this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Tesla is facing issues with the bare metal construction of the Cybertruck, which Elon Musk warned was as tricky to do as making Lego bricks

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[–] [email protected] 209 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

10 microns is .4 thou, about the width of a cotton fiber. Its possible to machine those tolerances, but very time consuming as machine maintainance steps up. Its also small enough that the thermal expansion of the sheets will be larger than that

[–] [email protected] 101 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So basically elon would rather dump money into expensive equipment to improve build quality than do the thing that's actually needed to improve build quality and pay his workers what their work is worth and make their factory environment safer?

This is the kind of petty angry bullshit you have to do to be a billionaire. Its not about being smart, it's about on some level hating everyone that isn't you

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Making a lot of assumptions about what he's willing to put into this.

He's not going to get fancy expensive new equipment, he's not going to hire the best machinists, he's not going to slow the work down to allow that kind of accuracy. He's going to bluster and shout and make demands without providing any way of actually achieving those demands. That's what Elon does. He's not an Engineer, he doesn't design things, he doesn't build things, he tells people who actually know what they're doing to build something. Here, he's just saying "Do better" without anything more, and expecting that to be enough because he doesn't actually know shit about dick.

Frankly the closest I've seen to evidence that Elon has ever actually designed anything is the eyesore that is the Cybertruck, because it absolutely looks like something that cretin would draw in crayon and demand be made a reality.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is the very first thing I thought of when I saw cybertruck

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's design demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what trucks are for. I know people give the CEO of Ford shit for saying hes not worried about the Cybertruck because people who want to do real work wouldn't take any interest in it, but its true. Trucks all have the shape of bed they do for a reason. Convergent product evolution landed on that as the best shape for a bed for trailer hitches

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Actually, anyone else notice how comically small most truck beds are nowadays? So embarrassing.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Very true, and very annoying. Anytime I see thst all I can think is that its a family sedan for someone not confident enouf in their manhood

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also for shitty drivers. Many people buy large trucks so they don't have to drive decently.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

And then they don't know where the front end of their vehicle is, making the roads more dangerous for everyone

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean… I literally bought a Ford Maverick because it was like a four door family car with the added bonus of a truck bed for many of the purposes I would have wanted a truck for.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Maverick gets a pass for being a small hybrid rather than a gas guzzling 1500 with no torque

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Oh you mean those SUVs with the open-air trunks?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I love the uncomfortable silence. He makes really good use of it too. I've seen him do that several times and it's always hilarious to me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Lol, never saw that bit before. Bill Burr is an absolute treasure.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Harsh, but fair 😂

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You aren't going to hit that tolerance consistently on an assembly line no matter how much you pay. Can be done by a skilled machinist, but there are too many dynamical variables in an assembly line environment, like the previously mentioned thermal expansion.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

For reference, in working with parts that interface directly with optical components about the tightest I'm ever comfortable specifying at production volumes is 0.05mm and that is for very specific dimensions and not entire parts yet he is demanding 5 times lower tolerances here.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What I meant is that Elon has set a fairly un-achievable standard, as the sheet metal parts he is talking about will grow and shrink by more than that depending on weather. Additionaly, the small parts can be machined to that tolerance, but only by a skilled machinist and not at assembly line levels.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Besides just thermal expansion, which will totally happen by driving on the road, the rotation of the motors and the use of brakes.

It will also flex as it hits bumps and takes turns.

And these will be different metals. With different thicknesses which will expand and contract at different rates.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Which just shows he has no idea how tolerances work. Small machined parts have different tolerances than large stamped parts. The key is setting the right tolerances for each part, designing the vehicle for desired gaps with those tolerances, and continuous improvement to fix and design out issues.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago

None at all. He also doesn't understend that the issues tesla has faced are largely due to poor process design rather than automotive design. The plans may call for small gaps ore big gaps, but they certainly don't call for iconsistent gaps

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Imagine measuring door panels on a granite block in a climate controlled room, and sending it off to the surface grinder for rework. 🤣 Or sending the frame off to get scraped. Truly, this is the most idiotic idea on the planet and it's all because he didn't care about tolerances early on. His self own has turned into whatever the hell this crap was.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I can confirm this

Machinist here.

.004 ? That is exagerated but .0004 this is insane

This is not a airplane engine !!!!