Elon Musk has compared the work ethic of Americans to their Chinese counterparts.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said that while employees in China will ‘burn the 3am oil’, in the US, people are ‘trying to avoid going to work at all’.
Explaining that he expects some ‘very strong companies’ to come out of China, Musk added: “There's just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing.”
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The billionaire was speaking to the Financial Times in an interview published this week, and said of China’s work ethic: "They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3am oil.
“They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."
Musk made the comments after being asked which electric-vehicle startups he’s most impressed by at the moment.
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Back in 2018, Musk told Bloomberg that he slept on the floor of his Tesla factory during the production of the Model 3 car, which he described as ‘hellish’.
Musk told the outlet: "I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company. Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse."
It follows reports that workers at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory were required to sleep overnight at the facility when production picked back up after a three-week hiatus.
According to Insider, a memo received by staff said each worker would be expected to work 12-hour shifts with one day off. They would also be provided with a sleeping bag and an air mattress.
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UNILAD has approached Tesla for comment.
It comes after Musk insisted he would overturn Donald Trump's ban from Twitter if he was in charge, calling the original move to ban Trump in the wake of the Capitol insurrection a 'morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme'.
Speaking at the FT Future of the Car conference, Musk added: "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump.
"It alienated a large part of the country, and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice. He is now going to be on Truth Social.
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"So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate. I guess the answer is that I would reverse the permanent ban."
Musk was responding to a question about Twitter's policy on permanent bans, which he said should only be implemented under very specific circumstances.
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Topics: Elon Musk, Technology