Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla employees say they took shortcuts, worked through harsh conditions

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 192 posts

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

#141

Post by Barrin92 »

mu_killnine wrote: post #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…

>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.

well that depends on the industry. Toy manufacturer probably, aeorospace engineer, not so much. I would think of cars without drivers of belonging into the second category.

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

#142

Post by [deleted] »

infecto wrote: post #104

Genuine question that is unrelated to this but has always bothered me about Tesla. Why does his brother, Kimbal, draw a $6million/year total comp for sitting on the board. He has zero relevant experience related to manufacturing and that salary is very high compared to the rest of the industry....this always bothered me about TSLA.

[deleted]

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

#143

Post by navigatesol »

taf2 wrote: post #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”

CNBC, who employs one of the biggest Tesla fans out there as an automoive journalist (Phil Lebeau) is against Tesla? Then you cite a reddit forum and CleanTechnica, whose "authors" disclose their financial interest in Tesla, something against the rules for journalists at a place like CNBC?

These forums are getting astroturfed badly.

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

#144

Post by SEJeff »

tzakrajs wrote: post #124
SEJeff wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? I've had this happen to me once, but it was due to a battery fault (in the 12V battery amusingly, not the main battery that powers the car) stemming from some arse in a Jeep that hit me the week prior. Tesla sent a "ranger" out who fixed it in my garage in a few hours. Try that with your toyota!

Use Google there are too many first hand accounts on Reddit and Twitter to source here. Talk to people who own Teslas and they will bitch about their experience. Tesla annoys their customers constantly with things like: inaccurate battery charge indicators, no support for CarPlay or Android Auto, updates breaking functionality in their cars, promises for self driving which never materialize, and much more. I am sure…

So I should talk to myself, who owns a Model 3 AWD LR? I love it and anecdotally entirely shot down your FUD.

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

#145

Post by SEJeff »

bogonic wrote: post #117
SEJeff wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I do wonder why people are downvoting me for pointing out the truth though. Breach of a legally binding contract is grounds for a civil lawsuit. This is how the country works!

I wonder why you can't understand that actions have consequences; and that if a company sues employees who resort to an external escalation path to address problems, that some customers will dislike and distrust that company in the future.

I never said any of that, and am assuming you signed up for this throw away assuming I'd downvote you, or you're afraid of using your real account for some stupid reason?

I said simply that if someone signs a legal contract and one side breaks it, the other party is well within their bounds to investigate it and potentially to litigate it as well. This is how contracts work unless they're deemed to break a law. Then a judge will invalidate it.

Do I think suing employees is good for business, or for a public image? No, I think it is terrible. You're the one who tried to put words into my mouth I never once stated.

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

#146

Post by WhyKill »

Hey, lets ignore Toyota Production System (which was invented by a startup, Toyoda Automatic Loom) and then perfected on building cars with small amounts of resources and minimal failure. It's pretty clear they don't use TPS at Tesla, which will be their downfall...

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

#147

Post by dsfyu404ed »

Datenstrom wrote: post #131
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the internet really loves muh aerospace standards but there's reasons vehicles that travel in two dimensions don't need to abide by those standards. It would be prohibitively expensive and overkill most of the time. There's tons of stuff that isn't allowed on aircraft and a lot of it traces back to being able to verify/inspect what was done and allowing a chain of custody so problems can be traced to the sourc…

> It would be prohibitively expensive and overkill most of the time. I don't think purchasing a spool of spot tie costs much more than electrical tape and neither does heat shrink. > Zip ties are mostly not allowed for QC reasons. Collateral duty inspectors (and QA) ensure quality work so this is not the case. All work done is always inspected by someone who is an expert and did not participate in the maintenance. >…

>I don't think purchasing a spool of spot tie costs much more than electrical tape and neither does heat shrink.

No it doesn't but Tesla doesn't exactly have a mature vehicle manufacturing operation.

>Collateral duty inspectors (and QA) ensure quality work so this is not the case. All work done is always inspected by someone who is an expert and did not participate in the maintenance.

This is usually not the case in general aviation. Its my understanding that this also not the case for a lot of commercial operators, especially the smaller ones with thinner margins, but my knowledge may be out of date.

>I have seen electrical tape come apart in just a few years.

Yeah, 20yr is probably an exaggeration for tape applied by rushed assembly line workers but I've seen a heck of a lot of 20yo tape (usually used to bundle wires) on commercial vehicles. Most older wiring harnesses use "harness tape" (which is basically just electrical tape with some cloth fibers in it) to keep the wire from falling out of split loom and some use electrical tape to bundle wires in some places.

>If an autopilot system receives incorrect input it could kill someone.

You could say that about a lot of things. Technology is mostly at a point where it takes a cascading failure to kill anybody. The autopilot algorithms are far more suspect then even the most lazily assembled hardware.

>military aircraft

In the military they have tons of bodies to throw at things so everything gets triple checked. This is not the case in the commercial world.

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

#148

Post by __m »

nkoren wrote: post #74
Angostura wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think that CNBC is particularly hard on Tesla?

Anonymous anecdotes aside, the scandalous news they report is that Consumer Reports puts Tesla's reliability in the bottom half -- yes, shock and consernation, the BOTTOM HALF!!! -- of all automobile manufactures. Of course, 50% all automobile manufacturers are in the bottom half, and sure, it's not where you want to be. But none of the rest get special attention for being so. Want proof? Do a search for the the foll…

Well the other companies aren’t hyped like Tesla, it wouldn’t be newsworthy, let alone be on the front page of HN. It’s the perception of Tesla that is biased. Countering all the marketing wank, that put them into the spotlight, is what I’d expect from a consumer report.

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

#149

Post by Datenstrom »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #147
Datenstrom wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be prohibitively expensive and overkill most of the time. I don't think purchasing a spool of spot tie costs much more than electrical tape and neither does heat shrink. > Zip ties are mostly not allowed for QC reasons. Collateral duty inspectors (and QA) ensure quality work so this is not the case. All work done is always inspected by someone who is an expert and did not participate in the maintenance. >…

>I don't think purchasing a spool of spot tie costs much more than electrical tape and neither does heat shrink. No it doesn't but Tesla doesn't exactly have a mature vehicle manufacturing operation. >Collateral duty inspectors (and QA) ensure quality work so this is not the case. All work done is always inspected by someone who is an expert and did not participate in the maintenance. This is usually not the case in…

> In the military they have tons of bodies to throw at things so everything gets triple checked. This is not the case in the commercial world.

I'm going to feel slightly less safe on civilian aircraft now. I have always assumed that the independent inspection of all work was standard.

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

#150

Post by NeutronStar »

bduerst wrote: post #137
Retric wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From that link: Model 3 sedan has “Average” predicted reliability based on owner feedback. That’s not great, but also not poor reliability. Their high end models do seem to be having issues, but the reliability standards for cars are extremely high these days.

The bumpers were literally falling off of Tesla Model 3s: https://jalopnik.com/bumper-falls-off-brand-new-tesla-model-...

If all you can find is some year old complaint about the first cars out of their new production line have some issues, then can we say Tesla still have those issues, and has Tesla ignored those complaints at all?
Post reply on HN