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

  • uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    208
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    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

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      105
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      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

      • Red_October@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        70
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • blargerer@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        43
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • BobKerman3999@feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          25
          ·
          1 year ago

          I guess they could do like Nissan did with the GTR’s engine: climate controlled assembly bay, temperature check on the parts etc…

          But I mean, they did it only for the engine which is relatively small

          • Maalus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            17
            ·
            1 year ago

            It’s not even about that. You absolutely don’t need those tolerances for a cup holder. An assembly line will fuck it up regardless. You use tolerances like that when needed - in jet engines or turbines. Insisting on those numbers on a car is plain stupid - it isn’t better (other than the ego boosting “my car has high tolerances where nobody cares”) than just doing it like every other manufacturer does it. It’s a waste of money plain and simple.

        • stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          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.

      • uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          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.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      56
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      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.

      • uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        37
        ·
        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

    • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      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.

    • coco@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I can confirm this

      Machinist here.

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

      This is not a airplane engine !!!