This video was quite interesting. Sandy Monro seems extremely experienced and knowledgeable, and offered what seemed like objective comments. (Unfortunately, Monro is not as articulate as I'd have liked. He tends to speak in shorthand and jargon, which made some comments difficult to parse.) His comments reinforce my growing sense that Tesla's real core expertise (battery pack, drive train, electronic controls) are well done by industry standards, but that their car manufacturing expertise is sorely lacking. Makes me wonder if they tried hard enough to hire enough of the right people with the expertise to design and build both the factory and the car. Or if they hired a consultant (like Monro, perhaps) to help them optimize the body design and the manufacturing line. Did Tesla hire the wrong folks? Not enough? Or try to do all of it from ground up with bright young "Turks" who worked only from first principles and not enough experience.
It was pleasing to hear Monro praise the handling -- he seems to think the chassis design works well, even if he was unsure why certain parts were made they way they are (such as the upper control arms he discussed).
