Hey All,
I'm a student at the University of Michigan. We just had a trio of Tesla employees give a talk to students right before our career fair. They had a lot of information, and I asked a few pointed questions at the end, so here's a rough summary of what was discussed:
TIME - NOTE
11:55 - Advanced Engineering group works out of LA
12:00 - Model X SUV concept showing will be unveiled end-of-the-year at the Strasburg Auto Show, production likely in 2014 or 2015
13:24 - 200% more luggage space on Model S than any other car in their segment
13:28 - 5000RPM on Model S motor is about 75mph
14:45 - The castings on the corners of the Model S frame allow them to make the vehicle using the frame shorter, wider, longer, or skinnier with a very minimal effort from a machining/retooling perspective
15:26 - The first natural frequency in torsion of the chassis is over 60hz (10hz better than anyone in the world)
16:10 - They aim for a 1/10th milimeter clearances in manufacturing, and they will probably get there without problems.
20:10 - Targeting a 5-star crash rating from every possible impact. Tests indicate this will be the case. It will be the first car ever to achieve this.
22:50 - The entire brake system for Model S was built in 3 months. The speaker personally built the brake systems for the Alpha prototype himself. Now there's two months of design validation and then they will release to manufacturing.
23:50 - The car will use category A regenerative braking (on accelerator pedal) to improve range 7-9% compared to category B (regen on brake pedal).
27:00 - The brakes won't activate until the car is decelerating at about 0.12 to 0.14G
28:00 - By using a category A regen system, you can save 10-15 feet when braking hard on an icy surface, compared to a category B system (Prius, Volt, etc)
Interesting Questions from Audience:
29:25 - Two models on the Model S platform at the moment (Model S, Model X). After that, a new platform will be created to create the low-cost, higher-volume car.
30:20 - Proving Grounds are actually just open roads, an airport nearby for high-speed tests
31:10 - Hope to have their own proving grounds at some point
34:20 - 70 people in vehicle engineering, 20 of which are working on another car at the moment (model X). There are double that (~150 people) just working on batteries. It's that high of a priority.
35:40 - THE GRILL (my question). That was a prototype-only grill. The production one looks totally different and much closer to the concept. They built that car in a week. The video was done at 11:15 on Christmas Eve. There will be a show-alpha car coming out in a couple of weeks that will have a lot more sexiness.
40:30 - There are cars in Minnesota right now driving in snow, ice, making sure stability and regen work.
43:00 - The most advanced rotors will be two-piece aluminum and cast iron composite rotor.
If you want to download my recording, do that here: [download removed per request]
I'm a student at the University of Michigan. We just had a trio of Tesla employees give a talk to students right before our career fair. They had a lot of information, and I asked a few pointed questions at the end, so here's a rough summary of what was discussed:
TIME - NOTE
11:55 - Advanced Engineering group works out of LA
12:00 - Model X SUV concept showing will be unveiled end-of-the-year at the Strasburg Auto Show, production likely in 2014 or 2015
13:24 - 200% more luggage space on Model S than any other car in their segment
13:28 - 5000RPM on Model S motor is about 75mph
14:45 - The castings on the corners of the Model S frame allow them to make the vehicle using the frame shorter, wider, longer, or skinnier with a very minimal effort from a machining/retooling perspective
15:26 - The first natural frequency in torsion of the chassis is over 60hz (10hz better than anyone in the world)
16:10 - They aim for a 1/10th milimeter clearances in manufacturing, and they will probably get there without problems.
20:10 - Targeting a 5-star crash rating from every possible impact. Tests indicate this will be the case. It will be the first car ever to achieve this.
22:50 - The entire brake system for Model S was built in 3 months. The speaker personally built the brake systems for the Alpha prototype himself. Now there's two months of design validation and then they will release to manufacturing.
23:50 - The car will use category A regenerative braking (on accelerator pedal) to improve range 7-9% compared to category B (regen on brake pedal).
27:00 - The brakes won't activate until the car is decelerating at about 0.12 to 0.14G
28:00 - By using a category A regen system, you can save 10-15 feet when braking hard on an icy surface, compared to a category B system (Prius, Volt, etc)
Interesting Questions from Audience:
29:25 - Two models on the Model S platform at the moment (Model S, Model X). After that, a new platform will be created to create the low-cost, higher-volume car.
30:20 - Proving Grounds are actually just open roads, an airport nearby for high-speed tests
31:10 - Hope to have their own proving grounds at some point
34:20 - 70 people in vehicle engineering, 20 of which are working on another car at the moment (model X). There are double that (~150 people) just working on batteries. It's that high of a priority.
35:40 - THE GRILL (my question). That was a prototype-only grill. The production one looks totally different and much closer to the concept. They built that car in a week. The video was done at 11:15 on Christmas Eve. There will be a show-alpha car coming out in a couple of weeks that will have a lot more sexiness.
40:30 - There are cars in Minnesota right now driving in snow, ice, making sure stability and regen work.
43:00 - The most advanced rotors will be two-piece aluminum and cast iron composite rotor.
If you want to download my recording, do that here: [download removed per request]
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