[codeulike]

The 'tent' was an improvisation when they realised their automation plan wasn't going to work. It was 1 of 3 lines I think, a way to expand capacity quickly. You could scoff at the 'tent', or you could think about what it takes to come up with a rapidly implemented and physically massive plan B involving hundreds of people and huge amounts of hardware when there's a huge amount at stake.

edit: Here's some pics of the tent, and description of the large scale scrambling it took https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-25/the-futur...

[hef19898]

Or you could ask yourself what happened that you needed a tent in the first place. Again, incumbents or any of their final assembly contractors know exactly how to launch and scale assembly lines for new plants and car models. Why Tesla choose to deviate from all industry best practices in that case still puzzles me.

[thaumaturgy]

It's curious to read this sort of reaction on HN, because it maps pretty well to process differences between startups and big, established (some would say "fossilized") software development firms.

"That startup has no idea what they're doing. Just last week they had to hire a bunch of new developers and they went all-remote and picked up a bunch of new management SaaS to do it. Look at IBM, they always know exactly how many developers they'll need for a project."

Tesla's got some significant problems, sure, but most of their problems seem to be the sort that a rapidly growing startup would have (including the lightning-rod CEO).

[hef19898]

Software =|= Manufacturing, comparing the two looks like a fallacy to me.

EDIT: That Tesla is still treated as a typical Silicon Valley start up and not an automotive OEM might be one of Elons greatest achievements.

[codeulike]

Innovation is a gamble, and Tesla take big gambles. That's my point. The Tent happened because one of their big gambles failed.