Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill not too long ago shared some insights on the electrical automobile maker’s deep integration and distinctive method to automobile design in a latest publish on social media platform X. As could possibly be seen within the engineer’s publish, it’s Tesla’s intense consideration to element that in the end makes the corporate’s automobiles as disruptive as they’re immediately.
Anybody knowledgeable who appears to be like on the Tesla Cybertruck would know that the automobile is a symphony of automotive engineering. Tesla, nevertheless, took a while earlier than it reached this level. As per Morrill in his publish, Tesla in its early days utilized completely different groups with collaborative objectives in automobile design. Adopting this method allowed the corporate to make nice vehicles, however the designs of the automobiles themselves weren’t optimum.
“A well-known instance – early days of Tesla there was a battery staff and individually a automobile constructions staff. Buildings staff designed their automobile physique to satisfy given necessities of energy, crashworthiness, torsional stiffness, and so on. Likewise, the battery staff designed their half to be self contained, it may survive sturdiness, by chance being dropped, being hit in a crash, and so on.
Good evaluation – that is what occurs when groups work collectively to make the very best product. https://t.co/XAXf70k3jc
— Wes (@wmorrill3) September 14, 2024
“Consequently, we ended up with was an excellent dense battery in a robust field like construction, which was then Put in into the automobile which had a pleasant house for it to mate into. There have been no points with integration, every little thing match collectively completely and met all product objectives. It achieved one of many highest crash security scores measured on the time.
“However we had a field stuffed with battery cells that was put in into one other empty field formed receptacle on the physique. A field in a field. While you simplify it down that far it sounds clearly unsuitable. The 2 organizations had achieved their objectives, labored collectively with out friction, and the product met its total objectives. But the product ended up with a transparent lack of optimization because of the organizational boundaries of the 2 groups working in isolation. Nothing was unsuitable, nevertheless it wasn’t optimum,” Morrill wrote.
The Cybertruck Lead Engineer famous that Tesla discovered from these experiences, and the corporate tailored. That is how improvements such because the structural battery pack—which is now being simulated by electrical automobile makers in China—took place. Morrill said, nevertheless, that such adjustments could require giant organizational adjustments, and there must be a drive to make the very best product no matter ego.
Have you ever heard of Conway’s Regulation? It is an attention-grabbing statement concerning the root reason behind why giant organizations often make merchandise worse.
In 1967 Melvin Conway wrote “Organizations which design methods are constrained to supply designs that are copies of the communication… pic.twitter.com/SetWd6OfTe
— Wes (@wmorrill3) September 14, 2024
“Earlier than the subsequent product was designed, the battery staff gave accountability of the battery constructions additionally to the automobile constructions staff. On this iteration, we ended up with the structural battery, which is an integral a part of the physique and crash construction. With out it, the automobile physique won’t work. It’s the literal flooring for the automobile. However the redundancy is gone and the design is extra environment friendly in consequence. This automobile additionally achieved one of many highest crash security scores measured on the time.
“This can be a tremendous apparent instance (on reflection) and solved with a pretty big organizational change however you can even see this occur in small technical choices and doesn’t require structural change to repair. Somebody simply must query if there’s a higher answer in a staff open to criticism. This mindset to work collectively to make the very best product no matter ego is the place you find yourself with probably the most revolutionary merchandise.
“Some smaller examples have been seen when inspecting Cybertruck design. The chassis air suspension which is used to pressurize the battery pack to stop water ingress. The subwoofer which makes use of the air quantity of the physique facet as an alternative of constructing the enclosure bigger. Centralized zonal automobile controllers as an alternative of many small distributed controllers. Doorways which use the outside floor as a crash intrusion beam. The pedestrian warning system used as a horn. The checklist goes on. The joy and motivation by everybody concerned to work throughout boundaries and actively break down Conway’s Regulation is without doubt one of the many causes I like working at Tesla,” Morrill wrote.
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