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Telsa has been relentless in simplifying the part count of a tesla. Each part needs to designed, tracked, inventoried, installed, verified, made available for
by sliken 4y ago
Telsa has been relentless in simplifying the part count of a tesla. Each part needs to designed, tracked, inventoried, installed, verified, made available for repairs, increases the size of the factory, and decreases the rate of production. Added parts also require space to install, clearance, sometimes custom tools, testing, might create vibration/wear/noise that requires mitigation, etc.
The front and rear chassis used to require 100s of robots and parts, and then alignment would have to be checked, more material used, more time, more robots, etc. Replacing the front and rear chassis removed 300 robots ... each, and of course the factory space for the robots, and the time for the assembly line to run past those robots.
The glass roof, which IMO isn't a big feature, can be installed after the chassis is built. Enabling robots to install the dashboard, central console, seats, etc before the roof is installed.
On most cars the dashboard is complex, multilayered, complex set of sensors, displays, spinning needles (speed, rpm, temp, fuel levels, etc). On a Tesla the dash is built on a big square straight piece of aluminum, a simple slot for airflow (no fancy/fiddly air flow controls), and a 15" display. Likely reducing 100s of parts.
The octovalve and related cooling system is a marvel as well, nicely integrating heating/cooling of the cabin, motors, and battery. Dramatically simpler than competing solutions, in particular the Ford Mach E and Lightning.
Most cars have an extremely complex set of CPUs, sensors, and control distributed all around the car. Chips in doors for locks/windows, a separate system for ABS (usually from bosche), networks of temperature/pressure/movement sensors, torque controls/monitoring for window motors, windshield wipers, airflow motors, etc. In the model 3 it's largely integrated into a single board at a level of integration Munroe claims they have seen in no other car, or even any product ... outside of a satellite.
This might sound like hand waving and marketing, but one metric that supports this is the cars products per square foot of factory per hour. Tesla is way ahead. It's also supported by high profit margins, even when compared to companies that have as high or higher prices.
So yes I'd say that the gigapress is a key part of reducing the part count, assembly time, and number of robots required to build a car. The result is a Tesla factory builds more cars than the competitions factory of the same size.
- lallysingh 4y agoThe underlying trick to this, in part, is the fact that Tesla's making exactly 4 models (S3XY). The models are long-lived. This lets them invest in specialized parts that reduce the cost (significantly!) of their vehicle. I read a stat somewhere that the Y takes 10 hours to build. Disclaimer: I respect Tesla's manufacturing prowess, I despise the self driving claims, and think the vehicles are hideous.
- sliken 4y agoIndeed. Much like Apple. Apple has 4 ish laptops, that generally don't change much year to year. Compared to Dell or HP who have MANY more models, often seems like 4 models or so per market (edu, business, consumer, gaming, etc.) and are refreshed often. Agreed on the self driving. Not a big fan of the Tesla look, but after living with one I'm a fan. Then again I've had some ugly cars, early Acura GSR (with the tiny headlights), early Subaru WRX, and early Forester Turbo. None would win any beauty contests. Model 3 generally seems like the look is determined by a wind tunnel. At least the model S (at least in some trims) is pleasantly curvy and has some style.
- KaiserPro 4y agoThats just standard manufacturing > Most cars have an extremely complex set of CPUs, sensors, and control distributed all around the car. Chips in doors for locks/windows, a separate system for ABS (usually from bosche), networks of temperature/pressure/movement sensors, torque controls/monitoring for window motors, windshield wipers, airflow motors, etc. In the model 3 it's largely integrated into a single board yeahnah, thats deffo not true. tesla has a similar number of sensors, actuators and other junk. It even has an ABS pump too. How do they think they measure torque if there aren't any torque sensors? Having everything wired directly to a single board makes the wireloom really really unwieldy. Telsa use the same automotive busses everyone else does. (it probably uses ALL THE BUSSES, because why not.) the reason the reason tesla make a profit is that they've been value engineering the same three cars for close to ten years. however, they have only been making a profit since 2020. The other key is producing a car to a standard of something retailing for less than half the price. The top end Kia EV 4 feels much more "posh" than a model y, which is much more expensive. The killer feature of the EV 4 is that its waterproof.