Elon Musk gives news of the repairs within the hour. In 2015, the entrepreneur had recruited Kenny Handkammer – an F1 veteran whose mission in the company was then “to apply Formula 1 techniques to revolutionize the maintenance of consumer cars”. He left Tesla two years later to join Lucid Motors.
The project seemed to have since been pushed into the background, but in recent months several sources report that the manufacturer is reinteresting in the question. According to Electrek, Elon Musk even announced last month that Tesla wanted to launch this type of ultra-fast repairs in the North America region.
Why Tesla is interested in repairs within the hour
In a tweet dated July 23, 2022, Elon Musk suggests the project is on track: “excited to work with Tesla Service to enable them to offer repairs within the hour as often as possible! We implement techniques from Formula 1 teams in Teslas”. However, the precise strategy for achieving this remains a question mark at this stage.
Elon Musk merely revealed that he intended to expand his repair centers to allow more repairs to be carried out simultaneously, all attached to more specialized workshops. What could concretely mean above all a rationalization, or optimization, of traditional maintenance procedures.
The boss of Tesla, however, seems to be teasing a larger-scale revolution – even if it is not clear at this stage what Elon Musk really wants to add to this by evoking “Formula 1 techniques”. We think of the lightning speed at which an F1 team is able to change, for example, the tires of racing cars.
It is not uncommon for the duration of this repair to be less than 2 seconds. To do this, these teams need ultra-fast tools. But also a lot of talent, and to be there in large numbers, which can represent up to fifteen people in total. It is not certain that such a luxury of means is really financially sustainable for Tesla.
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But it is possible that Elon Musk has other ideas in mind: for example, robotizing at least partially certain frequent repairs such as changing tires. Even to integrate this objective of ultra-fast repairs into the design of the next Tesla.