Impressive machine. As an Italian, I am pleased to see that the casting machine for Tesla is supplied by an Italian company.<p>Living in Italy, sometimes it's hard to see why the country is still in the top 10 economies in the world, due to the fact we lack mega-corps and global consumer brands (luxury aside). The truth is that Italy is all-in on small businesses, with thousands on niches companies that fill a very specific spot in the world supply chain. I really hope that this model proves to be sustainable and we can find a path to growth again at some point.
As a concept the cybertruck looks really really cool. However, it's pretty scary if this is the final design.<p>> The body of the Cybertruck is a unibody shell<p>The profile is full of sharp edges at torso/head level for pedestrians. The shell concept sounds like it would have nothing in the way of planned deformations zones for outside pedestrians or crumple zones for inside passengers.<p>Again perhaps this is just marketing bad ass looks and they will sanitize the final release but pretty scary if not.
An Antonov AN-124 just landed this week at ABIA with parts for the Tesla factory. They are apparently from Tiancheng Coating, who makes robotic coating systems for the automotive industry.<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/m8opqh/fun_time_working_on_the_antonov_an124/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/m8opqh/fun_time_wor...</a>
It is absolutely jaw dropping to me watching that Model Y front-frame come out of that 6k-ton casting machine[1]. Incredible. Had not seen that before. What a potentially incredibly efficient use of materials & process, to produce a large well constructed, integrated piece.<p>I do have one reservation, which is that this feels a bit like the creation of a dispose-only car. Trying to bend this unibody back into shape seems like it's going to be incredibly difficult. I'm trying to imagine how if at all we're going to fix a cybertruck, after it slides into a tree or pole. I was so delighted to see the Model Y front-unibody come out of that press, but a second latter, I was shocked, mouth open aghast, trying to imagine these cars as anything other than disposable.<p>Like the NAND situation on Teslas, there's so much amazing high tech wonders afoot here. But vehicles, over the generations, have had to learn that maintainability, repairability, and sustainability are real factors too: there's many years of engineering that have gone into not just making cars, but making them able to be kept running. I know Tesla's not the only one doing unibody work, that this isn't entirely 100% a novel problem, but I'm still a bit jarred, a bit worried, that we're creating a truck- a vehicle format known for getting beat up a bit- that might not be repairable.<p>[1] <a href="https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1357503277722718212" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/1357503277722718212</a>
It's interesting that Tesla chose to injection-cast the frame, rather than stamping it. All major automotive manufacturers have giant stamping machines (Ford has one that's 121 feet long) but injection-casting is rare.<p>Here's the Ford F-150 assembly line.[1] One truck every 53 seconds from this line. It's mostly aluminum, unlike the older steel models but like Tesla. Mild hybrid now, full electric in 2023.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze4MZbyLnm8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze4MZbyLnm8</a>
this kind of stuff has been around some time: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program</a> - but in a financializing economy like the US probably every kind of building something physical is awe-inducing.
I feel like this might be the Elon-style reaction to Tesla's perennial body panel alignment problems: "fuck body panels, make it a single die."<p>That is one thing I admire about how Elon thinks. Don't solve problems. Make them go away by simplifying the design.