Tesla’s Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy joins me for a candid conversation spanning a wide-ranging number of topics, from the new Model Y to his memories of pivotal moments in Tesla history to the next-gen Roadster and even the upcoming more-affordable cars. Enjoy!
Timecodes:
6:39 Interview begins
7:36 Lars on when he first got into cars
9:42 Remembering his first job in the auto industry, at Honda, and what led him to Tesla
14:01 Early days at Tesla
15:19 He knew the Model S was going to be a special car
17:22 Engineering the falcon-wing doors of the Model X
19:34 The charger snake prototype and its “hubris”
20:21 The Cybercab will be road trip capable
23:26 The most satisfying vehicle project he’s worked on
26:07 Why Tesla doesn’t have any plans to build any more HFS vehicles
26:43 The Cybercab isn’t “painted” in the traditional sense
28:44 Remembering Model 3’s “production hell”
31:20 Tesla fully expected the Model Y to become the world’s best-selling vehicle
33:50 Building the next-gen Roadster prototype
35:36 Status update on the next-gen Roadster
40:55 Learnings from the Model 3 refresh that have been applied to the new Model Y
43:25 Balancing between pushing the envelope and playing it safe on the new Model Y
45:42 The reason the new Model Y doesn’t have steer by wire
47:25 Why the new Model Y doesn’t have a 48v architecture
48:54 The status of the Model S and Model X
50:45 What Lars daily drives
51:50 Why the new Model 3 doesn’t use gigacastings
52:38 Lars’s favorite piece of engineering on any of the cars
54:58 Will the front bumper camera come to the S, X, and 3?
55:09 Will the turn signal stalk return to any of the other vehicles besides Model Y?
55:38 A teaser for the upcoming more-affordable vehicles
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