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I've seen similar comments everywhere I stumbled across this story. It's an easy takeaway, but that's not how automakers look at competitive benchmarking. Worki

I've seen similar comments everywhere I stumbled across this story. It's an easy takeaway, but that's not how automakers look at competitive benchmarking. Working with a company like Munro is an engineering decision. Munro breaks cars down, reverse engineers everything they possibly can, and draws as many conclusions about production methods as possible. Engineers with other automakers use this data to learn from how others approach problems. The engineers don't give a damn about a Munro PR video about a competitor, period. It's a complete non-issue for them, and the same goes for their managers who are the ones who decide to work with Munro. They want to know every detail about how all the sausage is made (or what the sausage actually is). They don't care if the car is well made or poorly made; they're focused on the how; after all, even a car with severe quality control issues can offer useful insights. Besides, every peculiar (or even dumb) design or manufacturing decision they've made was previously laid bare by companies like Munro. Think of the process as something more like peer review or a morbidity and mortality conference for doctors. It's not a public process, despite something like this video. Basically, the people who would care if Munro upset the company by speaking favorably about Tesla are the people who have no involvement in whether their company works with Munro in the first place. If someone from Ford marketing told Ford engineering to quit working with Munro because of a video, they'd be laughed at and promptly ignored.

crazysim 9y ago
Maybe he's trying to sell his services to Tesla so he dialed up the prickiness. "I'm calling this out about your car. You got quality problems. We can help."
- nebolo 9y ago
  I don't think Munro is in that business. Understanding how something is built is different from how to consistently and price effectively build it to specs/tolerances.
icc97 9y ago
The stuff that Munro is pointing out is so fundamental that I don't see how there's bias in it. The craziness that there is some hidden circle underneath the front hatch that you have to know to open and pull out a couple of leads to attach to a 12V battery is maddening. The fire department would have to do this to be able to cut the cable that's in the front hatch. I can see there being a Model 3 recall over that kind of stuff. What's the point of over the air software updates if your hardware is unsafe.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  I'm curious what first responders think. I search a bit and found some Ford info, I looked at the 2013 electric focus here: https://www.nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Alternative-Fuel-Vehicle-Safety-Training/Emergency-Response-Guides/Ford https://www.nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Alternativ... The battery disconnect procedures there, using the high voltage service disconnects, start with lowering the back seat or jacking up the rear of the car. Tesla provides the location of the little access panel on the quick response sheet here: https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders Requiring 12 volts to pop the hood is not great but it doesn't seem to be that much of a departure either.
  - icc97 9y ago
    If you compare it to having a lever by the driver as in any other car, that's 2 seconds to do vs them having to search on the Internet / find documents in the car then find the hole then connect up a battery. The car could be upside down or on a very steep hill. It all seems pretty frightening stuff. You're basically just praying you don't have a serious crash which is back to the 60s. I don't think that emergency procedures should be matched to other electric vehicles they should be matched to existing ICE cars.
    - vsl 9y ago
      What’s up with the fixation on connecting to 12V? Don’t you need to DISconnect and not the 12V,but the high voltage one? That’s not a difficult procedure: open the hood (forcefully if need be, latch is in the front), cut the wire in the place marked in bright orange and labeled accordingly - and immediately visible and accessible upon opening the hood.

crazysim 9y ago

Maybe he's trying to sell his services to Tesla so he dialed up the prickiness. "I'm calling this out about your car. You got quality problems. We can help."

nebolo 9y ago
I don't think Munro is in that business. Understanding how something is built is different from how to consistently and price effectively build it to specs/tolerances.

icc97 9y ago

The stuff that Munro is pointing out is so fundamental that I don't see how there's bias in it. The craziness that there is some hidden circle underneath the front hatch that you have to know to open and pull out a couple of leads to attach to a 12V battery is maddening. The fire department would have to do this to be able to cut the cable that's in the front hatch. I can see there being a Model 3 recall over that kind of stuff. What's the point of over the air software updates if your hardware is unsafe.

maxerickson 9y ago
I'm curious what first responders think. I search a bit and found some Ford info, I looked at the 2013 electric focus here: https://www.nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Alternative-Fuel-Vehicle-Safety-Training/Emergency-Response-Guides/Ford https://www.nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Alternativ... The battery disconnect procedures there, using the high voltage service disconnects, start with lowering the back seat or jacking up the rear of the car. Tesla provides the location of the little access panel on the quick response sheet here: https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders Requiring 12 volts to pop the hood is not great but it doesn't seem to be that much of a departure either.
- icc97 9y ago
  If you compare it to having a lever by the driver as in any other car, that's 2 seconds to do vs them having to search on the Internet / find documents in the car then find the hole then connect up a battery. The car could be upside down or on a very steep hill. It all seems pretty frightening stuff. You're basically just praying you don't have a serious crash which is back to the 60s. I don't think that emergency procedures should be matched to other electric vehicles they should be matched to existing ICE cars.
  - vsl 9y ago
    What’s up with the fixation on connecting to 12V? Don’t you need to DISconnect and not the 12V,but the high voltage one? That’s not a difficult procedure: open the hood (forcefully if need be, latch is in the front), cut the wire in the place marked in bright orange and labeled accordingly - and immediately visible and accessible upon opening the hood.