In this exclusive 23-minute interview with Giga Berlin plant manager André Thierig, Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s plans, including Cybercab & Optimus production in Europe, Full Self-Driving launching in the Netherlands on March 20, and his bold prediction of “Tesla factories on the moon” and the now-viral line: “Hold on to your TSLA stock… it’s going to be worth a lot!”
André Thierig: Welcome, Elon, and thanks for taking the time. I really understand that time is precious. There are a ton of things to do to build a world of amazing abundance. I can hardly imagine what is on your mind — SpaceX, Starlink, AI, safe AI for the future, autopilot, so many things. But what is in your view still exciting about Tesla and why?
Elon Musk: Well, I think Tesla is one of the most exciting companies in the world. It is perhaps the most exciting, but Tesla and SpaceX are the two most exciting companies. We are obviously expanding production and making more cars. We are going to roll out Tesla Full Self-Driving, which is really an AI-driven car. It’s AI software that drives the car, just by looking, like a human does. Tesla has the most advanced real-world AI and hopefully it will be approved soon in Europe. We were told by the authorities that it will be approved on March 20th in the Netherlands. I think people in Europe are going to be pretty blown away by how good the Tesla car AI is. This year it will be the case that from a technical standpoint you will be able to fall asleep in the Tesla and wake up at your destination. That is very exciting.
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We have the Optimus program, which is going to be the first humanoid robot. Sometimes people ask what it would be used for. Who would not want their own personal C-3PO or R2-D2? Optimus can take care of your kids, walk the dog, or take care of elderly parents. Well, Optimus can do those things. That is very exciting. We have started production of the Tesla Cybercab here at Giga Texas and we will go to volume production in April.
If things go well, we would probably manufacture Cybercab in Europe and also manufacture Optimus in Europe. We have the Tesla Semi heavy truck that will be coming to Europe hopefully next year. There are so many things happening, it’s a long list!
Oh, and battery cell production… we are going to start making battery cells at Giga Berlin. We have the Tesla lithium refinery that started up in Texas and the Tesla nickel cathode refinery that started up in Austin. This year, there are a tremendous number of things happening. We have five factories starting volume production this year, five major production lines. We look forward to extending that to Europe as well.
Tesla’s Vision for the Next 10–20 Years: Factories on the Moon!
André Thierig: Tesla has done nothing less than really transforming a whole industry. Without Tesla taking that brave step to electrify mobility, the industry would not be where it is today. What would you want people to say about Tesla in 10 or 20 years from now?
Elon Musk: In 20 years, I would say Tesla has factories on the moon, actually!. I see a very prosperous future for Tesla. It is difficult to predict anything in 20 years, but if you look 5 to 10 years ahead, Tesla has an extremely bright future. I would say, hold on to your Tesla stock, it is going to be worth a lot, I think, that’s my bet!
André Thierig: Coming back to the present, you are always very well informed. If you look at the European industry, especially the automotive sector or even the German industry, what do you think about it? What do you believe are the main reasons for their current state?
Elon Musk on the European Automotive Industry
Elon Musk: I think there has not been enough innovation. Automotive innovation has been relatively low, the cars being produced are very much like the cars produced five years ago. There are not big differences. For 20-plus years I have said the automotive industry needs to go toward electrification. This would be true even without environmental concerns. An electric vehicle is a fundamentally better architecture than a gasoline combustion vehicle. It is much simpler, more efficient, quieter, and there is no pollution within cities. All ground transport should be electric. And I think all ships and airplanes should be electric.
The automotive industry has strongly resisted electrification and dragged its feet, and they have had to be pushed there by government. Whenever they have had the opportunity to reduce making electric vehicles, they’ve done so. This is not a good strategy. It doesn’t make sense.
Making vehicles autonomous is critical. I think about 10 years ago I said that in the future, any vehicle that is not electric and autonomous… like if you are riding in a vehicle that you have to drive yourself and it’s gasoline powered, it will be like riding a horse and using a flip phone. Which is to say that there are still some people that ride horses. It’s just rare. And some people somewhere are still using flip phones, but there aren’t many, and it’s going to be a niche thing. So, the future does not contain combustion vehicles, and there will be very few vehicles that are not autonomous. The future is autonomous electric vehicles. And so, if the automotive industry does not move in that direction, they will be left out.
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André Thierig: So it doesn’t really sound like we could be learning much from legacy auto makers…and I guess we really should be focusing on what ourselves, or what we believe the future looks like, right?
Elon Musk: Yes, well, you can always learn something from some competitor. But strategically, they are just headed in the direction of the dinosaurs. So they are not headed to a good place. You know, dinosaurs are not around anymore. We’re certainly going down a different path. Like I said, electric and autonomous… to me it’s been blindingly obvious for 20-plus years. What I found with competitors in the automotive industry is, it’s not that they are going to steal our ideas. You can’t cram a good idea down their throat. Like if you say, “you must take this good idea!” They won’t steal our ideas, because you cannot even force-feed them our good ideas. That’s my experience. So we need to do what’s logical, what’s sensible. You know, at Tesla we’re essentially creating the future. And it’s a good future!
André Thierig: We are building the future, they just build cars!
Elon Musk: Yes. It’s a good future, it’s a future with electric vehicles that don’t emit poison gas, literally. They’re quiet, efficient, and autonomous. Like I said, instead of being stuck in traffic driving through busy roads, people sometimes fall asleep or have a medical emergency. And if you’re driving yourself on the Autobahn going super fast and you have a seizure, heart attack, or something like that, then you could die. But if the car is autonomous, it can take you to a hospital. In fact, this has actually happened many times with Tesla cars.
Giga Berlin Memories and the Path to Massive Expansion
André Thierig: Six years ago we broke ground and four years ago we started production. What are your greatest memories of Giga Berlin and the people here?
Elon Musk: First of all, I would like to say thank you very much to everyone who helped build Giga Berlin. Thank you, André, and thank you to the whole team. We have built an amazing factory in a very short period of time and reached high-volume production with good quality and good cost control. I am very proud of Giga Berlin and all the people in it.
It’s cool! I like the art too, and that people have some fun!
Elon Musk: Coming to work should be something you look forward to. You come to work with people you enjoy working with, and you are doing useful things—you’re making things. I have a lot of respect for makers. Like, you actually make something; you build something useful that people enjoy. I’m a big fan of makers. There are a lot of people who—they do not make things, and I don’t know—they don’t make things or they don’t provide useful services. Whereas, I have huge respect for people who make things and provide useful services. It’s an honest day’s work.
André Thierig: If you have a vision for Giga Berlin, what would it be? And what would have to happen for it to come true?
Elon Musk: Ideally, we would significantly expand production at Giga Berlin. We would do high-volume production of battery cells, probably also the cathode, the anode, and lithium. We would become vertically integrated and produce things like the Cybercab or Optimus and other products that Tesla will develop. The exciting vision for the future of Giga Berlin is massively expanding it to do many more projects.
André Thierig: Do you have any advice for the team at Giga Berlin to work toward that vision?
Elon Musk: Things certainly get harder if there are outside organizations pushing Tesla in the wrong direction. If outside organizations make things very difficult in Giga Berlin, it is difficult to say that we would expand. We are not going to shut down the factory, but we are not going to expand it either, realistically.
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Employee Q&A and Closing Advice
Employee: Which is your favorite factory?
Elon Musk: A favorite factory is like saying what is your favorite child. I love factories. I think a lot of people these days, they don’t love factories, or they haven’t been to a factory, whereas I walk the line in every factory and I’m a big fan of factories. I love them! Haha!
André Thierig: It’s a great place to be!
Elon Musk: Yeah. It’s where you make things that have good utility; people love the product. You’re building a product people love, and that’s great!
Giga Berlin is an awesome factory. The vibe is cool; to walk around is cool. It’s very clean and quite beautiful inside and outside. People seem quite happy. We are making cars and soon battery cells and hopefully many more things. It is one of the coolest factories in the world, really!
Employee: Which is the next product we will be building here in Giga Berlin?
Elon Musk: There are a lot of exciting possibilities. We have started spooling up production of the battery cell and we will be expanding production of the Model Y, especially as we get approval for supervised full self-driving. From the next major product standpoint, most likely the Tesla Cybercab. There are also possibilities of Tesla Optimus and the Tesla Semi heavy truck. Like, Tesla has a lot of products coming out, so there’s a lot of potential.
If things go well, we would expand Giga Berlin to whatever the most that we could. Assuming that the authorities are supportive, and the people are supportive, then we would expand to probably make it the biggest factory complex in Europe.
Employee: When do you realistically think we can have Optimus in the Gigafactories so we do not have to worry about ergonomics?
Elon Musk: Well, we have to be really careful about that one. I don’t want people to be worried about their jobs, you know. So, the honest answer for AI and robotics is: long-term, working will be optional. Long-term—which is 10 years from now or less—if you want to work, you can. It will be like growing vegetables in your garden, or you can get them from the store. It’s optional to grow vegetables in your garden, but some people still like to do it. It’s extra work to grow your own vegetables, but people enjoy the process. That’s going to be how work is in the future. It will be like: “You can work if you want to.”
Employee: How can we make sure that the adoption of new technologies like Optimus reach countries in the third world?
Elon Musk: First we have to succeed in making a useful robot. This is a hard thing to solve. Nobody has solved making a truly useful humanoid robot. So you have to make it useful, then you have to scale production. And its an entirely new supply chain. With Optimus we’ve had to design the whole robot from physics first principles. We’re designing every motor, every gear. The hands are extremely difficult to design. A properly dexterous robot hand is very difficult. One of the hardest things to engineer, and then we can scale production. At first Optimus will do small tasks, and then it will get gradually more sophisticated.
I think, eventually, Optimus could do medical work like surgery and everyone in the world would get better medical care than anyone receives today, from a human.
André Thierig: What advice would you give young people for life?
Elon Musk: Be on the side of optimism. It is better to be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right. Your quality of life will be much better. I would urge people to be excited about the future. I am excited about the future! I am confident the future will not be boring. Let me put it that way: it’s going to be very interesting. I think it is most likely to be great!
In terms of general advice, I guess I’d invite people to learn as much as possible, read a lot of books, try a lot of things, and find a job you can enjoy. I guess—enjoy life, but working is also a part of enjoying life. I think if people derive satisfaction from building things, then Tesla is an awesome place to be because we build things! We make useful products, and that’s a great thing.
André Thierig: What is the most inspiring moment in your life?
Elon Musk: You know, I guess when my kids were born, that would be the most inspiring moment of my life. Um, you know, in terms of work stuff, I guess it’s when we had the first production Roadster at Tesla. On the rocket side, first time getting to orbit, getting the rocket to come back and land was pretty cool. Self-driving technology has been pretty inspiring too. I mean, the first time somebody experiences self-driving, where they are just sitting there and the car takes them all the way from their home to their work, and parks, it’s mind-blowing!
André Thierig: Yes! It is. I am using it all the time when I am in the US.
Elon Musk: It’s like magic!
André Thierig: Thank you so much for your time.
Elon Musk: Once again to the people of Giga Berlin, Dankeschön.
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