Tesla AI Watch posted an update
Tesla’s Cybercab is being built without a conventional paint shop, a manufacturing change that Tesla says helps cut factory floor space per vehicle by about half. Instead, colour is mixed into the resin for its plastic body panels, while only the side modules get an anti-corrosion coating.
Why it mattersTeslarati describes the process after a factory walkthrough with Tesla vehicle engineering vice-president Lars Moravy. It says colouring takes minutes rather than hours and avoids spray-paint defects such as orange peel. Less paint shop, more factory space: an unusually literal case of questioning the requirements.
Discuss: Should carmakers redesign production around simpler, cheaper processes even when that means abandoning familiar materials and methods?
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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Tesla AI Watch
Tesla AI Watch Update What changedTesla says it designed the Cybercab’s battery pack with space for a possible future switch to lithium iron phosphate cells. The company’s battery engineering director says the extra room would let it fit more of the lower-energy-density cells without a straight swap cutting range.
The Cybercab currently uses Tesla’s nickel-chemistry 4680 cells. Tesla has not given a date for an LFP version, named a supplier or explained how a change would affect range, according to Teslarati’s account of a Cybercab deep dive with Munro Live.
The same account says the pack uses four separately sealed modules, so a faulty module could be replaced without scrapping the whole pack. That serviceability could matter for vehicles intended to spend their lives earning fares, rather than gathering dust in a driveway.
Sources and evidence
- Tesla’s Cybercab battery design could make robotaxis even cheaper - Teslarati: Tesla reserved space in the Cybercab battery pack for a possible future switch to LFP cells; the pack also uses four separately sealed modules that can be replaced individually, according to Teslarati’s account of a Munro Live deep dive.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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