From systems to staff, Tesla and SpaceX share more than Musk
ENGINEERS at Tesla, Inc. found a quality problem earlier this summer with a cast aluminum auto part that was taking hours to diagnose and fix. They were stumped, so they called in the rocket scientists — literally.
Tesla engineers reached out to their counterparts at Space Exploration Technologies Corp., who recommended the use of ultrasound sensors to isolate the problem. The solution saved Tesla about eight hours of work per car, an eternity on an assembly line aiming to ramp up to mass-market volumes.
Rocket ships and electric cars may seem like very different ends of the transportation spectrum, but for these two manufacturers, there’s one key link: They share a chief executive officer in Elon Musk. There are less obvious connections, too. The growing behind-the-scenes collaboration that occurs within Mr. Musk’s expanding, post-modern empire has spanned from finding stronger, lighter and cheaper materials to developing software to even sharing executives when the need for trusted talent arises.
“In this race to disrupt the world with both electric cars and autonomy as well as space, you don’t really work for Tesla or SpaceX. You just work for Elon Musk,” technology analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures said. “You have the most wicked-smart people who can feed off of each other all working for Elon, and he can call on them to help crack various problems.”
‘CROSS-FERTILIZATION’
Mr. Musk — who last year had Tesla acquire SolarCity Corp., where he was chairman of the board — has said that there is little logic to merging Tesla and SpaceX. One makes consumer products and the other launches rockets for NASA, the US military and commercial satellite operators. But the aluminum casting fix, first disclosed on last month’s earnings call, is one example of how the companies share brain power.
“That’s cross- fertilization of knowledge from the rocket and space industry to auto back and forth, as I think it’s really been quite valuable,” Mr. Musk on Tesla’s recent call.
Tesla and SpaceX are both trying to do what many think is impossible: Make money selling electric cars and get people to Mars. Those missions attract the best and brightest, but with talent at a premium, the two companies share. Tesla has more than 33,000 employees and SpaceX has roughly 6,000 — giving Mr. Musk a vast talent pool to draw from.
“Given that Tesla and SpaceX are totally non-competitive and have a similar first- principles approach to problem solving, employees at one company are occasionally able to share ideas that help the other,” a Tesla spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. “This hasn’t been a major thing, but it’s still always nice to be helpful, especially