Quotes · Production vs prototypes

And if this was not true, I'd like 1000 Raptors please. Oh, you can't make them? Oh, okay.

Elon Musk · Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour (watch at 4:51)

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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

Jul 2025 · Elon Musk Interview | The Future, Engineered | X Takeover 2025

you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there

May 2014 · USC Commencement (2014)

a product is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

Jan 29, 2025 · Tesla Q4 and full year 2024 earnings call (2025)

I'm pathologically optimistic on schedule

Nov 2023 · Elon Musk: War, AI, Aliens, Politics, Physics, Video Games, and Humanity | Lex Fridman Podcast #400

And that's what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring Future for everyone.

Jun 2026 · SpaceX IPO — Nasdaq Bell Speech

I don't ever give up I mean I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated

Mar 2012 · 60 Minutes (2012)

nobody bleeds for the prince in the palace

Dec 2020 · WSJ CEO Council Summit

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

Sep 2018 · Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk

who wouldn't want their own personal C3PO

Nov 2025 · US-Saudi Investment Forum

it's not a question of will it's a question of way

Mar 2013 · Elon Musk at SXSW 2013

The world desperately needs sustainable transport.

Sep 2015 · Tesla Model X Reveal

AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization

Jul 2017 · National Governors Association

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

Oct 2026 · Elon Musk: What Comes Next for Humanity (Tesla Owners Silicon Valley)

goal of X is to be the best source of Truth on the internet

Apr 2024 · Elon Musk | LIVE Podcast | In Good Company | Norges Bank Investment Management

non autonomous gasoline vehicles in the future will be like riding a horse

Oct 23, 2024 · Tesla Q3 2024 earnings call (2024)

reusability is only relevant if it is rapid and complete

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.