3. Tesla Factory Tour
It’s time to talk about one of the most anticipated excursions of the Boring Tour, both for me and for Bi-Geek, and it’s not every day you have the opportunity to see from the inside one of the most influential companies not only the automotive sector but also in the technology sector.
Tesla started in 2003 with the goal of becoming a leading company in the manufacture of electric cars and sustainable energy. Its CEO, Elon Musk, is also known for his ambitious projects such as SpaceX or The Boring Company.
It is thanks to the Boring Tour that we managed to get a place in one of the exclusive Tesla Factory tours, which in principle are only made to suppliers, customers, or ‘’special guests’’.
To get to the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, we first had to take a flight of almost 6 hours from Miami to San Francisco while we re-read all the indications that we had received prior to the visit and that was a prerequisite to be able to take the Tesla Factory Tour.
Some of the indications: Prohibited to take pictures or record video, leave the tour, or touch the machines inside the facilities in addition to a basic dress code: long pants and closed shoes.
Indications we can understand when visiting a public company that is listed on the stock exchange and is also a pioneer in its production processes and products.
Once there we are welcomed by Adam, our guide for the trip, who has been working at Tesla for 9 years. He started when the company had less than 400 employees. Today there are just over 36,000 people working to ‘’accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy’’. (tesla’s mission)
The security barrier opens and we enter directly into an office area where we are surprised to see that there are no cubicles or walls, but everyone shares a large workspace. An effervescent atmosphere with very high intensity on the part of the Tesla team that is also striking for its diversity and youth.
We passed through the Einstein and Hertz meeting rooms to enter the factory, where most of the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 manufacturing processes take place.
To tour the half a million square meters of the facilities, we need to take a little train. In it, we see how the vehicles take shape, from the moment it enters as a simple sheet of aluminum (or iron in the case of the Model 3) until it comes out completely finished through the other door. Tesla manufactures most of its parts, although some are made at other facilities, such as the batteries, which are produced at the Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada.
Inside the factory so much happens so fast, it’s hard to stop to contemplate just one thing. Plates shaping metal, robots stamping, assembling, moving parts, and workers inserting parts into cars. We seem to be spectators of a giant, well-oiled robot, capable of producing thousands of vehicles a day as if it were a symphony for a million instruments.
Although they have already increased production capacity by 400 percent, it seems that it is still not enough to cope with demand, so they are constantly expanding the facility and expect to double in size in the next few years.
It is amazing to see how a company in only 15 years has been able to not only survive in a sector as competitive as the automotive industry but to lead the evolution to electric cars and to create a movement, which has already made the rest of the companies, invest huge amounts of money in the direction of sustainable energies.
Following Tesla’s lead, in the next few days, I will get to know Silicon Valley and some of its technological titans that are currently shaping the world we know.
