Comments by "Nicolae Crefelean" (@kneekoo) on "Nikola Series - Ep. 3: Coolidge Facility - Assembly Tour" video.

  1. Tesla: vertical integration Nikola: omnidirectional externalization
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  2.  @cengeb  Gordon, is that you?
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  3.  @cengeb  Autopilot is one thing, FSD is another. FSD (Full-Self Driving) is under development. Make sure you know the difference.
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  4.  @cengeb  You don't have to open your car with your phone. But other people want that. They bought their Ford Mach-E knowing the car has that feature that they found convenient. It didn't work. Ford couldn't fix it without bricking the car. But that feature can be done securely - the necessary technology exists. Misuse or theft are something else. The car keys can also be lost, stolen and/or duplicated.
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  5.  @cengeb  Vertical integration being old is not why car manufacturers don't use it. They don't use it because it's not good for them. But why is it not good? It's because they offer tens of models of vehicles and they don't benefit from economies of scale. Tesla only sells 4 models, so vertical integration means something completely different to them - it's profitable. Their planned "Model 2" will also benefit from economies of scale because it will be a high volume car. And as usual, it's not just cost but also quality. When you have a great team, you can make quality stuff in house at the same level, if not better, than BOSCH and others make. They don't make every single little part, but they do make a lot because it works much better for them compared to what the legacy car makers do.
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  6.  @cengeb  You're either misinformed or pretending. I worked for 2 car dealerships and I know about the logistics nightmare they went through to stock up parts for service. Frames and tires are one thing, the thousands of different parts are another. Currently, VW have at least 24 models for sale. Divide 10 million by 24 and you get 416666. How about economies of scale now, considering most of those are ICE vehicles that are much more complex than EVs? Even their ID.4 is way more complex than the Tesla Model Y, which is why they're more expensive to build, and take more time. Herbert Diess (VW CEO) admitted it takes them more than 3 times as much time to make a car, compared to Tesla. The legacy car industry margins average below 5%. Tesla is way above that, and if you think vertical integration is the same for Tesla and VW/Toyota, you simply ignore how easier it is for Tesla with only 4 models. Have you watched the teardowns Munro did? Search for "Comparing Tesla, Ford, & VW's Electrical Architectures" and you'll notice how Tesla reduced complexity and cost. But that's not because they somehow cut corners. When you think about vertical integration, you probably only consider the parts. It's more than that, because by having teams doing their own parts in house, they also work closely to optimize their design so their architecture works as efficiently as possible with the included parts. They remove what they can, by designing their components to still to the same job, most of the time even better than before. Their electrical system is very lean. Their cooling system went from a traditional one to one controlled by a super bottle, and then the octovalve. You just can't see that kind of optimizations when you order components build by various suppliers because they're not involved in the design of those cars. Also, Tesla is set to deliver around 900k cars this year and two new factories are close to coming online, so next year we can expect over 1.3 million cars delivered. Their vertical integration and economies of scale will benefit them even more. Just watch more of Sandy's teardowns and comparisons and you'll understand the difference, and why Tesla's vertical integration is not your grandpa's vertical integration.
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  7.  John Brennan  If you actually check J.D. Power (trust them or not), they have no expert reviews for Tesla and they only have consumer reviews for 2020. But if you take those into account, out of 221 reviews the lowest ones are two 4/5 ratings - the rest are 5/5 stars. As for Consumer Reports, they are known to publish crap like documenting how to "defeat" the Tesla Autopilot driver monitoring. Showing everyone how to be irresponsible and a hazard on the street is stupid beyond reason. That said, a month later Tesla already had camera monitoring for the driver to prevent idiots from being idiots, because that was what triggered their article in the first place, someone losing their lives for being irresponsible. And most cars have no driver monitoring at all. About the control arm, for a non-safety related issue, it sucks but it's not a big deal and not more than other cars' problems that happen occasionally. Well, that if we don't consider exceptions like GM having to recall all Bolt EVs for battery fire issues after recommending their customers to park and charge them far from civilization, or Ford Mach-E's bricking problem on "over-the-air" updates that are not really over the air and can only be done in a dealership in the first place, if you want the promised feature of opening your car with your phone. But sure, complain about a few squeaking Teslas.
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  8.  John Brennan  Of course you would. Do you also short Tesla?
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  9.  @cengeb  It's no one's fault for idiots being idiots. Tesla explains what Autopilot does and warns the drivers to use it accordingly. And Tesla doesn't pretend to have level 5 FSD. Its beta program is limited to a small number of drivers who proved themselves as responsible and they are permanently monitored to use the FSD beta responsibly or they are eliminated from the program. Which law forbids the FSD beta? I'd really like to see how come they do it while NHTSA doesn't do anything. I'd say it's not illegal and you're exaggerating, as you did with everything else. :P
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  10.  @ThisIsF-dUp  That's false, but good luck trying to prove that.
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