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A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

jalopnik.com

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Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#121

Post by mrguyorama »

Shivetya wrote: post #45
blinkingled wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's laughably bad of Tesla - the thumb wide gaps in the body, the gluing rubber parts on glass seals because the original one was way out of tolerance, door rattle, one door having two ways to open but not the others - the screen that goes you have activated alternate door opening mechanism or some such thing - all pretty embarrassing. Never mind the insane difficulty to open the hood in an accident which looks li…

I do not understand how there is no manual mechanism for opening the rear doors from the inside, how does that even happen? His comments about the outside door handles were at least prefaced with his own physical limitation but the state of that car is mind boggling. This is on top of the known promised features and oversight with regards to the programming of the display. I did notice on reddit there is a story of a…

Regarding that engine problem, crib death of complicated to manufacture systems is an expected phenomenon, though I'm not sure how car manufacturers have mostly sorted it out

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#122

Post by kwhitefoot »

blackbagboys wrote: post #80
taneq wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the title I was hoping they'd actually, well, "tear into" the Model 3. Instead I got seven minutes of them complaining about the door handles. They did raise a couple of legitimate concerns (dual ways to open the doors, no manual/mechanical way to open the rear doors, body fit and finish seemed poor) but it was hard to pick them out from all the "hurr durr never seen that before" and associated whinging about th…

I don't think "hurr durr never seen that before" is an accurate paraphrase; I'd say it was more along the lines of "I've never seen bodywork this shoddy on a modern luxury vehicle."

How is the Tesla 3 a luxury vehicle?

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#123

Post by katastic »

katastic wrote: post #72
jtchang wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a very informative video. My respect for the CEO shot up quickly. He wasn't really trying to sell anything but simply illustrating points of concern. I can tell he very much enjoys doing what he does.

I know this is a place for software/web developers but good god, really? It was at best a minor tech article in a car magazine in the Wal-Mart magazine stands. What exactly did you learn? He kept saying the i3 "life module" (agile! AGILE!) was some magical achievement. Yeah, carbon fiber is neat. They also choose the grain direction of panels for optimum efficiency. - We've been using grain direction on wood for what…

Man, I hit that post on the head. I guess nobody here knows anything about mechanical engineering.

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#124

Post by perl4ever »

Someone1234 wrote: post #34
S_A_P wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not doubt that the build quality of the Tesla is lacking in areas that are cosmetic. Ive seen numerous Model S and Model X vehicles with atrocious panel gaps and things that people coming from the likes of Audi, BMW, MB, and Lexus would notice. That said, it doesnt seem to be affecting their safety, as there is a pretty significant amount of crash data from tesla vehicles that shows that they are among the sa…

With all due respect did you not watch the video? Much of the focus was on safety during an accident. The 3 they were looking at had two points to cut the electrical system, both of which were hard to get to during an accident, and the rear doors had no mechanical backup at all. If power goes out rear passengers need to make their way to the front seats or trunk. Maybe watch the actual video rather than imagining wha…

There are cars with rear seats that don't even have rear doors...in fact, I own one.

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#125

Post by inferiorhuman »

blinkingled wrote: post #117
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be "that guy" but... Do you have a citation for that, by any chance?

No, but it's fairly common knowledge that li-ion batteries are at fire risk on overheating and collision/impact(ref: Tesla fires). That's not to say Tesla didn't firewall the car enough to prevent fires from reaching in the cabin but it's still not a good idea to be locked in there when batteries are burning below.

It's pretty well known that gasoline is a fire risk... that's kind of how ICE engines work. Lithium-ion batteries come in a variety of different chemistries and some, e.g. LiFePo4, are not much of a fire risk at all.

So, yes, if you puncture the lithium cells you may put yourself at risk. You're also at risk if you puncture a gasoline tank (worse if you're talking something like hydrogen).

Note: Tesla does not, AFAIK, use LiFePo4 cells. Additionally one of the big challenges is that LiFePo4 cells are less energy dense than other lithium chemistries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMARDvMz62A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p21iZVFHEZk

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#126

Post by inferiorhuman »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #116
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be "that guy" but... Do you have a citation for that, by any chance?

AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.

> AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.

Ah. So it's like gasoline then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJdZD8POi8

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#127

Post by S_A_P »

perl4ever wrote: post #124
Someone1234 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all due respect did you not watch the video? Much of the focus was on safety during an accident. The 3 they were looking at had two points to cut the electrical system, both of which were hard to get to during an accident, and the rear doors had no mechanical backup at all. If power goes out rear passengers need to make their way to the front seats or trunk. Maybe watch the actual video rather than imagining wha…

There are cars with rear seats that don't even have rear doors...in fact, I own one.

As a semi related aside, when I was younger I thought that 4 door vehicles were insanely ugly compared to their 2 door counterparts. Now that Im older I think about being pinned in the rear of a 2 door car after being in an accident and I instantly feel claustrophobic. On the other hand, the fewer holes you put in a car, the more rigid the structure.

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#128

Post by perl4ever »

S_A_P wrote: post #127
perl4ever wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are cars with rear seats that don't even have rear doors...in fact, I own one.

As a semi related aside, when I was younger I thought that 4 door vehicles were insanely ugly compared to their 2 door counterparts. Now that Im older I think about being pinned in the rear of a 2 door car after being in an accident and I instantly feel claustrophobic. On the other hand, the fewer holes you put in a car, the more rigid the structure.

My first car was a two door Honda hatchback, made in 1992, and when you pulled off the plastic panel over one of the rear seat speakers, underneath the speaker bracket was simply the sheet metal of the body. Literally nothing more than a cookie sheet between you and the outside world.

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#129

Post by ce4 »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #112
blinkingled wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the batteries are more vulnerable to starting a fire in collisions than gasoline. I think there were cases of Tesla car batteries starting fire on impact.

I hate to be "that guy" but... Do you have a citation for that, by any chance?

Here's footage of the burning Rimac Concept One when Grand Tour's Hammond crashed it [1].

A Tesla burned down after a crash in Austria last year [2]

1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4sDy-zdV2o

2: https://www.golem.de/news/elektroauto-tesla-model-s-brennt-a...

Re: A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built

#130

Post by vsl »

icc97 wrote: post #120
maxerickson wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what first responders think. I search a bit and found some Ford info, I looked at the 2013 electric focus here: https://www.nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Alternativ... The battery disconnect procedures there, using the high voltage service disconnects, start with lowering the back seat or jacking up the rear of the car. Tesla provides the location of the little access panel on the quick response s…

If you compare it to having a lever by the driver as in any other car, that's 2 seconds to do vs them having to search on the Internet / find documents in the car then find the hole then connect up a battery. The car could be upside down or on a very steep hill. It all seems pretty frightening stuff. You're basically just praying you don't have a serious crash which is back to the 60s. I don't think that emergency pr…

What’s up with the fixation on connecting to 12V? Don’t you need to DISconnect and not the 12V,but the high voltage one?

That’s not a difficult procedure: open the hood (forcefully if need be, latch is in the front), cut the wire in the place marked in bright orange and labeled accordingly - and immediately visible and accessible upon opening the hood.

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