During a tour this spring at Tesla Inc.’s electric-car factory in Fremont, Calif., Elon Musk asked why the assembly line had stopped. Managers said automatic safety sensors halted the line whenever people got in the way.
Musk became angry, according to people familiar with what happened. His high-profile gamble on mass-producing electric cars had lagged ever since production began, and here was one more frustration. The billionaire entrepreneur began head butting the front end of a car on the assembly line. “I don’t see how this could hurt me,” he said of vehicles on the slow-speed line. “I want the cars to just keep moving.”
When a senior engineering manager involved with the system sought to explain the safety measure, Musk told him, “Get out!” Tesla TSLA, -0.49% said the manager was fired for other reasons.
One of the world’s most celebrated and controversial entrepreneurs, Musk operates as though he is the only one who can deliver on his boundless ambitions, in electric cars and solar power, as well as his grand missions to ferry people to Mars and fix Los Angeles traffic, said people who have worked for him.
He craves perfection and can frustrate underlings by taking matters into his own hands, those people said. He asks a lot of questions but answers to no one, according to friends, associates and relatives. Dozens of senior executives have churned through Tesla, leaving him isolated.
Judged even by the egomaniacal standards of Silicon Valley, this means that bets on Elon Musk’s companies are, in fact, bets on Elon Musk.