Sandy Munro has talked about why Gigacastings give Tesla a big advantage over other manufacturers. But, there is a lot more. This video will help you understand the big picture.
A car comes off the assembly line in Giga Shanghai every 30 seconds — down from 40 seconds. How is that possible? One reason is that Tesla integrates design with production. That is, designers work side-by-side with production engineers to not just design an excellent car but also design it so that it can be assembled efficiently.
Clearly automation is part of this move to efficiency but some simple design changes can make all the difference in whether automation will actually work.
Will other manufacturers catch up? Probably they will — clearly they are learning from Tesla. But, until they get to where Tesla is today they are not going to be able to reach the price points that Tesla can maintain while making a profit.