https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-extreme-micro-manager.html > It was late 2016. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had confidently told investors that his company would be cranking out 500,000 electric cars a year by 2018. > To hit those mass-market volumes, the CEO ordered a team of engineers to figure out how to "automate everything" about Model 3 assembly. The Model 3 was the future of Tesla. At $35,000 for the base model, it was supposed to be an affordable electric car that would vault Tesla from a niche car maker for the wealthy to a company that could serve everyone.