A lengthy Q&A session with Sandy Munro, a renowned automotive engineer with a background in manufacturing and machine tools, was just held at TeslaCon Florida 2022. Zachary Shahan, attended to share information on the EV market’s situation and trends.
Taped by Shahan, Sandy’s Q&A was jam-packed with gems and other elements. Here are a few video samples from the Q&A and brief text summaries for each:
Sandy’s initial thought on Tesla’s engineering
Sandy briefly discusses his transition from being a fierce opponent to becoming a Tesla superbull in the first part of his interview. Remarkably, Sandy’s initial evaluation of Tesla vehicles was that they needed to be of better quality for those who followed back then.
Top Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) short sellers and assailants emphasized this with tremendous zeal. Sandy was first intrigued by Tesla’s engineering, but as time went on, Sandy was increasingly pleased with Tesla’s software strategy and pace of innovation.
It is worth noting that Sandy and his team are now only working on EVs, according to that video.
You can hear much more about Sandy’s comment that Tesla was “engineering at the speed of mind” in the Q&A portion.
“I equate Tesla to basically engineering at the speed of thought. They move faster — 10, 20, 100 times faster — than any company I’ve ever seen. We can’t believe how many changes they made in two years on the Model Y.”
Sandy Munro
He also covered the development of casting for Tesla and some insider information from the businesses that provide the machines and molds used in Tesla’s casting process.
Altman Z-Scores of major electric automakers
Before moving on to the following video, let’s take a final look at one of its highlights: Sandy briefly talked before the Q&A. A significant component was a significant graphic showing the Altman Z-Scores of Tesla, BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Stellantis. At around 15, Tesla was at its peak.
The following two best brands, just in the “grey zone” (not the “safe zone”), were Honda and Toyota. Everyone else was directly below two and in the “danger zone.” James Stephenson has occasionally brought up this issue on Twitter for years. The most current table from one of his tweets is shown below:
Competitive Comparison Data
| Company | Market Cap (M) | Altman Z-Score |
| Tesla Inc | $577,426.61 | 12.32 |
| General Motors Co | $ 57,481.39 | 1.21 |
| Ford Motor Co | $ 56,608.56 | 1.23 |
| Rivian Automotive Inc | $ 27,195.83 | 3.14 |
| Lucid Group Inc | $ 16,837.92 | 1.11 |
| Fisker Inc | $ 2,333.09 | 0.18 |
| Proterra Inc | $ 1,312.41 | 1.57 |
| LiveWire Group Inc | $ 1,173.94 | 16.40 |
“A score below 1.8 means it’s likely the company is headed for bankruptcy, while companies with scores above 3 are not likely to go bankrupt.”
Investopedia
Tesla’s FSD
The final passage Zachary Shahan draws attention to in this piece is a brief one about Tesla’s self-driving technology. Sandy was questioned by Chuck Cook (renowned for his left-hand turn, divided-highway, and Tesla FSD testing) on Tesla’s decision to replace its low-definition radar and ultrasonic sensors with “Tesla Vision.” Sandy makes it clear that he supports many of Tesla’s initiatives, but not this. He strongly favors using FLIR (forward-looking infrared) cameras. Find out more here:
Although it took Sandy Munro time to appreciate what Tesla does, one can agree that he does have a point about all things Tesla. Moreover, one can also concur that Tesla is engineering at the speed of thought.
Tesla is a company that values efficiency and advancement in the electric vehicle scene. How they managed and strategized their software and crafted their innovation to fit the concept of an electric vehicle does not always disappoint.
