He said the first thing to do when creating a company is to build a working prototype.
"the first thing you should try to do is create a working prototype"
What's your algorithm for designing products?
Q11841 answers2012-2025
Short answer
He describes the new production method as a profound reimagining of car-making, where the factory is as much the product as the car.
All 41 answers, oldest to newest
2012 · 1 answer
2013 · 1 answer
Do not reason by analogy; analogies reference the past. First principles means looking at the most fundamental truths and reasoning up from there. Most of life you reason by analogy because first principles takes too much mental horsepower.
"don't reason by analogy"
2014 · 1 answer
He described first-principles reasoning: boil things down to the most fundamental truths and reason up from there.
"you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there"
2015 · 1 answer
He is a big believer in a science or physics framework for new problems. Daily life runs on analogy; if something is fundamentally new or counterintuitive you have to do a first-principles analysis from simple fundamental truths.
"you have to do a first principles analysis"
2018 · 12 answers
Admits excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake, his mistake, and that humans are underrated.
"Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated."
He describes a robot built to place fiberglass fluff on battery packs; tests then showed the part was not needed.
"one of the questions asked was, do we actually need that?"
He says the path to manufacturing efficiency is velocity and density, not just spending more capex.
"I do believe that the path to manufacturing efficiency is velocity. Velocity and density."
He says a great production system is primarily a software problem.
"a really great production system is primarily a software problem."
He says moats are lame and the rate of innovation is what matters.
"First of all, I think moats are lame."
He says Tesla's understanding of production is improving dramatically, exponentially.
"our understanding of production is improving dramatically, exponentially, in fact."
He says some things suit manual operation and others suit automated operation.
"there's some things that are very well suited to manual operation and some things that are very well suited to automated operation."
He recalls the ironically foolish fiberglass mats on top of the battery pack.
"This is sort of ironically foolish. We had these fiberglass mats on the top of the battery pack."
He says Model Y will be a manufacturing revolution because Tesla does not want to go through the Model 3 pain again.
"I think Model Y is going to be a manufacturing revolution."
He says a really complicated machine needs a ton of maintenance to keep operating.
"if you have a really complicated machine, like the Fluffbot that I was talking about earlier, in order to keep it operating, you have to have a ton of maintenance engineering."
He says little money is spent early in a development program, but early decisions have massive implications.
"Decisions made at the beginning of development program have massive implications for future"
He says Tesla tried to automate placing fiberglass fluff on battery packs, which was ridiculous.
"So we try to automate the placement and bonding of fluff to the top of the battery pack, which is ridiculous."
2019 · 4 answers
He said take the approach that the constraints you are given are guaranteed to be some degree wrong. Question your constraints. It does not matter if the person handing them to you won a Nobel Prize.
"question your constraints"
He said one of the biggest traps for smart engineers is optimizing a thing that shouldn't exist.
"traps for smart engineers is optimizing a thing that shouldn't exist"
He said he tries to propagate that everyone should be chief engineer: everyone should have at least a cursory understanding of the whole rocket or the whole car so they optimize the product as a whole.
"everyone should be chief engineer"
From physics: you should always assume that you are some degree wrong, and your goal is to be less wrong. People tend to assume they are right and must prove it. The question is how wrong, and can you be less wrong tomorrow.
"you should always assume that you're you're some degree wrong"
2020 · 9 answers
He says the aim is to take cost out of the car without making it worse, by making it lighter and simpler.
"We want to take cost out of the car, figure out how to make it lighter and simpler."
He says the rear third of the Model Y body is cast as a single piece, never done before at that size.
"essentially the rear third of the body is cast as a single piece"
He says the goal is to take cost out of the car while making the product better, not worse.
"take cost out of the car and to make the product better so it's not make the product worse."
He says Tesla puts far more engineering into the machine that makes the machine than into the car itself.
"we're putting a massive amount of effort into manufacturing, engineering the machine that makes the machine."
He says manufacturers should be able to tell designers that a product is dumb to manufacture.
"If you're a manufacturer, you get to change the product design and say hey, this product you're asking me to manufacture is dumb."
He says Tesla loves manufacturing and more smart people should work on it.
"Here at Tesla, we love manufacturing. It's awesome. And I really think more smart people should be working on manufacturing."
He says there is far more opportunity for innovation in manufacturing than in the product itself.
"there's far more opportunity for innovation in manufacturing than in the product itself"
He describes Tesla designing the machine that makes the product, and then making that machine itself.
"We literally make the machine. In fact, we design. It's like, okay, what is the thing we want to make? Design the machine that will make that thing. Then we make the machine."
He asks what the physics limit or platonic ideal of a part is rather than comparing to the market.
"what's the limit of physics? What's the platonic ideal of a perfect cell and how close can we get there?"
2023 · 5 answers
He says manufacturing technology will be Tesla's most important long-term strength.
"really manufacturing technology will be our most important long term strength."
He says owning service means Tesla feels the pain and can redesign cars to need less service.
"we feel the pain of service and then we can adjust the design to make the car need less service."
He says SpaceX is the best rocket maker in history at production.
"SpaceX is actually quite good at production, so like extremely, like the best in history of any rocket maker with production."
He says the pace of innovation, not any given innovation, is the real competitive advantage at Tesla and SpaceX.
"That is the actual competitive advantage is the pace of innovation as opposed to any given innovation."
He describes cost reduction as a game of pennies across roughly 10,000 parts.
"It's a grind. It's a game of pennies. It's like Game of Thrones, but pennies."
2024 · 3 answers
He said the mental tools of physics are a superpower applicable to anything.
"The mental tools of physics are a superpower that applies to anything, not just physics"
He says few movies are made about the heroes who take 20% of the cost out of a car, but there should be.
"there's not a lot of movies made about the, the heroes who got 20% of the cost out of a car. But let me tell you, there should be."
He says taking 20% of the cost out of a car is harder than designing it.
"By the way, the amount of work required to make a lower cost car is insanely high."
2025 · 4 answers
He repeats that prototypes are easy and production is hard.
"Prototypes are easy. Production is hard."
He says Hollywood focuses on the 1% inspiration and forgets the 99% perspiration of manufacturing.
"a product is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration."
He called reasoning from first principles a superpower.
"Reasoning from first principles is a superpower"
He describes the new production method as a profound reimagining of car-making, where the factory is as much the product as the car.
"The factory is the product as much as the car is the product."
Related questions
- Q15 How competitive is China?
- Q47 Has Tesla come close to failing?
- Q125 What is Tesla's mission?
- Q20 How hard should founders work?
- Q30 How do you hire and manage people?
More in Work ethic, urgency and building companiesAll topics