5 ms·
This sounds like something Elon musk would do to Tesla just to save $8 on parts
by teddyX 3y ago
This sounds like something Elon musk would do to Tesla just to save $8 on parts
- panick21_ 3y ago> just to save $8 on parts I don't think you understand what $8 per vehicle represents in cost savings. $8 in parts can literally be 10s of million in savings per year. And then you are basically tied to this supplier forever as switching something so fundamental isn't easy. In automotive, using less screws to save 50c on each vehicle is considered a big win.
- cranium 3y agoAt this kind of scale, finding a "small" saving may pay for tens of engineer years and justify hiring people just for that. Same thing to optimize cloud costs.
- jakeinspace 3y agoSure, but Tesla doesn’t sell that many vehicles. They only went over a million last year (will be closer to 2 million this year it would appear.
- justinclift 3y agoSo, US$8M per million vehicles. That's at least a few engineers salaries. ;)
- panick21_ 3y agoYes, they were planning ahead. They knew they would sell more vehicles in the future, and thus the effort was worth it. Not just for V1, but the following version as well. Once you have an internal team, you can vertically integrate and costume the solution to your needs exactly rather then buying a generic part from a supplier. Things like OTA updates are just easier if you control the software and hardware stack yourself. And once you have a team with expertise you can use them for other projects as well, like Dojo.
- helf 3y ago[dead]
- RealityVoid 3y agoSome design decisions are also really not obvious. I've seen engineering decisions of the kind... We'll put another microcontroller because we would need less wiring between these 2 boards and the wiring would be more expensive. A clever one I saw was where they milled a PCB thinner in a section to make it bendy and did not need 2 boards because of this.
- justinclift 3y agoSounds like that'd have reliability concerns in an environment where the whole thing can receive substantial shocks (the physical kind) over time.
- ethbr0 3y agoOnly if there's motion. Something can be bent and also secured.
- bch 3y agoEnvironment dependent as to whether this is a consideration at all, but still a potential stress riser.
- RealityVoid 3y agoThe whole assembly was potted, encased in resin.
- _0ffh 3y agoCan confirm. Most people probably wouldn't believe the effort that is spent on improving the physical engine models in the ECUs in order to save a few bucks on sensors. Precisely, as you wrote, because those few bucks multiply while a software effort is one-time.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoOne FTE saving $0.05 per vehicle pays for their salary.
- dtgriscom 3y agoI remember in the mid '70s looking under the hood of my family's enormous station wagon and being greeted by a solid surface of hoses and valves, all dedicated to meeting the recently-boosted emissions standards. Open an internal-combustion hood now, and it's much, much simpler.