Elon Musk Personally Examining Tesla Model X Production Results

Update: Elon just said seconds ago on the conference call that his desk is at the end of the Model X production line and he has a sleeping bag on hand for sleeping there near the production line when needed…. Whoa.

Update: You can now listen to the full Tesla conference call below.

Tesla Model X production hasn’t gone swimmingly … to put it in soft terms. I’m convinced it’s the Model X is the best production vehicle on the planet, and it won our “2016 CleanTechnica Car of the Year” award, but the innovation comes at a price as well — the X has been hard to produce. Whether it be due to lack of supplies from hard-to-replace suppliers, unsatisfactory parts, or just manufacturing difficulty, ramping up of the X has been delayed several times since launch.

Earlier this week, Twitter user @SacEV took the plunge of so many before and tried to get an answer directly from Elon regarding 2nd-row-seat functionality, asking: “when is firmware update for full 2nd row seat control and customization coming for Model X? It is quite limited currently.”

Elon’s response was swift and succinct: “next month (with a lot of other good stuff)”

That, of course, alerted people to the fact that Elon was on Twitter and answering questions again. So, @MacTechGenius (well, a bit later) lamented, “I upgraded to the 90D ($15k) after being promised mid-April delivery. VIN 57xx in SoCal, any ETA? No response from my DS ):”

Not über happy, and Elon seemed to understand but also wanted to explain that the quality of final Xs off the production line had not been super great, and he was personally attending to the matter. Sir Elon: “Have been reviewing end of line production quality personally. Slowed things down temporarily, but it’s for the best.”

Good news? Bad news? Hard to say. Depends on the extent and degree of the problems, and whether or not the factory workers (+ robots) just need a careful eye for a bit to get things going in a more precise and adequate manner.