The Forbes report seems to be adding nuance for effect IMO, as no one uses the term jerry-rigged to describe the suspension part on display. In the video, they note a metal piece attached to a control arm and guess that it might be a harmonic damper to absorb vibrations in the AWD version of the car. If you watch the video, Sandy repeats several times that he doesn’t know why certain things were done the way they were, and suggests that the types of things he is referring to only add unnecessary cost and weight. Tesla’s official response is that they stand behind the safety testing they have, and that the Model 3 design was taken from the Model S, which does have a very high safety standard rating. Tesla's response also goes on to say that occupant safety is number one and that it will be prioritized above all other metrics. Sandy also suggests that a lot of industry specialists, his company included, could help Tesla work through some of these problems. I think Tesla should take him up on his word, and listen to what he has to say. All they would have to lose in a short meeting is maybe a good pot of coffee. They likely have reasons for doing what ever it is they are doing, so they should be able to tell if any outside advice is worthwhile or not. Give the man a chance Elon! That being said, optimizing Model 3 body construction would put the Model 3 in a class by itself, and according to Sandy, other automakers have reason to be concerned.
To piggyback on your post, here's the full Tesla response so Sandy does have their attention:
Tesla Responds
Statement on vehicle age
“The primary car evaluated by Munro was built in 2017. We have significantly refined our production processes since then, and while there’s always room for improvement, our data already shows that Model 3 quality is rapidly getting better.”
Statement on panel gaps and offsets
“Since we began shipping Model 3 last year, we have been very focused on refining and tuning both part and body manufacturing processes. The result being that the standard deviation of all gaps and offsets across the entire car has improved, on average, by nearly 40%, with particular gap improvements visible in the area of the trunk, rear lamps and rear quarter panel. Today, Model 3 panel gaps are competitive with
Audi, BMW, and
Mercedes models, but in the spirit of relentless improvement, we are working to make them even tighter.”
Statement on body weight/complexity
“The U.S. government found Model S and Model X to have the lowest probability of injury of any cars it had ever tested, and Model 3 was designed with the same commitment to safety. While there’s always room for refinement of cost and mass, which we are already improving, electric cars have unique safety requirements to prevent intrusion into the battery, and Model 3 was also designed to meet the latest small overlap front crash requirements that other reference vehicles may not have. We stand behind our physical crash testing and our computer simulations of it, which have been remarkably accurate, and the safety that they demonstrate. The safety of our customers is more important than any other metric.”
I too would like to see a more detailed rebuttal from Tesla of Munro's findings as he made a lot of suppositions admitting that he really didn't know why they did what they did, only that they could have done better. I have to think that the engineers they employ are pretty good at what they do and if there's a piece of steel or a 2 piece control arm, there's a good reason for it. But Tesla to their credit admits that they are constantly making improvements and won't stop till they've met their goals. I do get the feeling that Munro's baiting them to hire his firm to iron out the dinosaur technology aspect of Tesla's shortcomings.
All in all though, it was quite an about face from his initial video now that he's really sunk his teeth into the good bits. Not sure if the other guy McElroy will ever come around though. His snarky attitude was pretty thick and still is.
