my goodness.
How bigot
Tesla has problems with a simple thing like a gearbox.
Tesla is fumbling in a 90% non-US car re-exported to Europe for a mere 100.000 € (160.000$) with a gearbox?
It was a managment issue (sorry to say, Martin has to share some blame for this), which failed to recognize the value of short/medium/long view R&D program. That could have been the "safety umbrella", that prevented the Xtrac & Magna transmission issue. Such "teething problems" always arise in engineering, it takes TIME to work these things out. Of course, the "man at the top" doesn't have any engineering sense, so he decided that Martin was to blame (unfairly) & ejected him along with others (W. Rippel, Judy Estrin, et al). Basically, the crackpot thought "throwing money at the problem" was the solution. Where, in fact, that
"Knowledge Creation" (what R&D is all about..increasing man's knowledge)
is where it's at, & "Knowledge Consumerism" (thinking that you can simply "write a check" to vendors, & solutions magically appear instantaneously) caught up with them.
"Increasingly, it's a race between Education & Disaster"
-- H. G. Welles
Tesla Motors lost the race, the lack of Education (R&D effort) was their demise for the Roadster. If they don't realize this (& it looks like they haven't!), future bugaboos are going to appear AGAIN. Game over. Companies who repeatedly make the same mistakes, don't survive.
Interview with a successfull businessman:
Q: How did you become so rich?
A: by making mistakes!
Q: What!?
A: I LEARNED from those mistakes
I (& others) on this forum need to ask themselves a crucial question: what is the progress curve of TM? Would you support this company (& buy their products), knowing they are (or are not) learning from mistakes. I go back to Jim Valvano/NC tate basketball coach:
YouTube - Valvano Interview 1983 Final Four
"If you put yourself in a position to win, YOU HAVE A SHOT AT WINNING"
TM seems to be NOT putting themselves in a position to win (& therefore dooming themsleves to failure). No R&D program (internal or external contracted). Continuing to "throw money at the problem", hiring a bunch of people from other companies (ex Mazda designer, et al). I'm going forward in my proposal to setup a virtual R&D Inst for Alternative Energy (Academic & Industrial partners), that will be the "engine" to fuel entrepeneurial efforts in Alternative Energy. If TM goes kaput, so be it. Other companies (hopefully more enlightened to R&D) will be around to continue the struggle.
R&D has always had a strong RoI (Return on Investment), it's really unfortunate sign of the times (too much focus on "instant gratification", i.e. short-term needs) that long-view research is being sacrificed. I think I heard that Bell Labs has been disbanded (at the time Martin & I were getting our degrees 25 odd yrs ago, that was the HOT thing after getting a PhD: working for Bell Labs, IBM Watson Research Labs, etc). A contemporary of mine (also Martin's) from UIUC/Coordinated Science Laboratory/AARG ended up at Bell Labs, & he told me back in '95 that there was an unfortunate shift to short-term Applied Research. Bean counters wanted real world results immediately (long term research has always shown great RoI..just let time work its magic).
<b>Breaking News:</b>
the Industrial development partner (Offroad racing team) for Xtrac, just won their class over the weekend, in a 300 mile offroad race. They also got 3rd overall. They overcame 1 years worth of tranny breakage (2007), & sucessfully developed a winning driveline package (incl Xtrac tranny, torque limiters, etc). They are looking forward to the upcoming Baja 1000 for a strong finish, & coveted season points championship.
<b>Lesson Learned:</b>
It took over a YEAR of development, to work thru the "engineering issues". Ask yourself this, does Tesla have the initiative & resources to do this kind of thing? Time Critical, Mission Critical. Inherent delays in solving engineering issues, could be mission critical (missed deadlines could be fatal to company's survival).
In a country who has send a man to the moon in the last century, turning Clintons left, hefty US government surplus in a deficit, run the international US reputation into the mud and Telsa having a owner aiming at sending Jane/Jim into space for vacation?
I dont get it.
Do they have the (imported) tires ready?
Sure?
Gimme a break
Have to agree with you here.
Back from Martin's time at UIUC/Coordinated Science Laboratory/AARG, his summer boss (when Martin was a summer intern in '81) was quoted:
"The Japanese use the tools so fast"
"America is #1 in terms of Creativity. Japan is #1 in terms of applying the knowledge [ Creativity ], & bringing products to Marketplace"
-- Japanese Industrialist
Japan has a Collaborative/Cooperative infrastructure, where Govt & Industry work together. In America, it's more chaotic & disorganized. How can a country with some of the BEST universities in the world ("knowledge centers") foul it up so bad, & not
"I shall give you a 6 word formula for success: Think things through, then follow through"
-- Eddie Rickenbacker, WWI top US fighter pilot
This is why my vision of an R&D Inst (Academic & Industrial partners), a virtual organziation that is like an "umbrella" covering various top universities (Caltech, Univ of Illinois, Georgia-Tech, UC San Diego, et al) & companies (Tesla Motors, Fraunhofer Inst, Daimler-Benz, et al), will be the "then follow through" part of the above success formula.
As a citizen of the USA, I'm frankly ashamed of the lack of Leadership in Washington DC. Recall, the Carl Sagan comment on his COSMOS show on a Landsat image of Washington DC: "No sign of Intelligent Life". He's referring to excesses in military spending (cost overruns), & general stupidity.
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