e.w. niedermeyer: this picture is from Tesla's Fremont, CA factory, so The Onion is gonna have to try a little harder if it wants to be satire and not just you know reporting the facts

this picture is from Tesla's Fremont, CA factory, so The Onion is gonna have to try a little harder if it wants to be satire and not just you know reporting the facts

Elon Musk’s Neighbors Fed Up With Eyesore Yard Covered In Broken-Down Cybertruckswww.theonion.com BOCA CHICA, TX—Accusing the billionaire tech mogul of dragging down property values, neighbors of Elon Musk told reporters Thursday they were fed up with his eyesore yard covered in broken-down Cybert...

Accidentally reporting facts has been The Onion beat for a while.

The Onion has always reported news from the future.

So, it's not just flight attendants that Elon shows his junk to.

I think I know the answer to this, but is it normal for a factory (of anything) to just discard poorly manufactured things in a pile outside?

No, not at all. Managing a large auto assembly plant well largely comes down to fostering a culture of cleanliness and attention to detail, so typically car factories are kept immaculately clean and orderly. Also, waste elimination is huge in manufacturing so you want all waste tracked well.

Not sure about cars specifically but high-value manufacturing tends to mean you have a rework department that fixes one-off manufacturing defects. Also this method of disposal probably violates the clean water act.

Tesla actually has a larger, more active rework department than many others, because it refuses to stop the line for defects ("andon" principle in TPS), as well as generally lower quality standards... so these cars must have been really bad to get scrapped like this.

Well, unserialized test models have to be scrapped regardless, but it's usually not just "throw them in a pile"

At a high level I think "never stop the line" is the right call but Jesus Christ

My husband worked at Fremont in the late 90s. I think that’s pretty accurate. They are loud too. 😂

One of the great ironies of Fremont is that it is the place where American workers first learned the Toyota Production System that defines modern manufacturing. It was GM's most exemplary plant due to this joint venture with Toyota, all of which Tesla undid www.thisamericanlife.org/561/nummi-2015

NUMMI (2015) - This American Lifewww.thisamericanlife.org A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry.

I remember this episode.

He works for an automotive supplier that works with Toyota. My son works for Toyota. I did a paper years ago in the 90s on their production system. It’s kind of amazing.

A terrific episode of TAL.

Meme company. Meme management.

Do you think they bothered to take the batteries and electronics out, or is it all just leaching into the soil?

I worked for a junk service, this reminds me of one of our jobs +a stream bed that people had been throwing all kinds of junk in for years - cars, beds, washing machines, and an old "monitor top" fridge from the 1930s. Anyway, multi-billion dollar company here.

Tesla does their illegal dumping off-site for the most part, and the worst concentrations in the groundwater around the factory are actually things like gas/diesel and PCE/TCE/etc niedermeyer.io/2024/02/02/i...

It’s The Impunity, Stupidniedermeyer.io Elon will save the planet if we let him break any law he likes... but then who will save the planet from Elon?

Aren't most modern electronics ROHS compliant? I imagine the only thing in a non-burnt electric vehicle that could contaminate groundwater would be the ethylene glycol in the coolant...

I'm not 100% sure what's in a lithium NCA battery though. Part of the disposal instructions that I received was to make sure the battery is fully discharged by submerging it in a bath of salt water before e-wasting or worse.

I believe so, but I still think you have to dispose of them properly, and you still don't want them getting saturated over groundwater. Then there's all the other stuff on cars that would probably not be worth reclaiming, like lubricants

oh true. I didn't think about the lubricants or dissolved salts. I'm sure electric motor oil / gear oil could contaminate groundwater pretty well.

Probably took the batteries out, lest they start a nice roaring conflagration

I know it's just a perspective thing but the wall really looks like Lego blocks

Lego-shaped concrete blocks are fairly standard, you can find such walls all over the world

Had the same initial reaction myself, but as @zamfir.bsky.social stated they're a ubiquitous thing

Imagine how bad something had to be for Tesla to throw it out. They deliver straight up junk to customers all the time.

Why is there a whole ass-cybertruck just tossed on that pile? Like the rest of the scrap, ok, they should recycle it but it’s just rejected frames and shit. A full vehicle tho??? Use the parts!

This is Fremont where they do engineering work, but they don't actually build Cybertrucks there so this is almost certainly an engineering build, likely with many prototype parts. Scrapping such a vehicle isn't abnormal itself, but doing it so haphazardly definitely is.

There is a surprising amount of haphazard going on in that corner of the property

37°29'27.3"N 121°56'10.7"W · 45500 Fremont Blvd, Fremont, CA 94538www.google.com 45500 Fremont Blvd, Fremont, CA 94538

Given there’s just one door open/missing, it’s possible someone managed to do a Dukes of Hazzard style launch onto the pile and climbed out… I mean… one point for style?

For what? Elon just needs the stockholder’s money

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Looks like it's been crash tested?

I don’t know how all OEMs roll, but this seems non-standard at best. Our environmental savior really keeping a tight lid on those waste streams.

That model X chassis looks to have been there a while

The latest in redneck landscaping: Rusting Cybertruck planters in the yard. 🙄

I’m actually surprised any material doesn’t make the cut at a Tesla factory.

Look at all that scrap metal. There's even a Cybertruck there Wondering if they'll go the way of Lancia after the Beta Montecarlo disaster

They switched from satire to shitposting ages ago.

I think they gave up on the promise of keeping ahead if reality somewhere around "Muscleman Put In Charge Of World's Fifth-Largest Economy"

Who did it better? youtube.com/shorts/ZOnWX...

International Car Forest - Goldfield, NV - 4/27/23, #shortsyoutube.com

Or refer to history: carhenge.com

Go @theonion.com !!!

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