Tesla temporarily halted production of its Model 3 sedan at its Fremont plant, the company confirmed Monday.
The stoppage, first reported by Buzzfeed, will last about three to four days to "improve automation" in the factory, a spokesman for the Palo Alto-based company said.
During the pause, workers are expected to use vacation days or stay home without pay.
In a tweet Friday, Musk blamed himself for excessive automation at Tesla's plant and said "humans are underrated."
However, Tesla on Monday referred to a statement released in February regarding planned downtime in the Model 3 production schedule, which still applies, the company said:
"Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1. These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this."
A Tesla spokeswoman also referred to a statement released during its first quarter report, saying, "We were able to double the weekly Model 3 production rate during the quarter by rapidly addressing production and supply chain bottlenecks, including several short factory shutdowns to upgrade equipment."
