Comment by vonmoltke | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vonmoltke | Hacker News Reader

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The difference is the number of engineering disciplines involved. A smartphone, as complex as it is, still requires a relatively narrow set of disciplines compared to an automobile.

Systems engineering was basically created by the auto and aerospace industries for this reason. It coordinates all these disparate disciplines into a single, cohesive effort. What I have seen of systems engineering[1] in SV does not leave me with the confidence that most of those companies will actually succeed beyond some science experiments. At least, not the companies that haven't started out as fundamentally car companies like Tesla did.

[1] Real systems engineering, not glorified, overworked sysadmins

Electric vehicles are far simpler than internal combustion engines. I mean, you don't even need things like electronic fuel injection. Literally, the complexity of building a car goes from the complex systems developed over a century back to the simple vehicles of the late 1800's.

What about the complex battery management needed for an EV? Or the power and vehicle dynamics management needed if there are multiple motors? Or the additional complexity of the regenerative braking system? Or the fact that the car itself is a very small part of the entire product lifecycle (think design, testing, parts availability, service, etc.)?

No, they actually aren't. Most of the complexity in a consumer vehicle is not in the powertrain, though a significant portion is. As far as the powertrain is concerned, the main savings in complexity is dropping the transmission and differential (or transaxle, depending on the design). Energy storage and loading is far more complicated on an EV than an ICEV, and the motor control system that replaces the transmission/transaxle is far more complicated than the engine control software that runs an ICE. Also, electronic fuel injection is not really that complicated.

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