I’m really of mixed minds about this notion that Tesla should be shut down or
converted to building ventilators.
On the one hand, ventilators are very much needed, and it’s true that Tesla and
SpaceX both have some experience producing related equipment, and have
production facilities.
On the other hand:
- Those Tesla and SpaceX production facilities are tooled up to build
something entirely different. That doesn’t change overnight. Nor do the
components necessary to build a different product magically appear at the
production facility. The production facility is an aggregation point at which
hundreds, if not thousands, of different supply-chains converge. Most of those
supply chains start in China, and most of them have a year or more of lead-time
before they start producing parts.
- Other companies actually produce ventilators, and have available production
capacity at the head of preexisting supply chains which aren’t entirely dry.
They do, however, need to be paid for their work, which means they need orders,
which means that governments need to place those orders. In most countries,
that seems to be patently obvious to people, and is happening. In the US, not
so much, for some reason.
- The corona virus isn’t the only challenge we’re facing. The environmental
catastrophe is, with the exception of all the ICEs not on the road right now,
just as bad today as it was three months ago, and Tesla’s work in remediating
it is just as urgent now as it was then.
So I think everybody needs to be pitching in to solve the problem they’re best
prepared to solve, not shuttering important efforts in order to do something
they’re not prepared to do as efficiently as others who aren’t already entirely
at capacity.
-Bill
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