Featured Tesla exec tells it like it is

after reading, I see one might be able to decipher or interpret the notion of mr. Musk mussig about Tesla making the X more complex than necessary theme, but I wasn't able to interpret/extrapolate a possible "damage to reliability" - message while trying to read between the lines. It sounds more like he was saying they put way more into it then they needed to to make it great. But that's just my take.
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gotta love the gull wing look.

 

Lots of tesla haters out there many that shorted the stock at much lower levels, hoping to get the price down and lose less money. I don't see a january article in car and driver about them, is it a blog post?

I'm sure falcon wing is not as reliable as a camry door, but it is cool and there are tens of thousands of pre orders. People will buy it even if it needs a little service.

The prius gen IV is a year and a half late, and that was much easier than the model X. Can't figure the haters on always thinking each new thing will kill tesla. Most of us shareholders never expected it in 2013, hell I was thrilled that the model S has sold so well and there are no show stoppers hurting customer satisfaction. The model S still is highest in customer satisfaction. I expect the X to be close. The delay was one of the few mistakes tesla made. The doors were too complicated. If they had conventional doors they could have shifted engineering to the model 3 earlier, but again this needs the gigafactory before they can sell it. My guess is volume sometime in 2018.

 

Whenever there is talk about some big manufacturing delay, I always wonder about the Giza Pyramids. I wonder what the original schedule plan was. 10 years, 20 years,100 years?---and then what was the actual time taken. With the Gigafactory being one of the largest buildings in the world, this is not such a far off question.

 

LOL, depends on how many slaves they committed i guess.

 

Yes they did a fascinating write up. on all the sensors and the way they can open. You can stand under them, and open a umbrella ahead of the door, while standing and dry.

Wind can of course blow rain into the car, but that likely is less than other sliding doors, or regular doors versus falcon wing. The driver door is of course regular, so perhaps a back passender can open an umbrella for the driver ;-)

 

what do you mean by regular?

 

A regular door - that's like a fly over state

Sorry - a regular door is one that simply opens in the standard car door opening fashion .... either from left to right - or right to left - as the front door on your home would open.
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you mean it has three gull wings and one regular?

 

Well - the rear hatch - like the Prius, opens straight up. So you have two regulars (driver & passenger) - two gull wings (2nd row seats) - and one rear hatch "straight up" like the hood of a front engine car or luke the prius hatch - whichever you think of. Hmmm - I'm thinking that you might be messing with me.

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not at all. perhaps i should know, but why no gull wings on the front? kinda takes the fun out of it.

 

Cost ?
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The idea behind the gull wing doors is that they make it easier for parents to buckle the kids in.
That isn't needed for the front seats.

 

Thus;

The Doors not only "don't" swing into closely parked cars - they remain lower in low ceiling garages - as well as block a bit of rain & make it easier to access kids in car seats - as you don't have to hunch over, because the ceiling of the car is open.
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2 gull wings (rear left and right), 2 regular(driver and front passenger), and a rear hatch back.

The i8 has scissor doors If you want that "fun". Its a totally different animal, a phev sports car.

 

strange, just to buckle kids in? how much more do you think they cost? i wouldn't want to be standing between the cars when the start to open. they sure are pretty though.

 

They have a lot of sensors. They won't open if you are standing too close, or something else is blocking, but they don't need much room.

Buckling someone into the middle seat of a regular size car isn't a big deal, but larger cars are harder. A sliding door or two would have solved the problem, and the X could have been shipping all year. Falcon doors could have waited for the gen II, but they didn't know how hard it would be when they started.

 

they should have asked john delorean.