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Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

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Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#101

Post by jacobush »

jedberg wrote: post #70
lucas_membrane wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> put enough parts and cash in escrow How about just putting the CAD data into escrow, and it all becomes public domain whenever (1) the manufacturer no longer makes replacement parts available, or (2) the price to replace all the parts of a vehicle exceeds three times the original purchase price.

A good idea in theory, but would you trust the security of the escrow system? It would be a very ripe target for corporate espionage.

It could be done with some kind of multi-key approach, everything encrypted. I'd be more worried about not loosing data and that the correct data was put in there to begin with. Up to date revisions and everything.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#102

Post by WalterBright »

save_ferris wrote: post #37
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is always interesting to me to see how as companies grow, they become more political, less effective and generally suck more. All the good people, like this guy, get pushed out or leave on their own. The skillsets required for a $100k company, and $1M one, and $100M one and a >$1B one are very different. It's not even surprising when a CEO who launched a company gets replaced once the company goes big (oh hey sp…

Having just wrapped up a stint at a >$1B company, I was floored by the incredible amount of waste of human effort on the part of management, which never really visibly impacted the bottom or the stock price. I agree that the skill sets change as companies add zeroes to their value, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a way to determine the optimal size of a company from a productivity standpoint. Sure, it would…

Just imagine the waste in a $1T government :-)

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#103

Post by natch »

segmondy wrote: post #78
pfarnsworth wrote: post #18

My wife damaged the skirt at the bottom of the car, driving over a bump. It dented the skirt pretty badly, so we got it replaced. $10,000 and 4 weeks labor (but waited months to get it fixed), because they had to disassemble the whole damn car. I was livid at what should have been maybe a $200 part required practically the entire car to be disassembled. One front seat and the back seats were both removed as were the…

This is exactly what put an end to my plan to buy a Tesla. I went nuts like everyone and most of my friends and coworkers bought one. I held out then I read about how the repair can take forever and how the parts are so tightly coupled that you have to almost disassembly the car to make repairs and I decided to pass. Until they figure this out, I'll probably get a used volt or bolt whenever I decided to get my next c…

There are a few clickbait articles out there, but don't believe everything you hear. Repairs, the very few I've had (two flat tires and one camera issue) have not been that bad. Flat tires were: mobile service came to where I was within 20 minutes, had me sign a paper, and put on an identical loaner wheel. That was that. Took like 2 minutes of my time. Then had to go to the service center for the swap back, which took around 20 minutes. Camera was a drop off at the shop and then I ubered to work on Tesla's dime for two days, because they were out of loaner Teslas at that time. Yeah could have been faster but it wasn't bad at all.

The horror stories were a catalyst for a lot of changes, I believe... the reality may be not as bad as you fear.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#104

Post by ptaipale »

marpstar wrote: post #65
baroffoos wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is less of an option when hardware makers fuse everything in to a single board so when one thing breaks you need a new main board which costs as much as the whole device. I have had a surprising amount of luck with some items though. Managed to replace the shoulder buttons on my 3ds by finding a replica of the button + ribbon cable + connector used.

This is the #1 reason I bought the absolute cheapest washer/dryer combo I could find. My last set was purchased at a garage sale and I kept them running for ~10 years by purchasing the necessary replacement parts from eBay, maybe $40 over those 10 years. I can't do that for everything, but I will for washers and dryers. My "new" dryer has already failed once and I repaired it in 20 minutes with a $4 part.

I really like my microwave oven that has just two controls: one dial for power (scale defrost - full power) and one for time (mechanical clock up to 30 min).

It is not likely to break because there is no PCB with bad capacitors. It does not have a clock that I would need to adjust at every DST change, and it does not have an array of confusing buttons and controls.

Everyone can use it, without reading the manual.

And it cost me €39, including 24 % VAT.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#105

Post by taneq »

baroffoos wrote: post #51
jandrese wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good news is you can get almost anything on the Internet. I've found so many weird parts from shady eBay sellers that worked perfectly in the end. Other times I've had to order a similar part off of Mouser and hack it to make it fit, with varying levels of success.

This is less of an option when hardware makers fuse everything in to a single board so when one thing breaks you need a new main board which costs as much as the whole device. I have had a surprising amount of luck with some items though. Managed to replace the shoulder buttons on my 3ds by finding a replica of the button + ribbon cable + connector used.

> hardware makers fuse everything in to a single board so when one thing breaks you need a new main board which costs as much as the whole device

As frustrating as this is, it's a natural consequence of the monolithic system integration which means that the whole device now costs barely more than the mainboard. Repair hasn't become more expensive, new things have just become unbelievably cheap.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#106

Post by taneq »

jacobush wrote: post #100
WalterBright wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it doesn't work, I just apply more voltage.

How do you refill the white smoke which escapes sometimes when you do that?

If you apply even more voltage, you can make more smoke. :D

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#107

Post by benrbray »

natch wrote: post #98
darkerside wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the dealer fixing a cracked windshield? Is this somehow under warranty?

People have a perception that third party parts are inferior. Maybe Toyota limits access to some OEM parts by others for whatever reason.

Maybe this is true, but for newer cars, installing third party parts or even having the car looked at by a third party will void the warranty. So at least during this early period, the incentives are such that you're better off taking the car to the dealership so you still have the warranty later when you really need it.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#108

Post by tonyedgecombe »

WalterBright wrote: post #102
save_ferris wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having just wrapped up a stint at a >$1B company, I was floored by the incredible amount of waste of human effort on the part of management, which never really visibly impacted the bottom or the stock price. I agree that the skill sets change as companies add zeroes to their value, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a way to determine the optimal size of a company from a productivity standpoint. Sure, it would…

Just imagine the waste in a $1T government :-)

Or a $20T economy.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#109

Post by fludlight »

redis_mlc wrote: post #76
leesalminen wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much. Same deal on the Corolla. Just out of curiosity I checked safelite.com and they don’t even offer a replace option on this year/make/model. Only repair, and this crack is well beyond the repair limit.

In aviation, we stop-drill the ends of cracks in aluminum to stop propagation by diffusing the stress point. If you need to wait 6 months, you might want to investigate doing that.

Drilling specialty tempered glass is not advisable.
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