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> Toyota anticipates it'll generate 20 percent higher productivity than its competitors, and could halve body assembly time from 10 hours. This is a nice effic

> Toyota anticipates it'll generate 20 percent higher productivity than its competitors, and could halve body assembly time from 10 hours. This is a nice efficiency gain, but they don’t seem to be constrained by how quickly they can produce cars…as far as I can tell, demand in the market for their product is more based on the cost of the supply, not how quickly they are producing units. Or are they thinking that by producing units faster the supply will increase enough to reduce prices? Will they allow supply to increase such that individual units become cheaper? In any case it is bothersome that they would back a group that is against repairing your car…cars aren’t like phones where you can just buy an entire replacement if the screen cracks and if you’re already eyeballing the new model……

crote 3y ago
Manufacturing cars currently still involves humans. Halving body assembly time also means you only need to pay half the wages for the humans. That's going to significantly reduce their expenses.
- GravityLab 3y ago
  I wonder if this means their cars will become more affordable…
- panick21_ 3y ago
  This isn't really true. The body assembly is overwhelming automated in any large volume car. Its basically a long assembly line with welding robots and robots holding the pieces. There are few humans involved. Of course both the large casting machine and the fleet of welding robots need engineers and maintenance. Its really just cheaper, and the resulting piece is higher strength while being lighter. Its btw the official product name: https://www.idragroup.com/en/gigapress https://www.idragroup.com/en/gigapress
Tade0 3y ago
One large part is much cheaper to produce than the same section made out of several parts - chiefly because you don't have to spend time and resources on putting it all together. Also, you can actually use less material since you don't have to reinforce the points where you weld/bolt.

crote 3y ago

Manufacturing cars currently still involves humans. Halving body assembly time also means you only need to pay half the wages for the humans. That's going to significantly reduce their expenses.

GravityLab 3y ago
I wonder if this means their cars will become more affordable…
panick21_ 3y ago
This isn't really true. The body assembly is overwhelming automated in any large volume car. Its basically a long assembly line with welding robots and robots holding the pieces. There are few humans involved. Of course both the large casting machine and the fleet of welding robots need engineers and maintenance. Its really just cheaper, and the resulting piece is higher strength while being lighter. Its btw the official product name: https://www.idragroup.com/en/gigapress https://www.idragroup.com/en/gigapress

Tade0 3y ago

One large part is much cheaper to produce than the same section made out of several parts - chiefly because you don't have to spend time and resources on putting it all together. Also, you can actually use less material since you don't have to reinforce the points where you weld/bolt.