Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) confirmed last week that it is falling behind in Model 3 production and robots might be to blame, according to the New York Post.
The electric car company projected in January that it would produce 2,500 Model 3s per week by the end of 2018. A report by Jalopnik revealed that it’s only producing around 2,000 per week.
“Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday afternoon.
Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2018
Musk took charge of the production line as of April, claiming that he sometimes stays up all night and even sleeps on the factory floor.
“We had this crazy, complex network of conveyor belts…. And it was not working, so we got rid of that whole thing,” he said in an interview with CBS This Morning.
READ: Tesla shares jump after CEO Elon Musk's late-night tweet
In a separate Twitter exchange on Friday, Musk replied to an Economist article about Tesla, saying that the company will be profitable and have a positive cash flow in its third and fourth quarter.
Shares of Tesla were up by around 2% to US$300.34 on Monday morning.