According to the latest news, yesterday, Elon Musk said Tesla is weathering the global chip shortage by rewriting its vehicle software so that it supports alternative chips. The global shortage has come at such a time when the auto industry is seeing a historic demand for new cars.
Musk said “We were able to substitute alternative chips, and then write the firmware in a matter of weeks. It’s not just a matter of swapping out a chip; you also have to rewrite the software.” He claimed due to this, Tesla has been able to maintain high levels of production. The company delivered over 200,000 vehicles to customers over the course of the last three months and generated $11.9 billion in revenue out of which profit is $1.1 billion.
Other companies like Daimler, BMW, and others have also faced the heat of the global shortage. This week, Daimler and BMW were forced to shut some assembly lines due to the lack of chips.
Musk said that Tesla’s future growth depends on how fast the global semiconductor shortage gets fixed. He said. “The global chip shortage situation remains quite serious. For the rest of this year, our growth rate will be determined by the slowest part in our supply chain.”
Tesla uses chips to power everything starting from airbags to the modules so Tesla is missing some essential components for the vehicle’s safety features. He said “A big struggle this quarter was the module that controls the airbags and seatbelts. And obviously, you cannot ship a car without those.”
