We benefit from the bottomless DoD budget for sure. We have the ability to spend as much as it takes on material and training to ensure reliability and safety for the crew. And it shows. We’ve had several undersea collisions (SSN-711 in 2005 and SSN-22 in 2021), and while both incidents were extremely serious, both boats made it safely back to port for repair.
SUBSAFE was implemented in 1963 following the loss of USS Thresher (SSN-593). It’s a remarkably strict QA program for systems and components exposed to seawater/operating pressure. To our credit, we’ve only lost one submarine since 1963 (USS Scorpion, SSN-589, and she was never SUBSAFE-certified), so the program works.
Similarly stringent controls for the Titan would have either caught all the manufacturing defects in the carbon fiber, or prevented anyone from thinking it’s a good idea to begin with. A big part of innovation is learning what rules you can reasonably bend/break, and which should never be touched. I tend to think pressure hull construction falls in the “never touch” category, at least not without a mountain of testing, data collection, fatigue life calculation, etc. along with communication with regulatory bodies to ensure you meet the principles of the regulation, if not the exact words (again, innovation has it’s place).
I work on submarines. Everything that company was doing gave me a panic attack. The SUBSAFE program exists for a reason. Like, there’s a time and place for innovation, and when people’s lives are on the line is NOT it.
Let’s also not forget that there was no way to exit the submersible from the inside. The door was bolted on by the surface team. So if they had just lost power (instead of being crushed), they would’ve been floating on the surface with no way out. That’s the another obvious horrendous design choice.
Okay. The F150 Lighting has a range of 240-300 miles per charge, and an MSRP starting at $50k, compared to the cyber truck starting at $81k.
To make it even spicier, the first headlines I saw about Altman leaving seemed to indicate that MS was not involved, and in fact didn’t know he was going to be fired until literal minutes before the announcement went live. How true this is, of course, is up for debate. But the rumor mill is fun, right?
He’s just a symptom of the larger problem. But as the highest profile symptom, the lack of meaningful consequences so far does little to discourage others from following his example.
It’s also worth, I think, pointing out that, for example, Lincoln has the 6th (I think) most recalled model as well as (again, I think) the second to least recalled model. So it shows that, in a lot of cases, it really depends on the model of the car rather than the manufacturer.
Except Tesla. 100% of Teslas current lineup is in the top 5.
Make it $100,000/day per user and then they’ll actually feel it
See, if it’s easy to cancel, then a consumer can leave your service, try something else, and then cancel that and come back if they don’t like the alternative.
Also, imperative for who? Your bottom line?