No, you’re exactly right and insurance is already totaling cars even for minor parts because Tesla won’t produce enough spares. Think they’re going to build extra giant castings, warehouse them somewhere, then ship them out as needed? Let’s say they actually do and it’s somehow not prohibitively expensive to do all…

It’s a terrible idea on many levels. Large castings are very difficult, especially for odd shaped parts of varying thickness as you have to have the temperatures, feeds, breathers, etc. dialed in. IF you get your processes down finally, you have a single part that likely cannot be reworked if it doesn’t pass QA (this…

I cannot imagine a one piece cast front floor pan assembly is going to make collisions cheap to fix, like, it sounds like an absolute guarantee that any minor collision is going to total the car. Am I missing something?

I think New Mexico is all influenced by the weirdos in Albuquerque. From guys with a single nostril and a Flock of Seagulls haircut that steal snorkels and donut shop employees that serve rabid weasels to customers and the amount of Sauerkraut served, it’s no wonder that the entire state is full of road rage. (and I…

If it doesn’t meet FMVSS, it’s not a suitable automotive safety device. No common sense required.

New York not on this list?  Well, go fuck yourself!

There’s probably a sweet spot where you save a ton by making large castings (which can also be engineered very nicely in terms of predictable performance in a crash, since it’s all about the material and shape, and not complicated by welds and fasteners and such) and saving a ton of money, but still having it perform…

We had a Celebrity wagon with a rear facing third seat in the 90s. I was towing a tow dolly and was stuck in traffic when an impatient semi truck tried to switch lanes and clipped the tow dolly. One of my sons was in that rear-facing seat and still talks about how traumatizing that was. Maybe if we didnt have the…

I rode in the trunk of a 1st gen Ford Probe more than once, and in the bed of many, many pickups as a child.

Oh I can’t wait for all the “we road rear facing as kids in xyz old car, back in the ancient past and survived” survivor bias stuff in the comments.

I have a question for manufacturing experts: is gigacasting a good idea? I understand the up-front cost savings, but are the cars easy to maintain and repair in the long-term?

Talent pipelines are critical for a companies long term success.

Tesla is going full “Burn the talent” pipeline. They recently reneged on 3200 internships, some of them un-paid(?)!

If you don’t like it here then fuck off. Nobody’s making you click on content you don’t like.

They are scraping the plan to use a single cast for the platform and staying with the current 3 cast approach.

I just read about Tesla reneging on several leases in NY where they had started installing new charging stations. Another charging company is coming in on their heals to take the locations and exploit existing infrastructure that Tesla has already installed.

There is only one person Tesla needs to fire, and it is the lying liar who keeps on lying, right at the top.

Only time will tell where Tesla ends up.

She’s like a walking Instagram filter.

I bet your face feels more pain looking at her than hers is even capable of feeling at this point.