I found it intriguing that a mechanical design engineer can build a part all by themselves. Don’t they ever need to run stress analysis on the part or do optimization calculation, of course they do. So all of this is done by one guy? That must be hectic right?

 

Simple individual building blocks, all tested and perfected, can together create highly complex devices. The beauty is that as they have already been tested in their own environment this should massively reduce R&D/Testing costs?

 

In theory it should work... but perhaps the act of joining them introduces new factors and problems (vibration etc?), so things might not always work as a whole.

 

If we are still talking about airplanes. Then, no they do not reduce testing costs but RnD costs might be reduced in some cases. Airplane components are tested again and again, for example an altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude. An altimeter is tested couple of times during its production, then before installing it on the airplane, then when the connections are done its tested again, when the airplane is ready to fly its tested again and finally after fixed intervals of time its continuously tested until taken off service.

RnD costs can be reduced, for example, the material of choice for building the aircraft or the sheet metal thickness, etc. These are chosen from the market therefore the RnD costs are reduced. But if it’s a part that’s specifically manufactured for that airplane, like the door or a locking mechanism or even a doubler. Then the RnD costs remain same.

There is no airplane that is build exactly like other models so all of them have up to some point their own RnD. But for sure everything on each of the airplane is tested multiple times therefore there is no saving in that.

 

One more factor to consider with R&D is the commercial angle - companies are not going to share their deepest darkest secrets with the rest of the world after spending millions of pounds on them. Some issues will find their way into the public domain - reverse engineering, etc - but there is a very delicate balance between pushing the sector forward and protecting your work.

That said, Elon Musk has opened all of Tesla's patents up to the wider sector, free of charge, for the good of the sector in the long term.

 

I don’t know how Elon Musk survives the pressure from large companies that are money hungry. Or maybe they themselves are looking into the designs to find themselves more appropriate technology to be able to build better things and then sell them for more expensive prices. Either that or they all hate Elon Musk.

 

It's in his interest to increase the use of electric cars though.

By making all of the charging tech available that helps to make electric cars much more viable, which is a great for Tesla as they're positioned as probably the most prominent electric car company.