Quotes · Production vs prototypes

So people generally think that like this Eureka moment of like you come up with this idea and that's it, now it's good.

Elon Musk · Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour (watch at 3:55)

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More quotes

we're putting a massive amount of effort into manufacturing, engineering the machine that makes the machine.

Jul 22, 2020 · Tesla Q2 2020 earnings call (2020)

The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is not well understood. It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.

Sep 22, 2020 · X post (@elonmusk)

I think we're at the most interesting part of human history

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I'm pathologically optimistic on schedule

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I think most likely if we're a simulation, it's really boring outside

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Oh, that's question 27. Here you go. It has answer 27 that I've given a hundred times before.

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Apr 2017 · The future we're building -- and boring | Elon Musk

Prototypes are a piece of cake, but high volume production of a new technology is extremely hard. Takes much longer than people think to climb the production S-curve. I can’t emphasize enough that production is by *far* the hard part.

Oct 7, 2020 · X post (@elonmusk)

Btw, just want to express a word of appreciation for the hard work of the Tesla Gigafactory team. Reason I camped on the roof was because it was less time than driving to a hotel room in Reno. Production hell, ~8th circle …

Oct 26, 2017 · X post (@elonmusk)

Many movies exist about a lone inventor in a garage having a eureka moment, but almost none about manufacturing, so it’s underappreciated by the public.

Mar 28, 2024 · X post (@elonmusk)

Compared to the insane pain of reaching high-volume, positive-margin production, prototypes are a piece of cake.

Mar 28, 2024 · X post (@elonmusk)

Bigtime. Production at scale is 100X harder than making a prototype. There is no movie that illustrates this.

Sep 13, 2025 · X post (@elonmusk)

The factory is the product

Jan 11, 2021 · X post (@elonmusk)

Prototypes are easy, production is hard. This is not widely understood.

Dec 9, 2025 · X post (@elonmusk)

There's just not really a movie about that, but there should be.

Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054

The manufacturing is somewhere between 100 and a thousand times harder than making a prototype.

Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054

You could say, to first approximation, there are 10,000 things that have to go right, at least, for production to work.

Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054

I think currently a factory is underrated and design is overrated.