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“We’re also triple-checking what can actually be repaired. Our repair percentages are going up,” Clymer said.

Rich O’Leary, manager of Fix Auto Sierra Vista in Arizona, said another challenge of releasing vehicles with a cosmetic part that hasn’t arrived is the customer satisfaction survey question related to whether they had to bring their vehicle back to the shop.

He said his shop has “invested in some steel and aluminum pulling equipment, and we do find ourselves repairing a lot more than we used to,” though he noted that entails understanding when that can be done as part of a safe repair, and what should not be repaired.

O’Leary said they also use the PartsVoice website to locate needed OEM parts beyond the local market.

“Often you’ll find a dealership around the country that has the part sitting on their shelf collecting dust,” he said. “It costs more to have them package and send it, but that’s an alternative.”

But some at the meeting said searching for parts at dealerships out of your shop’s market doesn’t always resolve the issue. Some suppliers, for example, may not be willing to sell a part to ensure they have it for those in their market.

“There’s a natural inclination when supply is short to take care of your best customers,” said Ken Weiss, who moderated the CIC discussion. “One of my other concerns is that all of the parts platforms that I’m aware of on the shop or insurer retail side expect the supplier to pay for shipping. Because of that, I know there’s a lot of parts that are probably not put into the search network because the supplier is not going to absorb the shipping when it’s a low-cost part.

“Or if it’s what we refer to as dimensionally-challenged; shipping a sheet metal quarter panel could cost more than the quarter panel is worth,” Weiss said. “But to me it’s better, especially if you’re the insurance company, to get the quarter panel and pay the shipping rather than have the car sitting in limbo for two months.”

www.autobodynews.com

by Maria Merano, Teslarati

During Tesla’s Q4 2021 and full-year earnings call, CEO Elon Musk talked about the company’s product goals. He said the production of Tesla’s humanoid robot, internally dubbed Optimus, is one of the most important products in development at the moment. At the latest earnings call, Musk announced Tesla will not be introducing new vehicle models in 2022. He explained Tesla was still experiencing some part constraints, undoubtedly affecting production on several exciting projects, including the Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster. However, Musk said Tesla would continue to do “a lot of engineering and tooling” on products it has already launched, such as the Optimus humanoid robot. “So, in terms of priority of products, I think actually the most important product development we’re doing this year is actually the Optimus humanoid robot. This, I think has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time,” Musk said.

“If you think about the economy, it is—the foundation of the economy is labor. Capital equipment is distilled labor. So, what happens if you don’t actually have a labor shortage? I’m not sure what an economy even means at that point. That’s what Optimus is about. So, very important,” he elaborated.At the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Musk also said the Tesla Bot could address labor shortage issues. He further explained rapidly declining birthrates were a risk for civilization. At the Q4 2021 earnings call, Musk said Optimus (or Optimus Sub-prime’s) first job would most likely be at Tesla factories. Thus far, Tesla’s work on its humanoid robot seems to be moving along as scheduled. After revealing its venture into humanoid robots during AI Day last year, Tesla announced a prototype of Optimus would be unveiled by 2022. Tesla certainly didn’t seem to waste time forming a team to work on the humanoid robot. In the same month the Tesla Bot was announced, the head of Tesla’s Mobile Robotics, Chris Walti, started looking for engineers and technicians to add to the humanoid robot program. By November 2021, Tesla posted even more job openings for the initiative. Photo: Tesla robot

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