The Trouble With Tesla: Musk Might Be Realizing He Needs Humans

Elon Musk, a devoted futurist who wants to make driverless cars, isn’t known to have much patience for humans. But back in April, the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla tweeted that “humans are underrated.”

He was referring to Tesla’s experience manufacturing its new Model 3 at a factory in Fremont, California, that boasts one of the most robotics-dependent vehicle assembly lines on the planet.

Tesla spent more than $2 billion revamping the plant, according to analysis from investment firm AllianceBernstein, and started making Model 3s there in July 2017. Rather than make the process more efficient, however, Musk’s experiment in extreme automation has repeatedly pushed back the production timeline.

So after a series of delays, Tesla hired more humans to help out the machines. And now, Model 3 production is finally picking up.

“At the moment, the set of occupations and tasks that robots can perform are still limited,” said Daron Acemoglu, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Technology as a whole doesn't just replace people. It creates new opportunities for people. It creates new occupations, new activities.”

While automation does decrease work hours for lower-skilled employees, there are just some tasks — even repetitive ones — that robots still can't do. For example, activities that require fine motor skills, like the type of dexterity needed to put a small pin in a hole or tie a knot.

Machines are able to process huge datasets much more quickly than humans, but they’re still learning how to learn. And they’re not great at nuance or context.

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[VICENews]

“Technology as a whole doesn't just replace people. It creates new opportunities for people. It creates new occupations, new activities.”

[abisheksundar]

I love that writing robot. It's so cool

[andrewambrusko]

"Vice might finally be realizing they're a bad news source"

[neeneko]

heh. as the saying goes, 'you don't appreciate how smart an idiot is until you try to build a robot'

[CuriosityCulture]

Elon, can you mass produce that writing robot. I think it will be HIT. Seriously

[stevecampbell]

If you have ever listened to Musk talk about AI, you would have never said he is 'finally realizing' the importance of living, breathing humans.

[robomop]

But robots will get better. I can’t wait for automation to take over menial labor. Then we can focus on more important things than screwing a bolt onto a car for 40 hours a week.

[devanshkamdar]

Watching that machine is relaxing as heaven.

[karenrobertsdottir]

Model 3 production is still more automated than in most factories. But they tried to automate almost *everything*, including some automation steps that they later came to realize were a really dumb idea. Namely, tasks that are very easy for humans but very difficult for robots.

One of their main examples was "Flufferbot". Model 3 battery packs contain a layer of a polymer "fluff" that has to be laid down evenly across the pack. Now, if you were trying to invent a task that would be very easy for humans to manage but very difficult for robots, "working with fluff" would probably be pretty high on the list of possibilities ;) They were constantly inventing new ways to fail to grab the fluff, to drop it, to put it in the wrong place or unevenly, to hang onto it when they thought they were done, etc etc. And so Tesla was constantly paying (expensive) robotics technicians to go in and correct the robots to get them working again (while they're holding up the line) and to try to debug them, rather than just simply... well, paying a line worker to place the fluff.

In general, it's good to push the bounds on robotics, because its capabilities do get better every year, and when you can automate something correctly, it's a huge cost savings. But the moral of the story is not to go too far, too fast, and to avoid "stupid" types of overautomation.

[emangaming]

You need humans to make the devices and check to see if robots are malfuncting.Obviously

[stephen]

Wasn’t expecting how beautiful the writing robot metaphor would be thank you Vice

[mukulmaurya]

This was a sweet video. Yes, until we can get more intelligent robots which can solve complex issues like humans do, we have to continue relying on human labour to get the job done.

[UmairChachar]

1:18 Robot: "You're fast and all, but do you see this quality and consistency tho?"

[mb]

This is like the spongebob episode where spongebob realizes he should become a fry cook again

[Bullsharkyyy]

Terribly misleading title and analysis, for I'm sure Elon, who had a family of his own and many friends, has never discounted the entirety of the human race. He may believe, however, the future involves a fusion human and robotic intelligence.

[Davisurena]

thank you for that compelling article.

[madhuripatil]

I first read "elon musk is finally realizing that he finally needs help" and I was laughing as hell

[Yoaedn]

Robots vs Humans in 100 years. They gonna remember me kicking my toaster.

[greatcesari]

I hope you realize there’s something called a *printer, * which is in fact automatic, and it could make those little drawings much faster than that ambidextrous guy and that stupid robot arm.

So that little analogy of yours kinda turns on itself.

[mcrettable]

you know what's funny... look at how messily the "humans" make the lines, and how neatly and perfectly the robot makes the lines at 1:17