[HN Gopher] Drone footage of Tesla factory
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Drone footage of Tesla factory
Author : gmays
Score : 119 points
Date : 2022-04-08 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| kcb wrote:
| Still blows my mind that Germany didn't stop the acquisition of
| KUKA.
| zwaps wrote:
| ceteris paribus that is some pretty good drone video footage
| munk-a wrote:
| It's a fun watch but flying a drone through currently operating
| heavy machinery seems like a terrible idea...
|
| The video gamer in me though did want to mash the forward key
| when they waited for the second machine to finish a round before
| continuing though... you could've made that jump!
| sho_hn wrote:
| Having been to many other car factories professionally, this one
| looks rather strange to me. It's dirty and ramshackle, things are
| standing around randomly, you see parts falling off during
| production steps where it's weird (to me), some status displays
| seem to be down, the density of the space usage is very low. Even
| for a barely operational plant with much to come it feels rushed
| together.
| pedrogpimenta wrote:
| Think about this. Think about where we got, as a people. This is
| out of this world. I don't want to get into if you like it or not
| or think it's good or not, no. Anyway you feel about Tesla, Musk,
| mass production, automation, whatever, just stop for a moment and
| think how the heck did we get here? I was amazed. I know some
| folks are used to these kinds of environments, but me? It looks
| straight from a 80s or 90s big sci-fi movie. It's mesmerizing.
| jbay808 wrote:
| Compare with 1936 Chevrolet factory:
|
| https://youtu.be/8bT6txm4RpA
| [deleted]
| amelius wrote:
| Still, there is no robot that can take a LEGO instruction
| booklet, a pile of bricks, and build the actual model.
| munk-a wrote:
| I mean - that's definitely a specialized robot we've not yet
| built, but I think all the components exist to do it if
| someone actually bothered to put it together. Scanning a lego
| instruction booklet to assemble a 3D model of the desired
| outcome seems extremely reasonable - and assembling legos is
| clearly within the realm of possibility.
|
| Now, we don't have a general AI that you could just hand a
| pile of legos and a booklet to and we almost certainly won't
| have one of those for a number of years - but that task isn't
| out of the realm of reason for a specialized solution.
| amelius wrote:
| I'm not so sure about that because meanwhile, Amazon is
| struggling to build a robot that can pick and place orders,
| and so they still have many humans in the loop.
| bombcar wrote:
| Given that a LEGO sorting robot exists the hard part is
| done on that front.
|
| https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-lego-
| sorter/
| drooby wrote:
| This is pretty cool though
|
| https://nerdist.com/article/brickit-app-scans-lego-builds/
| throwra620 wrote:
| agumonkey wrote:
| you just provided ML/AI next toy challenge
| SteveNuts wrote:
| Is that because the instructions are meant for human
| consumption or because of a shortcoming in the robots
| themselves
| dymk wrote:
| The robot itself. One could build a gripper meant
| specifically for LEGO pieces, but a general grasper like
| the human hand is still out of reach (ha) of robotic design
| (for now).
| bombcar wrote:
| I believe the hard part would be the reading of the booklet -
| operation robots or similar should be able to build with LEGO
| given that simple LEGO robots can build simple LEGO sets.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| It's Tesla's shareholders that got there, we, as a people,
| didn't.
| sneak wrote:
| Leave money out of it for a moment and recognize that this is
| a monumental step toward cessation of use of fossil fuels by
| humankind. I cheer for ITER with the same fervor.
|
| Nobody else gave a shit about EVs until Tesla did it on a
| large scale. I don't own a single share of TSLA or one of
| their vehicles (yet) and I am happy for this and will benefit
| from it, because I am a human living on Earth.
|
| Don't be a hater.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| This has nothing to do with the claim that we, as a people,
| got somewhere with this factory, when it is the
| shareholders that own and control the IP that made it
| possible, along with the physical machinery. It's not a
| public service that we, as a people, are responsible for in
| that sense.
| pedrogpimenta wrote:
| It's not even that. It's the fact that something like this
| exists, has been invented, all of it.
| JaimeThompson wrote:
| One needs to give the governments that gave incentives,
| subsidies, and related such things to Tesla a bit of credit
| too.
| stefan_ wrote:
| It's nice, now if only we could get to the "have machines do
| our work" part instead of the "make rich people richer" thing.
| collias wrote:
| Those two things are not mutually exclusive, and likely go
| hand-in-hand.
| david422 wrote:
| Pretty awesome footage. I see the level of automation in these
| types of factories and I'm blown away. And then it always makes
| me wonder - sometimes you see people at stations - why are they
| there? Too hard to automate - (what scenario could be too hard to
| automate given all the insane automation already)? Or, haven't
| had time to automate? The ingenuity all around is crazy.
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| The more automation, they more you need humans to check if it
| works.
| reportingsjr wrote:
| Typically not worth the cost of automation. Automated tasks
| need parts with certain levels of precision, among other
| requirements. That precision can some times make parts
| excessively expensive, heavy, etc etc.
|
| One example of this that you don't see mentioned often, is that
| stamped door assemblies frequently need "adjustment", aka
| bending and beating, in to position to make them fit properly.
| You can see some examples of it in this video:
| https://youtu.be/iPhwBUnR_XA?t=216
| trompetenaccoun wrote:
| It's basically too hard to automate, yes. These may be mundane
| sounding tasks like checking if a screw is properly secure,
| we're still far from full automation, the robots simply do
| preprogrammed tasks, they have no sentience or intelligence.
| bombcar wrote:
| Probably lower on the cost/benefit ratio of automating, or
| something that requires a decision to be made.
| xwdv wrote:
| The way drone pilots these days fly around so skillfully makes me
| wonder if there's any black market for a sort of corporate
| espionage program where a pilot can sneak in to a factory through
| some small gap, quickly fly around gathering footage and as much
| sensitive details as possible, and then escape back out, before
| anyone has a chance to even do anything or maybe even realize
| what has happened.
| rdoherty wrote:
| Original from Tesla YT channel
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-4yOx1CnXE
| KerrickStaley wrote:
| +1. Mods, I think this is a better link (first hand source,
| also easier to view full screen)
| mwint wrote:
| dang - mind changing this link to the original above?
| [deleted]
| tintinmovie wrote:
| Also kudos to the drone pilot -
| https://www.instagram.com/ferdigrapher/
| https://www.youtube.com/c/SkynamicNet/videos
| mgdlbp wrote:
| (^ the Skynamic channel has a short behind-the-scenes video)
| smoovb wrote:
| With some basic commentary from Sandy Munro -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvNxvm6aQI4 The Giga Press as
| seen in the video.
| https://www.idragroup.com/index.php/en/solutions/machines/gi...
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| Sandy Munro is a high quality commentator here, IMO people
| should not downvote this. Also the Giga Press is a
| fascinating piece of engineering.
| bombcar wrote:
| It is very instructional to watch his early commentary and
| compare to now - the speed of changes and improvements is
| phenomenal.
| throwra620 wrote:
| cwkoss wrote:
| I'm in awe of the skill of the drone pilot/photographer's skills.
| DIVx0 wrote:
| I assume this was done with a FPV piloted drone. I just got into
| FPV flying and this was pretty impressive! My stomach lurched a
| few times recalling times I've tried to squeeze into tight spaces
| only to drift where I shouldn't be.
| smallerfish wrote:
| There's lots of cuts and morphs, so it's not continuous. Also
| lots of speed adjustments. Many of the shots were probably done
| very slowly and sped up after.
|
| No reason that it needs to be FPV - if they have a 3D model of
| the factory they could have created a path for it to fly. I
| don't think Ardupilot or Betaflight is up to that(?), but a
| small team of engineers working for a couple of months would be
| able to make it work.
| spookthesunset wrote:
| It was definitively FPV. The pilot is this dude:
|
| https://youtube.com/user/Secondsky1980
| bri3d wrote:
| This is almost certainly FPV as the cost of building an
| autonomous solution would be incredible. It's more likely
| parts are CG than that the camera vehicle flew autonomously,
| and I think neither are likely, this looks like "top 5% FPV
| pilot" work to me.
|
| Inside-out indoor 3D positioning is an _exceptionally hard_
| problem. Like, really hard. It parallels inside-out road
| positioning enough that there is crossover (and IIRC there is
| a lot of employee motion between Tesla and DJI and other
| drone autonomy makers), but I don't think this would be an
| easy "few months" project and certainly not cost effective.
| smallerfish wrote:
| Picture drawing lines in 3d space in something a little
| more sophisticated than SketchUp, and then having the drone
| follow those paths. What's tricky about that? Indoors you
| have no weather, and could use a beacon system to pinpoint
| location.
| panick21_ wrote:
| In a lot of the shots you can see the machine working and you
| have the movement of the drone so that makes the connection
| clear.
|
| There are surely cuts in there its not a continues shot but
| its not all speed up either otherwise some of the machines
| would work way faster.
|
| I would assume it was FPV, the other version seem like it
| would be more work and more expensive.
| nomel wrote:
| Sure, but an FPV drone costs $1000, compared to a small team
| of engineers for months...
| nomel wrote:
| I'm just getting into FPV RC cars! I was pretty blown away that
| there are basically two choices: low res analog or DGI's
| digital system. Side by side here:
| https://youtu.be/1POaGs99y-M?t=79
|
| I always assumed there were some neat tricks to get HD from
| multiple analog channels, after all these years, but none are
| remotely affordable.
|
| I'm tempted to slap an old 4g android phone onto the car (or
| two), and turn the cars max speed down, and use that for
| highish latency, but nearly infinite control range. With a
| little solar panel stopped on, infinite battery life, with some
| long, periodic, naps!
| laurent92 wrote:
| Aren't they using 3D? inside the first machine for example, a
| human can't monitor, and the pieces falling off seem to have
| lunar gravity.
| floober wrote:
| I definitely had some uncanny valley vibes watching it, but I
| think it might be a combination of the camera's perspective
| (distorting distances away from center) and the footage being
| sped up/slowed down.
| throwra620 wrote:
| Semiapies wrote:
| It's funny how much PR gets done by this company that Musk says
| doesn't do PR or have a PR department.
| revscat wrote:
| This gets brought up every time. Tesla has never said they
| don't do marketing, or have a PR department. They have said
| they don't advertise.
|
| If you have evidence saying otherwise please do share.
| maven29 wrote:
| https://www.prdaily.com/what-teslas-move-to-eliminate-its-
| pr...
|
| https://jalopnik.com/teslas-pr-department-hasnt-responded-
| to...
|
| The fact that they don't have a press office at all?
| clouddrover wrote:
| > _They have said they don't advertise._
|
| Then they lied. This video is an ad.
|
| Here's another Tesla ad:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9id7BSPttGs
|
| And here's another Tesla ad:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz394aKhfLY
| trixie_ wrote:
| Oh you're right, how much do you think they paid to
| broadcast those advertisements?
| clouddrover wrote:
| How much do you think they paid to make those
| advertisements?
| epgui wrote:
| You guys are all debating different things and talking
| past each other.
| clouddrover wrote:
| No, it's all very simple. There's what's true and there's
| what's false.
|
| What's false: Tesla doesn't advertise.
|
| What's true: Tesla advertises.
|
| See? Simple.
| tempestn wrote:
| They paid for this marketing, obviously, but by
| definition an ad is a paid placement.
| clouddrover wrote:
| It's an ad, plain and simple.
|
| Here's some more advertising. Tesla offers you the
| exciting opportunity of a religious experience at a live
| infomercial:
|
| https://www.inputmag.com/culture/tesla-cyber-rodeo-rabid-
| elo...
| reducesuffering wrote:
| I think most peoples' definition is clearly about "push-
| based" paid advertising, rather than "pull-based" marketing
| videos that they don't pay any platform to promote.
|
| I for one, am grateful that a company is showing the power
| of organic marketing like that, as opposed to constantly
| having to see Doritos ads injected into my friends'
| Instagram stories on iOS. (jk, I only use desktop Firefox
| w/ uBlock now)
| clouddrover wrote:
| > _I think most peoples ' definition is clearly about
| "push-based" paid advertising_
|
| That's got nothing to do with it. All that's going on
| here is that people have bought into a false narrative
| that Tesla doesn't do advertising. And instead of
| recognizing it as false they desperately defend the
| falsehood to avoid feeling foolish.
|
| Making the claim that something which is plainly an ad is
| not an ad by way of silly semantics is farcical.
| panick21_ wrote:
| What Musk actually says is that they don't do advertisement and
| that case by the comment definition of 'paying somebody to run
| ads'. As far as I know, please provide sources if you know
| otherwise, that Musk or Tesla said 'we don't have a PR
| department'.
|
| Rather the media around Tesla stopped getting answers for
| requests and some of the personal contacts from inside Tesla
| that they had left the company. This lead the media concluding
| that Tesla had fired its PR department. Or at least those
| people that responded to media requests. We know that some
| people that were part of that moved to other position inside
| Tesla.
|
| Tesla always had events and produced various kinds of media
| that they put out on their own channel. They clearly have a
| marketing or media team of some kind. The also clearly have
| people preparing communication for governments and
| shareholders, so they do have some kind of PR department, even
| if they internally don't call it that and those people work
| inside other departments.
|
| I think you are mixing up what Musk claims and what media
| companies say about Tesla.
| sorenjan wrote:
| Anyone know how this compares to other factories? It's a brand
| new factory by the highest valued car company in the world, so I
| expect it to be cutting edge. Is it far ahead of others, or just
| catching up? My uneducated opinion is that it's really cool.
| seb1204 wrote:
| The BMW group Leipzig factory in Germany has also been said to
| be cutting edge.
|
| https://youtu.be/c6Ubjaar5BI
| aeyes wrote:
| What is also interesting is that it is about the same size as
| the Tesla Berlin factory, the "Giga"factory doesn't seem to
| be anything special. What is different is that I don't
| remember environmental protests when the BMW factory was
| built.
| sbierwagen wrote:
| Hour long video of the i3 being produced:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGi-KmYGuZE
|
| Like the Tesla video, the secret sauce is omitted, (composite
| frame layup) but much attention lavished on commodity items.
| (motor coil winding)
| jerlam wrote:
| It seems pretty similar. The only interesting aspects were the
| perspectives of the drone zooming through the assemblies, and
| Tesla's use of very complex castings; but I grew up around
| manufacturing/factories and was also lucky enough to see the
| NUMMI factory (Toyota/GM, now Tesla) before it closed. And that
| was over a decade ago, in a factory that was already decades
| old.
|
| Here's a similar video from Honda:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCuclAl9AGo
|
| What's missing from the Tesla video is arguably the most
| important part: the batteries.
| jah242 wrote:
| Great video but I think what this really highlighted for me
| is how almost comically complicated ICE engines are to put
| together.
| csours wrote:
| Yes, but that happens in a different factory, similar to
| how batteries are not made on the same assembly line as a
| vehicle.
| gpt5 wrote:
| The video from Honda is so much better than the one from
| Tesla if you are actually looking to understand what is
| happening. It's also crazy how much faster the Honda
| machinery seems to operate at (it feels as if the video is
| sped up).
| Atheros wrote:
| Parts of it definitely are including the machinery. It's
| obvious during certain human assembly clips- humans don't
| move that fast. Any clips that include a swinging tool
| aren't sped up because the false pendulum motion would be
| too obvious.
| jeffbee wrote:
| You can see e.g. same kinds of body stamping at
| https://youtu.be/fgyDo_1d390?t=68
|
| There's a gazillion "how cars are made" videos on YT but they
| are all full of irritating voiceovers and interviews. This one
| is a lot more just fun to watch.
| pengaru wrote:
| There's also plenty FPV quadcopters flying through tight
| spaces that are quite good.
|
| Most of what makes the Tesla video interesting is the FPV
| perspective negotiating all the close calls. The factory and
| vehicle assembly shown otherwise didn't strike me as
| particularly interesting, but I'm probably not the target
| audience.
| DanielSantos wrote:
| I have been to 3 Toyota factories and 1 Citroen. The process
| shown in the video is very similar.
|
| Tesla factory looks a bit slow, I guess because it's new.
|
| Many steps are missing, like assembling doors/ hood before
| oaint shop. Interiors assembly also missing. I assume these are
| the more proprietary things from Tesla. What they showed are
| the common processes/tools across many manufacturers.
|
| They had too many cars parked inside the factory, normally that
| means defects that need to be fixed.
| tomatotomato37 wrote:
| I think the Tesla machinery may be running slower during
| filming to allow for some of the trick drone shots, else they
| catch it on something and damage a $200k press
| noipv4 wrote:
| You can see a legendary version of the Mitsubishi Lancer being
| made in Japan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l6NoxgSTXM
|
| Process is very similar; stamping, welding, painting, wiring,
| assembling, shipping.
| NovemberWhiskey wrote:
| I visited the BMW factory in Munich and saw the 3-series
| production line in 2015; it looks to be essentially the same
| level of automation as I saw then. The BMW factory has these
| cool rolling robots that move the partially constructed chassis
| around the factory rather than it having to move along a linear
| belt though; which is cooler IMO.
| walleeee wrote:
| incredibly slick drone piloting
|
| generally re: Tesla, I hope we can manage to throw similar
| enthusiasm and expertise behind promethean engineering projects
| slightly more imaginative than the self-propelled carriage and a
| bit more pragmatic than a mars colony
| panick21_ wrote:
| Mars colony involves all space technology, much of it is
| pragmatic. Self-propelled carriages involve battery
| research/production and transitioning from ICE to EV. So its
| really far better then you make it seem.
|
| What problems would you like solved?
|
| For me, I would like nuclear energy to get attention but the
| world has decided to be dumb and its not changing its mind
| anytime soon.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| There's hope yet: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61010605
|
| Only about 30 years late (and might be too late anyway). And
| who knows if it'll even happen, this government is famously
| u-turny.
| windowsrookie wrote:
| I wish the footage wasn't sped up so much. I know they speed
| these videos up to make it more "interesting" but honestly it's
| so fast I lost interest because I couldn't focus on anything.
|
| It a cool to see the inside of the factory tho, hopefully we can
| get a more detailed look sometime.
| andrewmutz wrote:
| If you watch it on the youtube version you can slow it down 4x
| and admire every detail
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