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Stainless steel has been around longer than cars. I'd say it's fairly safe to assume that some R&D department has done exactly that. Their criteria was probably

Stainless steel has been around longer than cars. I'd say it's fairly safe to assume that some R&D department has done exactly that. Their criteria was probably slightly different than Tesla's, but reduced costs (pennies matter when building things at scale) and increased safety (fewer fines, recalls, etc) are going to be the same.

yreg 3y ago
The manufacturing process and design was entirely different though.
- falcolas 3y ago
  > design was entirely different Frankly, I have doubts. Being entirely different from the rest of the players in this multi-billion dollar industry is a pretty high bar to cross. Especially when some of them have been working in this industry (and had access to the same materials) for over a century.
  - verdverm 3y ago
    Yet Tesla has tried different things and now we see the larger auto industry singing a new tune. The most visible example of this is the GigaCast. The Old Auto companies never thought this was a viable path until Tesla showed how superior it actually is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWYk4DdT_E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWYk4DdT_E Sandy Munro is a leading expert in the auto industry, tears down all the vehicles and consults with all the major manufactures. He has many great videos on the trends. One thing he consistently points out is how adverse "old auto" is to new ideas or change of any kind, that they don't know how to innovate
    - yreg 3y ago
      Another example are the 4680 battery cells.
    - falcolas 3y ago
      That is fascinating, thank you.
- bumby 3y ago
  >The manufacturing process and design was entirely different though. I used to work in automotive assembly, specifically in body panel stamping as a controls engineer (ie programming the robots). The big presses were set to accept both aluminum and steel. For example, the robots could use magnets for the steel or suction for the aluminum to move the parts, but the basic manufacturing used the same assembly lines. It was common to run both in the same shift.

yreg 3y ago

The manufacturing process and design was entirely different though.

falcolas 3y ago
> design was entirely different Frankly, I have doubts. Being entirely different from the rest of the players in this multi-billion dollar industry is a pretty high bar to cross. Especially when some of them have been working in this industry (and had access to the same materials) for over a century.
- verdverm 3y ago
  Yet Tesla has tried different things and now we see the larger auto industry singing a new tune. The most visible example of this is the GigaCast. The Old Auto companies never thought this was a viable path until Tesla showed how superior it actually is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWYk4DdT_E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWYk4DdT_E Sandy Munro is a leading expert in the auto industry, tears down all the vehicles and consults with all the major manufactures. He has many great videos on the trends. One thing he consistently points out is how adverse "old auto" is to new ideas or change of any kind, that they don't know how to innovate
  - yreg 3y ago
    Another example are the 4680 battery cells.
  - falcolas 3y ago
    That is fascinating, thank you.
bumby 3y ago
>The manufacturing process and design was entirely different though. I used to work in automotive assembly, specifically in body panel stamping as a controls engineer (ie programming the robots). The big presses were set to accept both aluminum and steel. For example, the robots could use magnets for the steel or suction for the aluminum to move the parts, but the basic manufacturing used the same assembly lines. It was common to run both in the same shift.