Musk's "The machine that builds the machine."
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Originally Posted by vw7674
aren't castings always heavier than extrusions?
I don't think it's a casting in the sense of pour casting, it's die casting which involves a decently high level of precision and process control. The biggest issue is metallurgy during the casting process, especially when it comes to ensuring no trapped gases.
In a way, Tesla's going towards modularization rather than a common set of major components. It's almost like the Flxible Metro and GMC/TMC/NovaBus RTS were built from a common set of body extrusions or in the case of the RTS, a number of body segments are joined to the front and rear modules.
aren't castings always heavier than extrusions?
I don't think it's a casting in the sense of pour casting, it's die casting which involves a decently high level of precision and process control. The biggest issue is metallurgy during the casting process, especially when it comes to ensuring no trapped gases.
In a way, Tesla's going towards modularization rather than a common set of major components. It's almost like the Flxible Metro and GMC/TMC/NovaBus RTS were built from a common set of body extrusions or in the case of the RTS, a number of body segments are joined to the front and rear modules.
Today's thin wall castings are amazing. The aluminum alloy chosen is similar to aircraft sheet metal. It bends and flexes without cracking. Take everything you've experienced with yesterday's cheap, brittle castings and forget it.
It's even easy to repair.
All that is wonderful, but the chassis of a modern car is a small fraction of its complexity. I see little in the way of savings here. Very few of the complex systems required are taking less time and effort today.
It's even easy to repair.
All that is wonderful, but the chassis of a modern car is a small fraction of its complexity. I see little in the way of savings here. Very few of the complex systems required are taking less time and effort today.
Originally Posted by Cujet
All that is wonderful, but the chassis of a modern car is a small fraction of its complexity. I see little in the way of savings here. Very few of the complex systems required are taking less time and effort today.
The complexity in a modern car is the wiring needed to support the drivetrain, infotainment and ADAS. CAN and other automotive-spec networking protocols(FlexRay, IEBus - which Toyota and Honda implement as AVC-LAN/GA-NET, MOST, LIN, etc) have helped by reducing wiring count but all the OEMs have specific implementations of it. You'd think Tesla would be using a lot of CAN, ethernet and fiber optic-based networking(MOST) to network the car.
I feel over-the-road trucks and transit buses/tour coaches are as close to "open" for wiring and networking. COTS components, common SAE-defined bus protocols and familiarity to a mechanic.
All that is wonderful, but the chassis of a modern car is a small fraction of its complexity. I see little in the way of savings here. Very few of the complex systems required are taking less time and effort today.
The complexity in a modern car is the wiring needed to support the drivetrain, infotainment and ADAS. CAN and other automotive-spec networking protocols(FlexRay, IEBus - which Toyota and Honda implement as AVC-LAN/GA-NET, MOST, LIN, etc) have helped by reducing wiring count but all the OEMs have specific implementations of it. You'd think Tesla would be using a lot of CAN, ethernet and fiber optic-based networking(MOST) to network the car.
I feel over-the-road trucks and transit buses/tour coaches are as close to "open" for wiring and networking. COTS components, common SAE-defined bus protocols and familiarity to a mechanic.
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