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Comment by product50 | Hacker News Reader

Yes - of course. Tesla and GM shouldn't even try to help out because obviously they will build the wrong thing.

What BS. Take your cynicism elsewhere. You literally are the living embodiment of my point above.

No, you misinterpret what I said. They should most definitely help out - by aiding in manufacturing a known working design at bigger scale.

DO you realize that these are car manufacturing companies trying to figure out how they can build ventilators. To build based on existing know-how will likely be incredibly expensive and prohibitive. As such, it is reasonably to expect them build these ventilators based on the realities of their current supply chain, technology, factory capabilities etc.

It is so surprising that I have to explain this to a tech audience.

How is starting over from scratch less expensive?

Given the time to explore cheaper parts, manufacturing processes, etc., starting over can always result in a cheaper device.

> can always result in a cheaper device.

  ^^^^^^^^^^ oxymoron alert

They are doing exactly that already, partnered with an established company with proven design to help them ramp up production by manufacturing some hard-to-come-by parts.

And then Musk decided to burn some money on top of that, trying to find a way to produce even more machines from existing parts and/or parts that he can get more easily. And people give him shit for that? Seriously?

Has their effort to produce a ventilator like that a high chance of failure? Sure. But maybe their hail marry will succeed and save lives after all. And if they fail, at least they will have tried.

The only actual problem here would be if they produced a worse-than-useless machine that kills people but is put into use anyway. This hasn't happened yet, tho, but people right now are attacking this strawman viciously anyway.

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