The one thing that was much more impressive at Audi however is that, as opposed to Tesla, where one line seems to produce one type of car, at Audi, the same line (i.e. the same robots) would sequentially work on different models. A robot might, for example, attach an A4 windshield, then a Q5 windshield, etc. That was very impressive. The required identification information (model, type, options,...) was contained on a small transmitter attached on the transporter carrying the semi-finished vehicle.
This is obviously not necessary at Tesla since they only have two models, but it was nonetheless the thing that most impressed me.
Interestingly, when you tour the Ford plant, they also focus on the same things: automated movement of the car through the factory, robot that installs seats, robot that installs the windshield.
What's also REALLY cool is that their whole car is programmable, in other words, they can push software updates to it and have that affect your driving experience. So, if there are defects, you don't have to be stuck with a crappy car -- you just get a software update.
Had Saab made these options available through menus, I would bless their innovation. Instead, the menus are 'hidden' and only accessible with a DRM yearly license and a device.
I know these aren't driving experience based updates, but it is a testament of how a car's configuration can lead to thousands of dollars of waste and customer dissatisfaction.
I also don't understand the point about software. Very few car defects are related to software. It is stuff like rattles, and wind noise (NVH) that are common problems due to build issues. It is quite hard to fix a dashboard rattle with a firmware change.
Mega Factories - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0GtKfOPZRg
See it in action here: http://youtu.be/fA4K4AAucVA?t=37m48s
Edit: Like everyone else I suppose.
