integrated into the car's structure For those looking for a source, here's Elon Musk saying exactly that to Sandy Munro. [this video]
Cites tim333 · 2021-04 · on “Tesla admits its Full Self-Driving technology is a Level 2 system”
At least in the vid on that page [this video] it seems Musk is trying his best. Sadly I'm not a Tesla owner but my Apple stuff works well.
Cites reducesuffering · 2021-05 · on “Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ reveals a $530M bet against Tesla”
> I think the hardest part about vehicle manufacturing, which is the issue Tesla seems to run into repeatedly, is dependable mass production. Musk agrees substantially. He says prototypes are fun and easy and it's the mass production scaling that is the most hell.[0] [0] [this video]