
Tesla shows ventilator prototype made from car components - hhs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-06/tesla-shows-ventilator-prototype-made-from-car-components
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blackrock
Can’t you just take the blueprint of an existing ventilator, and begin mass
production on it? No need to reinvent the science and engineering of it.

And since Trump enabled the emergency order, then I’m sure he can also waive
the Intellectual Property violations as well for this.

Something like this, while novel, looks like a lost cause. Normally, this
machine would probably take months or years to certify for its safety, and I’m
sure it would need to be certified by the FDA for live human usage.

What if there’s a defect, and the machine fails at a critical moment, and
kills the patient? Then, who’s fault or liability is that? Tesla? The
hospital? The doctor? The FDA? Or does it all get brushed under the rug, and
the patient is declared dead because of the virus, and not because of some
defect in the machine.

For a price comparison, I saw that the ventilators that China had shipped to
the world, had a listed price of $2,732. I’m not sure what the final MSRP
markup is.

But at that price, it seems that ventilators are not really that expensive.

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gamblor956
NIH is a huge issue at Tesla.

Tesla was supposed to be using Medtronic designs but it seems they've already
given up on that idea.

Unfortunately, it does no good to reach mass production 18 months late.

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kwhitefoot
If we are to avoid falling back into our dangerous old ways of not having
enough spare capacity then we need to have more diversity and competition in
supply, production, and marketing of medical equipment so that health
authorities can more easily afford to have excess capacity during the good
times in preparation for the bad. Of course sooner would be better but later
is not necessarily futile.

And most likely Tesla will probably drop the project entirely as soon as the
fuss dies down but that doesn't mean that someone else working on an
unconventional approach should necessarily give up just because they won't be
in time for this crisis, there will be more crises later.

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gamblor956
I agree. My issue is with Tesla demand uncritical adulation for a PR project
that is being designed without any input from actual users (like the cave
submarine that was completely unusable for its stated purpose) on a timeframe
that basically ignores the ongoing crisis.

We have sufficient manufacturers of ventilators to build up spare capacity
_after_ the crisis is over. It is not praise worthy for Tesla to build a
luxury ventilator that won't be ready until months or years after this crisis
is over (assuming they actually take it to production).

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awaythrower
An exercise in false hope, futility, ostensible charity, and virtue-signaling.
Ventilator manufacturers have solved numerous issues including reliability,
durability, noise levels and loop hygiene (as well as possible). Automotive
engineers don't know what they're doing compared to ventilator engineers.
Maybe they should stay in their lane rather than squander attention, time and
money on something that is inherently dangerous to public health.

