https://youtu.be/HpAdssntCiM?si=WhxPysM0lvc4FmN9
A bunch of this is about Tesla, but there’s also a fair amount of Volvo and other participation. Manufacturing cars involves a lot of parts and a lot of people, and any time you can reduce the part count, you can make something lighter / faster to build / more reliable. So Tesla’s been trying to cast bigger and bigger pieces out of aluminum (in hopes of weight reduction) vs. using stamped steel. They are also trying to build separate chunks of the car separately so that people can work around a smaller object instead of having to squeeze themselves and parts into a larger object awkwardly.
It’s a very thoughtful, carefully presented piece (altho wow, it really reminds you how white and male this industry is), and incorporates academic input into how this effort is going and whether it will work or not and how well. There is also some fanboy comments dismissing setbacks as something other than what they probably are.
Worth the time.
A bunch of this is about Tesla, but there’s also a fair amount of Volvo and other participation. Manufacturing cars involves a lot of parts and a lot of people, and any time you can reduce the part count, you can make something lighter / faster to build / more reliable. So Tesla’s been trying to cast bigger and bigger pieces out of aluminum (in hopes of weight reduction) vs. using stamped steel. They are also trying to build separate chunks of the car separately so that people can work around a smaller object instead of having to squeeze themselves and parts into a larger object awkwardly.
It’s a very thoughtful, carefully presented piece (altho wow, it really reminds you how white and male this industry is), and incorporates academic input into how this effort is going and whether it will work or not and how well. There is also some fanboy comments dismissing setbacks as something other than what they probably are.
Worth the time.