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It's a bit late now. When your company is basically one research and development project you need to cut all costs down to specifically those that's going to pr
by farcical_tinpot 10y ago
It's a bit late now. When your company is basically one research and development project you need to cut all costs down to specifically those that's going to provide you with a product you can sell, and then keep iterating over until you can sell for a profit. You do the boring grunt work until that is achieved.
The fact that Musk told us stage one was done when he came up with that ridiculous grand plan, designed to drum up yet more investor cash, was laughable. Once the Model 3 sells for a profit, and for $35,000, which it never will do, then you can start looking at further grand plans. The Model X was a ridiculous distraction with gull-wing doors any sensible automotive engineer would have pointed out was a production and maintenance nightmare that would never end well.
They're also swallowing Solar City, basically to save it, not because of any grand plan for 'synergy' as Musk says that makes sense.
The Emperor's clothes are starting to dissolve and the wheels are coming off I'm afraid.
- eclipxe 10y agoFalcon Wing Doors
- farcical_tinpot 10y agoWhatever. It's kind of like arguing whether you sat on deckchairs or garden chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI can't see giving any weight to anyone in an online forum criticizing when there are people like Musk out there doing actual progress. The Emporer Without Clothes is you sir, who sits from your chair, complaining ever so.
- bdcravens 10y agoIt's called discourse. I know Musk is HN's new Jobs, supposedly beyond criticism and some sort of holy figure to be worshipped, but I personally feel whatever progress he (his engineers and designers that is) makes is worthless if it's in a vacuum of silence.
- usaphp 10y agoThe worst thing about those falcon doors on model x is that I keep hitting my head ( I am 6'3") on the pretty sharp corner when it's sometimes not fully up, just like this bmw ceo did: https://electrek.co/2016/03/07/bmw-ceo-tesla-interview-model-x-hit-head/ https://electrek.co/2016/03/07/bmw-ceo-tesla-interview-model... I think it's a pretty terrible door usability wise, but it brought some marketing buzz to model x, like a wow factor
- mrfusion 10y agoI don't understand who decides to put sharp corners on doors. It seems like an unnecessary danger.
- nickff 10y agoDoors are the toughest part of a car to design; if you pay attention to cars which get a mid-life 'face-lift', you will see that they never change the doors (even when they change every other body panel). There are an immense number of constraints on a door, not the least of which are the hinge and the gasket. When the Model X was announced, my first comment was that the doors were a bad idea, just because of the complexity of the mechanism, and the 'legacy' of door issues on innumerable cars.
- Vik1ng 10y agoBecause doors are part of the exterior design.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- adventurer 10y agoNormally you're pretty careful opening a door that hasn't fully opened. It's too bad it was held down and he tried to exit it without looking.
- qaq 10y agoIt might be cultural differences but it always amazes me how people can have such strong opinions without even a tiny doubt that there might be a chance that the person they are criticising is a bit more informed/experienced and is maybe taking actions based on their knowledge and experience.
- aphextron 10y agoNormally I'd agree with you on this point, but it seems that Musk is the one displaying hubris here. The gullwing doors were a blatant disregard for the 100+ years of engineering expertise that has converged on the current design of a car door, and throwing that out the window for something flashy and attention grabbing. The criticism is well deserved.
- hueving 10y ago100+ years of expertise also converged on the ICE
- aphextron 10y agoSure, but that's a straw man arguement. Cost effective LiPo batteries didn't exist until a few years ago, making ICE's the only viable means of powering a vehicle for long distance travel. As far as I know, the laws of physics governing car doors hasn't changed in the last decade.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago>he gullwing doors were a blatant disregard for the 100+ years of engineering expertise that has converged on the current design of a car door, and throwing that out the window for something flashy and attention grabbing. // Gull-wing doors surely are designed to do one thing, sell the car on look alone. Surely people know they're impractical; but they have the essence of supercar in that impracticality. I had a Lambo' Countache poster as a kid, the flip up doors were probably terrible in practice but they had an evocative unusualness that showed this was no ordinary car. I imagine it gives the vehicle a lot of free marketing and a strong differentiator.