TT97
Active Member
To be accurate... the claim he made was that there were welds and structural prices he didn't see the need for, which is not the same as meaning they can simply be eliminated now to save weight yet still meet Tesla's performance or safety goals. That's what I recall folks here generally objecting to.
The current initiative to lighten the vehicle likely means additional engineering exercise to do so safely, or eliminating weight in non safety critical areas, which may mean supplier involvement.
Munro's claims were the same as the current initiative. He had issues with Tesla trying to use multiple types of metals; adding unnecessary weight and making the production more complicated. While he never went into crash specifics, many on this site reacted as he was suggesting the entire car should be a single plastic mold.
Sandy Munro is a very accomplished engineer with decades of experience in automotive manufacturing. Sandy worked very closely and was mentored by an old professor of mine at NYU, Dr. Edward Deming. Although he was 90 when I took his class, Dr. Deming was an absolutely brilliant person and by far the most impressive professor I ever had. While Sandy's focus is on production and weight efficiencies, it is not done at a sacrifice of safety or performance yet many dismissed his ideas merely due to the fact that the bulk of his experience is not with EVs but with ICE vehicles (well that, plus aerospace, marine, defense, electronics, medical).