Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed in a tweet posted Monday evening that he was back to sleeping at his factory to ensure production of the latest model of his electric car is on schedule.
“I’m back to sleeping at factory. Car biz is hell,” the billionaire business magnate wrote. The tweet was posted just two days after Musk shared a photo of himself “passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by ‘Teslaquilla’ bottles” to celebrate April Fool’s Day.
In the same tweet posted Monday, Musk defended Doug Field, the company’s senior vice president of engineering, in response to an article posted on the Silicon Valley tech website The Information.
The article suggested that production of the Tesla 3 was being plagued by “persistent problems” and that Tesla had repeatedly missed its Model 3 production targets over the past year, including after Field took over manufacturing.
About a year ago, I asked Doug to manage both engineering & production. He agreed that Tesla needed eng & prod better aligned, so we don’t design cars that are crazy hard to build. Right now, tho, better to divide & conquer, so I’m back to sleeping at factory. Car biz is hell …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2018
“Doug, who I regard as one of the world’s most talented engineering execs, is focused on vehicle engineering,” Musk wrote, in defence of his employee.
“About a year ago, I asked Doug to manage both engineering & production,” he added. “He agreed that Tesla needed eng & prod better aligned, so we don’t design cars that are crazy hard to build.”
Musk has taken a recent beating over Tesla (TSLA). The company’s stock has tumbled about 20% since Musk’s record grant of stock options was approved by investors on March 21, the decline fueled by a fatal crash of a Model X car on March 23.
After suffering one the worst weeks in the electric car company’s 15-year-history, Musk took to Twitter to defend his company’s decision to release information the crash involving one of the automaker’s vehicles that was operating with its Autopilot feature.
His tweet came in response to a report from the Washington Post which suggested that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was “unhappy” with Tesla’s release of information about the crash.