Yes and no. Automakers reluctance to new design methodologies is coming from a place of safety - the "traditional" engineering mindset. In civil and mechanical

Yes and no. Automakers reluctance to new design methodologies is coming from a place of safety - the "traditional" engineering mindset. In civil and mechanical engineering, it takes a long time to be fully confident that you've found all the edge cases that might cause catastrophic failure - and catastrophic failure in certain industries (Automotive industry included) generally means death. Tesla is coming from a "software" engineering mindset. Move fast, break things, etc, etc. This is far easier when dealing with bits and with code. The likelihood of death and dismemberment is also far lower if you make mistakes.