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Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

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381–390 of 408 posts

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#381
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is very, very defensive over this. This hasn't been stated explicitly, but it is very clear if you read between the lines of their PR initiatives. According to statements from the company, the media coverage after the fires last year caused a sharp decline in the rate of Model S reservations. It has since recovered, but after these events Tesla started viewing poor public perception as an existential threat. Th…

Man are we going to have a difficult time with self-driving cars.

Headline: Is a society where 33% don't believe in evolution and don't understand video aspect ratios ready for computer-driven cars? What Betteridge's law tells you may shock you!

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#382
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ahahah, visakanv, you smart guy! that's a nice comparison. Capitalism without democracy is what we want!!! /s

Not sure what you're getting at. =\ If you have anything thoughtful to bring up, I'd love to hear it and we could have a constructive discussion.

Ok now I'm not sure anymore you were ironic. Do you really believe that Singapore is a positive example?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#383
post #361

love Musk's posts, esp "peace of mind", free retrofit, and that amazing crash that was walked away from. but although there's "ballistic" grade alumimium, titanium that's usually found in "military" applications, and the steel "spear" braced in asphalt test, will it survive assault rifle fire? or anti-tank weapons? how about a tactical nuclear strike? i mean, is it really safe?

Yeah I can already see the headlines.

> "Model S catches fire due to direct impact from nuclear missile".

Media goes apeshit and Musk responds by equipping Model S with anti-missile defense system.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#384

"An ode to passive/aggressive and hyper defensive writing" Did this remind anyone else of when the smartest kid in the room was forced to apologize for something and you got the classic non apology apology? Keep building great cars Elon and changing the world. Understand that we understand that there will be (I almost said bumps in the road) and that no one expected you to be perfect in every way from the very beginn…

It sounds like you are jealous of Musk's intelligence, and so you write something that puts down smart people and talks down to them in a patronizing way. Why else would you lump all smart people together, and claim they have some psychological issues that you (not so smart maybe, but much more mature), can help with?

The error you made is taking "Do you remember that smart kid in school" and reading it as "This is the only way smart people in school ever apologize" Quite different. For the record I am neither jealous or enamored with Musk. Like all people he has his strengths and weaknesses. His are magnified as is common with people who have his drive and impact on the world.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether it's a product of how bad the airline experience is, or evidence of their greatness, I find Virgin's flying experience to be worlds away from the status quo.

Seen their safety video they play in lieu of the flight attendants talking? Great job.

I find those videos obnoxious after seeing them the first couple times.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the expectations for other car manufacturers are much lower in terms of safety. So these companies do not try to push the safety envelope any higher. The exception would be Volvo.

> The problem is the expectations for other car manufacturers are much lower in terms of safety. Do you have anything to base this on? Do you really believe the safety expectations of the Model S are much higher than those placed on companies building millions upon millions of vehicles for everyday people, families, police, ambulances, delivery and public transportation vehicles and race cars?

See GM and the ignition issue.

See Toyota and the $1.2 billion dollar settlement for the acceleration issue.

Both are fairly recent developments.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#388
post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

I have another hypothesis: "benevolent dictator" leadership leads to higher variance of outcomes -- more huge successes and more huge failures. And you usually don't notice the companies that have been driven into the ground. You notice the ones whose benevolent dictators were exceptionally competent, because those are the ones that stick around and make headlines.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#389
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to NHTSA, there was not a technical problem: In February 2011 the findings of a 10-month-long study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aimed to identify the main cause of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. The study was requested by the US Congress and "enlisted NASA engineers with expertise in ar…

Toyota cars did not fail safe in the event that both the accelerator and the brakes were pressed. Combined with the floor mats, this could create dangerous situations where drivers were unable to stop their cars using the brakes (the standard objections that they should have turned their cars off or shifted out of gear still have some validity of course) The two sibling comments to my above comment address other pote…

Just to add - My '07 Vauxhall Corsa has a throttle cut off - so if you a apply the brake pedal, the car [ecu] ignores any/all throttle inputs when in gear; which I assume is what you meant by fail-safe.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#390
You know what I love about Tesla? They continue to innovate and create change in the auto industry, most of all as a company they are powered by transparency.

Similar to other luxury auto companies they facilitate innovation. While luxury car companies strive to create beautiful, seamless and future-forward vehicles at a high cost, they can afford (similar to startups) to bring in new ideas to not only rule out competition but give them a market advantage. For example - recently McLaren came up with a way to introduce sound waves, instead of windshield wipers, wipers are a pain! (Not to say that the device generating the waves wouldn't be) Can you imagine toyota, chrysler, or ford doing something of the sort? Of Course not - it takes probably 20 hours for them to build one of theirs, where it might take Rolls Royce 6-7 months. However there are different profit margins and reputable name sake.

I like to think Elon has engineered his company nicely in between :), he surely got pissed off by the media and had fun adding that ballistic plate to the bottom

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