Amid reports of Tesla Model 3 missed production targets and manufacturing challenges, CEO Elon Musk has stepped up and admitted that, for once, humans may be the answer.
"Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated," Musk wrote in a tweet on Friday.
His tweet came in response to a story from CBS, in which the CEO bemoaned the Model 3 as overly ambitious, and the production process as too technical.
"We got complacent about some of the things that we felt were our core technology….We put too much new technology into the Model 3 all at once. This -- this should have been staged," he told CBS.
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has suffered a rash of high profile challenges this year, most involving production of its first mid-range electric vehicle, the Model 3.
Tesla's future is tied to the car, which has been billed as the company's first vehicle available to middle-class customers – not just the super wealthy.
Tesla missed reported in April it missed its quarterly target for Model 3 production, but investors were relieved the numbers weren't more disappointing. During the last week of the quarter, the electric-car maker produced 2,020 Model 3s, coming up short of its goal to produce 2,500 Model 3 sedans a week.
In the past few months, Tesla has also dealt with a voluntary recall of 123,000 of its older Model S vehicles, a fatal crash of a vehicle equipped with its semi-autonomous driving system and downgrade of its credit status on Wall Street. But production of the Model 3 seems to be the company's priority, and Musk has taken to sleeping on the factory floor to assist with manufacturing.