Build Quality

[sidneyhornblower]

So how long are you planning to wait before you buy?

I don't really have a plan, more like a week to week decision I'm mulling over. But to put some boundary conditions on it: I won't wait ten years. I won't order tomorrow. Within that window -

Unless some really terrible news comes out, my guess is that I'll order sometime after the first Slates are delivered and some of the early adopters here start posting their experiences with the truck. Assuming it's not a complete disaster of a vehicle with early adopters weeping and wailing and warning us off, I'd probably want to get an order in such that my delivery happens in early 2028.

But I reserve the right to change my mind. In which case, let's hope there's room on the bandwagon for one more risk taker.

 

[Orley]

Yeah, my $300 is pot committed. I'm Q2 so I'll decide then whether to gamble the $25K+. There will be a little use history by then, so we'll see. When does the early adopter window close and become just adopter? IDK With the third round of funding (C?) and sales of 80K vehicles per year, for how many years could Slate continue?

 

[CorvusCorvax]

And although the internet was crude back then, we still communicated over usenet and shared a lot of our experiences.

Ahhh, a fellow USENET traveller! Hail, brother! When the internet was still complete anarchy...

 

[CorvusCorvax]

Know it’s a far reach *narrative, but some times you just have to wait and see if their design is good or bad. There are always acceptable poor quality limits you have during new releases, in the end just have to hope for the best, and prepare yourself for the worst.

*“The company that made the O-rings, Morton Thiokol, had engineers who expressed concerns about the O-rings' performance in cold temperatures prior to the Challenger launch. Despite these warnings, management decided to proceed with the launch,”

That is a seriously dark comparison to make. I get your point - bean counters and middle managers are often the bane of good decision-making.

While it would make me pleased to no end to have the niggles with my Slate be minor and not explosively fatal, I am ready for the compromises that come with a simple, $25000 (new) vehicle.

 

[LoneWolfo6]

That is a seriously dark comparison to make. I get your point - bean counters and middle managers are often the bane of good decision-making.

While it would make me pleased to no end to have the niggles with my Slate be minor and not explosively fatal, I am ready for the compromises that come with a simple, $25000 (new) vehicle.

Ok took it off, apologies.

The point was it’s always very traumatic to put your trust in something with so many unknowns.

Sometimes you just have to have faith and go.

Take care.

 

[CorvusCorvax]

Ok took it off, apologies.

The point was it’s always very traumatic to put your trust in something with so many unknowns.

Sometimes you just have to have faith and go.

Take care.

There was no need to self-edit - I was just commenting on the significant contrast.

I get your point - we are leaping into the void hoping someone has packed the pack with silk and risers, and not camping gear (a la Looney Tunes.)

One of the reasons I am more confident is that it seems the Slate team is much more about competent engineering and automotive design, and much less about middle management - and has been like that from the start. It's like they are getting to cheap from the standpoint of engineering and design, NOT by cutting every single corner possible to wring the last few pennies out of a weary public.

Now, maybe my take is fanciful and hopeful. Maybe I'm being self-deceptive in my narrative, and will be stuck with a 4000lb, $25000 boat anchor. But part of what drew me to an EV-only, small pick-up from a start-up with no other products was this idea that they were going to engineer and design their way to inexpensive. Is that being a fanboi? I'd *like* to think not.

 

[E90400K]

Just to reiterate what I said in the Are You Disappointed thread, in the modern day of automotive design and manufacturing, with the advent of computerized design tools, prototyping tools (i.e. 3-D printing etc.), finite element analysis for design and testing, etc., the probability of significant latent defects in the design is much lower than cars designed 40, or even 25 years ago. And I think the attention to the initial build assembly process is now much better measured and analyzed. I really do not think the 1st Shift units will be any worse assembled than the ones months into 2027 and I'd say better than the 2028 model year when Slate management post IPO demands more cost be taken out of the manufacturing process and unit output increased.

If there will be latent design defects (which there will be) I think they will be minor issues at worst. This truck does not look like a POS from the outstart. It is just too simple a machine to get too FUBAR'd. IMO...

I still think the concern here is market acceptance and the bet that people will want to continuously mod their rides. We'll see how that plays out.

 

[tubes]

On my list of things to do today is pre-order. I am slotted for Q2. I will not check the box to move it up. If this pans out, I'll be with you all as an early adopter, but not first shift, and I'm fine with that.

I completed my pre-order. As an engineer who operated quite a bit of my career on the border between design and manufacturing (diagnostic software), I want to go along for this ride. I expect some bumps, and I hope to find unexpected joy.

As a previous EV-hater, I have been redeemed. What finally got me to cough up the $250 was that my most common routes have really good access to Tesla superchargers. My most common long ride (100 mile round trip) has an easy-on, easy-off access to a Supercharger station.

 

[fxrdr31]

Using some of Demming's quality axioms, quality of a product is a result of good engineering design and proper monitoring and control of the manufacturing process.

From what I have seen with the Slate presented information is the design seems to be very thought out and worked through. The good here is, as a startup with a small engineering crew and limited org chart, good ideas don't get filtered out of the design process. Understanding Slate is delivering a Blank Slate, it is also delivering a "clean slate" design. Having staff from Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid, which all were clean slate startups, there is a lot of institutional knowledge as what not to do as a startup building its first EV. The best of both corporate worlds, knowledgeable people working in environment with little to no preconceptions or pre-conditions to adhere to.

Even better IMO is the fresh start with a clean sheet assembly facility. No labor union to contend with (no mention of the UAW so far) and Indiana is a right-to-work state, enacted into law in 2012. That means Slate can incorporate as much automation as it sees fit and does not have to contend with preconceived and preconditioned UAW job classifications. Let's hope Slate follows industry good practices of "quality roundtables" where the assembly line technicians have input into the assembly design and process. It appears Chris Barman has good experience here based on her past career positions.

Being a car guy too, I think you need to be cautioned as to how to consider the "build quality". The Slate is an unpainted, plastic-bodied truck, built to a price point, with the intent not to offer amenities. EVs are more expensive to build than ICEV. Slate has stated they have taken part content (part count) out of their design and will build just one single configuration to attain its production cost targets. An example I will use is the Ford Bronco with its plastic, reinforced glass-fiber injection molded, hard top. Scan the internet and the consensus is the Bronco Hard top sucks. I have one going on 4 years now, and my view of the hard top is, it is a quality piece of engineering art. But it's plastic, lightweight, and has been subject to manufacturing defects. But that is a quality control issue of not good monitoring and control of the manufacturing process. Injection molding of large plastic fiber-reinforced, molded-in-color parts (MIC) is somewhat difficult to achieve consistency.

Based on the data presented by Slate so far, the spaceframe "Slateboard" chassis appears to be a well-engineered piece and the build of it seems to be nearly completely automated. The suspension and EV driveline are not new designs. All which points to a high-quality automotive product based on what has been presented so far. But I would not expect "beauty" from it, that most snooty car aficionados are used to.

Try to see the beauty of it from the minimalist point view as a Slate is indented to be.

My 2-cents.

They also had people from Harley Davidson and Stellantis on the engineering team that helps bring knowledge of legacy oems. Not sure how a Union has anything to do with Slate though. Slate should have min software bugs as they don't have a complicated UI that they have to design make user friendly but they really need to get the panel gaps set right and not be like early Tesla vehicles. The original hard tops for the Ford Broncos has numerous issues like all new models. Nothing is perfect so it's about what the majority of people are willing to deal with will likely determine how well received the Slate is at launch

 

[tubes]

They also had people from Harley Davidson and Stellantis on the engineering team that helps bring knowledge of legacy oems. Not sure how a Union has anything to do with Slate though. Slate should have min software bugs as they don't have a complicated UI that they have to design make user friendly but they really need to get the panel gaps set right and not be like early Tesla vehicles. The original hard tops for the Ford Broncos has numerous issues like all new models. Nothing is perfect so it's about what the majority of people are willing to deal with will likely determine how well received the Slate is at launch

My first video I saw of Sandy Munro was of him tearing down a Tesla. My goodness, he barfed all over the panel fit. He was nearly crazed about it.

So far, Munro is pretty jazzed about Slate, and he has a lot of skin in the game since he consulted on parts of the design. Of those 2 Slates he's getting, I presume he'll tear one down. I'm hoping for an honest assessment.

 

[fxrdr31]

My first video I saw of Sandy Munro was of him tearing down a Tesla. My goodness, he barfed all over the panel fit. He was nearly crazed about it.

So far, Munro is pretty jazzed about Slate, and he has a lot of skin in the game since he consulted on parts of the design. Of those 2 Slates he's getting, I presume he'll tear one down. I'm hoping for an honest assessment.

I will definitely be interested in seeing a teardown and a comparison to other vehicles. From the photos of the body framing it looks very traditional but strut,shock, control arms etc that's what I am interested the most in what materials did the use and the design. User friendly or manufacturing friendly are not always the same

 

[Susan]

That is a seriously dark comparison to make. I get your point - bean counters and middle managers are often the bane of good decision-making.

While it would make me pleased to no end to have the niggles with my Slate be minor and not explosively fatal, I am ready for the compromises that come with a simple, $25000 (new) vehicle.

Slate does have engineers in management. I'm hoping that it remains an engineering focused company, not bean counting focused. To that end, I hope they don't go public any time soon.

 

[Susan]

Ok took it off, apologies.

The point was it’s always very traumatic to put your trust in something with so many unknowns.

Sometimes you just have to have faith and go.

Take care.

I thought you made an important point, dark or not. Same thing with Boeing, which used to be a company known for great engineering. It went wrong when McDonnell Douglas took over and Boeing became more focused on financials than engineering.

 

[tubes]

The hope I have is that these employees have equity/stock. It helps everyone focus to do the right thing.

Source: Slate's current engineering job listing on LinkedIn mentions the equity program as one of the benefits.