- Elon Musk emailed Tesla staff this week to complain about the Cybertruck design, per CNBC.
- Musk reportedly said: “Any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb.”
- He called for extreme accuracy in measurements, comparable to Lego and soda cans.
Elon Musk reportedly sent an email to all Tesla staff on Wednesday complaining about the quality of the Cybertruck design, CNBC reported.
“Due to the nature of Cybertruck, which is made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb,” Musk wrote, per CNBC.
The email was first reported by Electrek after it was shared on an online forum. Unnamed Tesla employees also shared the email with CNBC. Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Musk told staff that all parts for the Cybertruck need to be designed and built to such accuracy that measurements must be below 10 microns, a unit equivalent to one-thousandth of a millimeter.
“If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we,” he said.
The Tesla CEO signed off the email saying: “Precision predicates perfectionism.”
That call for extremely high quality and effort marks a pattern of Musk’s demanding leadership at Tesla — which some workers have described as a “production hell.”
On Wednesday, the same day as his email, Musk shared a photo of himself driving a “production candidate” Cybertruck.
Tesla initially planned to start delivering its Cybertruck to customers in 2021, but that’s been delayed twice, with the first Cybertruck rolling off the production line two years late. Musk said in May that the truck will be available for customers to buy by the end of this year.
Photos of the eccentric vehicle have drawn criticism from Tesla fans — partly because of its minimalist interior.
And that stainless steel body also appears to have made the Cybertruck a magnet for fingerprints and smudges.
