Engineers at Tesla’s factory in Freemont, California, have been asked to not carry out a standard brake test (the brake-and-roll test) during end-of-line testing of the Model 3, Business Insider has reported. A source told the business news outlet that the test was shut down before 3am (UTC-7) on June 26. It is unclear for how long this happened.
The test is designed to ensure that the car’s wheels are perfectly aligned and that the brakes function correctly by taking the vehicle’s engine up to certain revolutions per minute and observing how they react on diagnostic machines.
Tesla representative Dave Arnold told Business Insider in a statement that every car goes through “rigorous quality checks,” including brake tests. When pressed on whether Musk himself gave the order to remove the brake-and-roll test, Arnold said: “I don’t have anything further beyond the statement.”
