Tesla engineering. Engineering Research Paper Assignment

Tesla Engineering
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Introduction and Background
Tesla focuses on the manufacture and advancement of electric cars, under the leadership of Elon Musk the Chief Executive. Tesla engineering is innovative and seeks to improve the company’s products to be more competitive and this requires research and development including in improving battery performance. The main products are electric sports cars, sedans as well as energy generation and storage systems, while the services are installation and maintenance and sale of solar electricity (SEC, 2020). There has been growth in the US electric vehicle market is growing partly because there is integration of advanced vehicle technology projects and the electric vehicle charging infrastructure market in the US. However, they have less maximum range and cost more than the conventional vehicles. This research project will provide an overview of Tesla engineering, their approach to innovation and the need to improve product quality.
Objectives and Research Questions
Tesla is innovative with the company’s leader and Tesla engineering department crucial to revolutionizing the electric vehicle market and transportation industry (Furr & Dyer, 2020)
The all-electric car company is competed with more established corporations such as Ford and General electric, as there is increased reliance on transportation software and emphasis on energy efficiency including reducing reliance on fossil fuels. At Tesla, the engineering staff identifies the technology constraints that need to be addressed to improve product development and eliminating such constraints enhances innovation as is the case with batteries. Tesla is a car and high-growth tech company.
Research Questions
The research is aimed at evaluating Tesla engineering and market for the electric vehicle makers, and how Tesla’s research and development has supported product development. Tesla uses a single integrated system unlike most vehicle manufacturers who rely on different software systems as Tesla engineering is intent on improving performance without using disparate components and systems. There are different drivers of the electric vehicles market including the technological factors, and analysis helps to understand how Tesla has influenced the growth of the market.
* How effective is Tesla engineering?
* Does smart grid implementation with electric technologies affect the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles?
* How do the emerging new technologies affect the electric vehicles market?
Literature Review
In a study by Tenhundfeld et al., (2019), the researchers focused on the autoparking feature of the Tesla Model X in human-automation interaction to understand the extent to which they intervened when there was autonomous driving. Distrust in autonomy decreased as the participants grow increasingly comfortable and familiar with the feature and they were less likely to monitor the auto parking feature. Increasingly drivers want car manufacturers to incorporate novel technology features in cars, but nothing that is complex that it distracts them and makes driving less enjoyable. Endsley (2017) also focused on the challenges with the semi-autonomous system of the Tesla Model S where making complex decisions posed a challenge to the drivers.
There is no consensus on whether Tesla is a disruptor even as any researchers who have written on the subject highlight that the company is disruptive and innovative. Tesla was the first electric vehicle to use lithium-ion batteries and has improved on the batter cell technology to target the mass market (Ahmad, S., & Khan, 2019). The company has also patented new lithium-ion batteries and even if Tesla does not lead to a transformation of the transportation sector.
Ahmad& Khan (2019) further investigated whether Tesla employed the blue ocean strategy where there is focus on differentiation and a low cost strategy to enter a new market and new demand. The researchers indicated that Tesla has had a profound impact on the electric vehicle market and the self-driving vehicles and first targeted the premium market before targeting the mass market.
Tesla hybrid battery research has focused on improving the efficiency of the battery cells and hybrid lithium-ion/lithium metal cells is one area that shows promise. Recent research on the viability of cycling lithium metal to form the graphite hybrid lithium-ion/lithium metal cells shows that this option increases the energy density when compared to the conventional lithium-ion cells (Martin et al., 2020). The research work is affiliated with Tesla's researchers who chose lithium-ion cells because of their longevity and lithium metal cells with high energy density and they found out that the hybrid lithium-ion/lithium metal cells were more efficient. Hybrid cells using lithium-ion and lithium metal are an innovation have the potential to increase the electric vehicle range.
Method and Approach
The case study method is the approach to investigate Tesla engineering with data and information gathered from diverse sources. Using multiple sources of evidence is necessary to investigate the organization. This is undertaken in context unlike experiments that sometimes are in artificial environments, and this requires taking into consideration the contextual factors. Engineering and production departments are key to boosting output, and engineers are tasked with vehicle development, and there is focus on what the department does and outcomes in product development. The method helps understand the place and role of Tesla engineering in the electric vehicle maker.
Performance metrics are collected based on improving performance and comparison with other models customer feedback is an indicator of whether the products meet their needs and expectations. Car models use updated software versions for the automated cars, but one of the major challenges is how best to control bottlenecks, and especially batteries, which is a major constrain in electric vehicles. Research goes beyond the conventional lithium-ion cells and now includes hybrid cells that are more efficient (Martin et al., 2020). The U.S. automobile market has changed in the past two decades and, Tesla is now one of the most valuable car manufacturers even as it makes a tiny fraction of the vehicles in the US.
Results
Smart grids that facilitate electricity distribution and load management for those using electric vehicles make it easier to integrate these vehicles in the transportation system. In 2015, there were more than 1 million electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehi...