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Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

cnbc.com

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Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#3
As someone who works in manufacturing, I can't count the number of times I've been told to "just make it work". And, in reality, sometimes that truly is the best option in the immediate term to get a system working so you can make enhancements later. But I think that's the operative phrase: so you can enhance later.

The challenge is that once the immediate fire is out, it's easy to simply leave things in a half-baked state. That accumulates as technical debt.

Thankfully, most of the instances where I have had to deal with this has been purely software and not affected the lives and comfort of operators on the floor like with Tesla. But I can see how this happens. Even if the 'tent' becomes a permanent installation, I hope they spend the time and money to improve it to the necessary working standards that employees deserve.

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#4
> In fact, we have a large number of employees who request to work on GA4 based on what they hear from colleagues and what they have seen first-hand

Wonder if the Tesla spokesman has a desk there. Off the top of my head I can't imagine a reason why the tent would be such a great place to work. Equal maybe but certainly not better than a factory building that was not put up in a hurry to meet demands.

In any manufacturing job the "get it done" mantra is pretty much guaranteed to rear its head from time to time. Issuing such a strong blanket rejection for every single point really undermines the rejection.

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#5
> pressured to take shortcuts

I work in software, and this happens all the time and it is not the end of the world. It normally means doing even more work later, or shipping without all the features. Its done by not coding in most cases.

But this is a car. What sort of shortcut could you make when assembling parts to a car that has already had every part planed out?

Edit: never-mind, I skipped a entire paragraph somehow. Tape, it is tape guys.

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#6
Keep in mind this is from cnbc - they consistently push an anti-tesla position

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/28/40-tesla-headlines-on-c...

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/9b71x0/40_tesl...

And for more insight google “why does cnbc hate tesla”

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#7
post #5

> pressured to take shortcuts I work in software, and this happens all the time and it is not the end of the world. It normally means doing even more work later, or shipping without all the features. Its done by not coding in most cases. But this is a car. What sort of shortcut could you make when assembling parts to a car that has already had every part planed out? Edit: never-mind, I skipped a entire paragraph some…

It seems like another shortcut they took was over automation. Looks like some areas are better off with a human. Can robots apply tape?

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#8
post #5

> pressured to take shortcuts I work in software, and this happens all the time and it is not the end of the world. It normally means doing even more work later, or shipping without all the features. Its done by not coding in most cases. But this is a car. What sort of shortcut could you make when assembling parts to a car that has already had every part planed out? Edit: never-mind, I skipped a entire paragraph some…

That's fantastic. I just love what happens to electrical tape in hot cars. I can't wait to reach up into there to try to fix something a few years from now.

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#9
post #5

> pressured to take shortcuts I work in software, and this happens all the time and it is not the end of the world. It normally means doing even more work later, or shipping without all the features. Its done by not coding in most cases. But this is a car. What sort of shortcut could you make when assembling parts to a car that has already had every part planed out? Edit: never-mind, I skipped a entire paragraph some…

What concerns me is that shortcuts in industrial manufacturing processes are often directly detrimental or even fatal to workers. Heavy industry uses toxic chemicals and large, powerful machinery; cutting corners around those things is actively dangerous.

Using some electrical tape in places where you'd otherwise use shrink tubing is not a big deal. But like you said, trying to cut corners on a finished hardware design sounds orders of magnitude harder than doing so on software, and I worry about what else workers are being forced to do to cover for management's failures.

[edit] added word "else" for clarity

Re: Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

#10
post #9
post #5

> pressured to take shortcuts I work in software, and this happens all the time and it is not the end of the world. It normally means doing even more work later, or shipping without all the features. Its done by not coding in most cases. But this is a car. What sort of shortcut could you make when assembling parts to a car that has already had every part planed out? Edit: never-mind, I skipped a entire paragraph some…

What concerns me is that shortcuts in industrial manufacturing processes are often directly detrimental or even fatal to workers. Heavy industry uses toxic chemicals and large, powerful machinery; cutting corners around those things is actively dangerous. Using some electrical tape in places where you'd otherwise use shrink tubing is not a big deal. But like you said, trying to cut corners on a finished hardware desi…

>Using some electrical tape in places where you'd otherwise use shrink tubing is not a big deal.

The article says that they used electrical tape from Walmart on a bracket that holds the cameras for Autopilot.

I've used some Walmart etape... that's a big deal.

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