Elon Musk has said that “excessive automation” is partly to blame for the serious backlog in production of Tesla cars, noting that human beings can in some situations do a better job.
Mr Musk has come under fierce criticism for the delays facing his Model 3 sedan.
“Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake,” he said. “To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”
Caught in what Mr Musk has called “manufacturing hell”, the electric car firm has failed to hit its weekly production target of 2,500 Model 3 vehicles in the first quarter of 2018, fostering doubt within the industry that Tesla will be able to hit its 5,000-a-week target in three months time.
“We had this crazy, complex network of conveyor belts. And it was not working, so we got rid of that whole thing," he said.
"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 should have been staged."