Elon Musk: Tesla Came Within ‘Single Digit Weeks’ from Dying This Year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the company came extremely close to dying this year following issues with the Model 3 sedan.

“Tesla really faced this year a threat of death due to the Model 3 production ramp. Essentially, the company was bleeding money like crazy, and just, if we didn’t solve these problems in a very short period of time we would die,” Musk explained during an interview with AXIOS on HBO. “It was extremely difficult to solve them.”

After being asked how close Tesla came to death, Musk replied, “Single digit weeks.”

“Seven days a week, sleeping in the factory. I worked in the paint shop, general assembly, body shop,” Musk declared. “No one should put this many hours into work. This is not good. You should not work this hard… It was very painful. It hurts my brain and my heart.”

Musk also discussed his work on merging man with A.I., and claimed there was a “70 percent” chance he would move to Mars.

After Musk was asked what the probability he would personally go to Mars was, the SpaceX CEO replied, “70 percent.”

“We’ve recently made a number of breakthroughs that I’m just really fired up about,” he elaborated. “I’m talking about moving there.”

After the interviewer replied, “This could be an escape hatch for rich people,” Musk laughed and responded, “No. Your probability of dying on Mars is much higher than Earth. Really the ad for going to Mars would be like Shackleton’s ad for going to the Antarctic. It’s going to be hard. There’s a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space.”

“You might land successfully, once you land successfully you’ll be working nonstop to build the base. So, you know, not much time for leisure, and once you get there, even after doing all this, it’s a very harsh environment so there’s a good chance you die there. We think you can come back, but we’re not sure,” Musk continued. “Now does that sound like an escape hatch for rich people?”