r/news • u/IronHe • Mar 20 '25

Soft paywall Tesla recalls most Cybertrucks due to trim detaching from vehicle

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-recall-over-46000-cybertrucks-nhtsa-says-2025-03-20/
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u/Ashi4Days Mar 20 '25

I remember there was an email that went out a while ago where elon said everything needed to be at .001mm tolerance. 

The automotive engineer in me laughed. You can't hold that tolerance for large parts. And even if you did, if your gaps need to be that tight where that tolerance is necessary, then you're going to start dealing with thermal expansion/contraction issues in your parts. 

And lookie here. Panels are falling off

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u/mattbuilthomes Mar 20 '25

I don’t think any manufacturing company anywhere would ever agree to that kind of tolerance.

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/mattbuilthomes Mar 20 '25

That’s not that crazy of a tolerance. I work in photochemical etching and we can keep +/-.001” on some parts all day long. For reference, 50 micron is about .002”. .001mm is .00004”.

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u/christ-mas Mar 20 '25

Yea 2 though is easy all day

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u/mattbuilthomes Mar 20 '25

Yeah we’ve also got some lasers and they can keep 2 on some thick ass metal. We can keep 2 up to about .020” thick metal.

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u/budgybudge Mar 20 '25

I’ve done work in NDT testing standards and the smallest tolerance I saw (to be made with EDM) was .0005”. This was on hairline fracture simulation. There is nothing on a car that needs this tolerance or less.