Inside Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas, it looks like the robots are the full-time workers, and people are simply there to oversee them. The sprawling ground of the stamping constructing—with its white partitions, pink stripes, and large presses scattered throughout—seems to be fairly a neat setup, nearly absolutely equipped and all set for mass manufacturing, Munro Stay’s newest video confirmed.

However earlier than we dive into how the door panels are made, here is a fast recap: Tesla dropped the information concerning the Gigafactory Texas again in 2020 throughout their Q2 earnings name. Building began in July that very same 12 months, and in April 2022, Musk inaugurated the positioning. In only a few years, Tesla has not solely began cranking out the favored Mannequin Y at this location but additionally managed to unravel the engineering nightmare that was the Cybertruck. And Munro Stay’s latest video showcases how Giga Texas is not merely Musk’s pet mission—it is fairly an engineering feat. It additionally helps us perceive what may need brought on the lengthy delays in its improvement cycle and deliveries.

For starters, big metal coils are available and bear a collection of back-to-back processes earlier than turning into bulletproof door panels—all inside a number of seconds. Within the video, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vp of auto engineering explains every course of that results in coils turning into absolutely assembled door panels. All of it begins with a machine that straightens the coils earlier than getting into laser chopping cubicles, the place they’re reduce into sheets with micron-level precision. One of many engineers mentioned the laser was the primary of its type, and was a particular improvement between Tesla and German industrial tools producer Schuler.

Tesla operates 21 furnaces on the website, the place the supplies are heated to 900 levels Celsius earlier than getting stamped, one of many engineers defined within the video. The furnaces are manufactured by the Swedish firm AP&T. And that is how they work: a stainless-steel sheet, that might go on to grow to be the physique aspect interior door, is first heated within the furnace, and it then will get swiftly picked up by a robotic earlier than being dropped into the stamping press—all inside a matter of seconds.

I’m no engineering skilled, and but it appeared clear to me how Tesla is aiming to simplify manufacturing processes and make them extra environment friendly. “Easy is normally higher,” Moravy mentioned within the video. Whereas the totally different stations and cubicles aren’t seamlessly built-in, with forklifts bringing the elements to the ultimate door meeting line manually, the video signifies that almost all of the manufacturing challenges could be out of the best way. “[Tesla is] able to roll at excessive quantity. Now it’s similar to, how can we ramp and the way can we get the standard proper,” Moravy added.