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My understanding is that the first Tesla was essentially a kit car with some polish? Not an expert. But it seems like all of these companies are playing very lo
by ShamelessC 3y ago
My understanding is that the first Tesla was essentially a kit car with some polish? Not an expert. But it seems like all of these companies are playing very loose with people's lives. This might be okay when the lives at stake are aware of the risks and agree to do it (say, like astronauts/engineers at SpaceX). Less so when you false advertise full self driving capabilities when you never had them.
Sorry, this got away from me. If Tesla is somehow the "most responsible" of the lot, then surely everyone else is as crooked as Holmes (and really, so is Musk).
- dmoy 3y agoThe first Tesla was a Lotus with an electric engine, drivetrain, etc instead of the normal setup. They got partially assembled stuff from lotus (Not a kit car)
- ShamelessC 3y agoAh I see. Disregard please.
- dghlsakjg 3y agoThe first Tesla was the Tesla Roadster. It was not a kit car, but the body/chassis was made by Lotus and the drivetrain by Tesla. This isn’t uncommon at all. Toyota has two models currently that have drivetrains made by BMW and Subaru. Subaru sells the car under their own brand as well. For limited run cars it is very common for the coach work to be done by a completely different company than the mechanicals
- numpad0 3y agoToyota doesn't have models that have drivetrains made by BMW and Subaru, they have complete cars OEM manufactured by BMW and Subaru(GR86, Supra, bZ4X, etc). Installing just the drivetrain is not common at all.
- dghlsakjg 3y agoFair enough. The Supra is at least an entirely different car than the Z4. For a better example look at Ram’s trucks that you can order with a Cummins engine and Allison transmission. Or look at commercial trucks where it is still very much the norm to have the chassis and driveline be completely different companies. Or look at Pagani who use engines from AMG and Xtrac transmissions for something closer to Tesla’s situation. Having a drivetrain sourced from outside the frame/body manufacturer isn’t common at all, but it is common enough that calling the Elise/Tesla a “kit car” or somehow unheard of is inaccurate.