Videos of automated factory fabrication and assembly lines are awesome. Watching the robots sling metal panels around for presses using hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure to stamp out body panels for the Tesla Model S electric car is an inspiring reminder of how ingenuous and capable our fellow homo sapiens can be in spite of politicians' best efforts to enslave an underclass voting bloc of slackers. Think of the amount of knowledge required to conceive of and execute the processes show in this video - metallurgy, robotics, software, production planning, material sourcing and handling, factory environment, structural analysis, safety, testing, budgeting, training, union demands, human concerns, massive governmental regulation, surface finishing, marketing, work flow, and a host of other issues. That doesn't even include the brainpower necessary to plan, design, test, and build all the electrical and electronics parts of the vehicle. Utterly amazing. It takes 3-5 days from beginning to end to build a Model S. Even back in the 'old days' when most of the labor was manual, film reels showing masses of humans working together to make a complex piece of machinery like a Ford Model T will bring a tear to the eye of any self-respecting tech aficionado.
In the lower video of Tesla's unveiling of the Model S at the SpaceX hangar (billionaire Elon Musk is the owner / CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX), note the airfoil vanes built into the custom wheels to cool each axel's dedicated motor.
I'm still willing to accept a Tesla donation for writing a teardown report ;-)
How It's Made: Tesla Model S
Tesla Sedan Unveiled! Tesla Model S Hits the Road
Ford Model T Assembly Line Video (silent)
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