I will be amazed (and applaud them) if they can pull this off as fast as he anticipates. I am no expert on hardware design, but I did manage the development of

I will be amazed (and applaud them) if they can pull this off as fast as he anticipates. I am no expert on hardware design, but I did manage the development of a touch-enabled control panel and electrical system for a home appliance, and it required a hell-load of work from a few dedicated staff over 3-4 months (and that was just to get a decent prototype -- refinements took additional months). Mind you, we had a couple of things going against us -- (1) a brand new cross-cultural team, which meant learning curves and inefficient communication; (2) we did it in China, where something as simple as renting an apartment can turn into a full-time job for two weeks due to their culture of distrust and inefficiency... (doing it in the U.S. must make things a lot smoother), (3) we didn't have the benefit of being able to take advantage of a lot of existing software, so as to avoid doing a lot of custom coding, and (4) we had trouble finding proper parts which could both do the job right & pass electrical inspections for european/US markets, whereas I'd imagine that their supply chain company should be able to find good parts quickly and easily. Maybe all of their advantages will result in a stellar timeline. Or maybe not. (When we began, we also thought we could get it done in a month or two.)