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Lumifer comments on Stupid Questions May 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Gondolinian 01 May 2015 05:28PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 02 May 2015 04:18:15PM 2 points [-]

Musk is claiming orders of magnitude reduction in cost.

*Orders of magnitude"?? which means at least a hundred times? Methinks you're mistaken.

Comment author: [deleted] 02 May 2015 05:00:55PM 3 points [-]

Meaning more than 1 order of magnitude, which necessitates the plural.

Comment author: ChristianKl 02 May 2015 10:16:23PM 2 points [-]

I think Musk speaks of roughly 8% improvement in battery cost per year. At that pace it takes three decades to get them 1 order of magnitude cheaper.

Comment author: [deleted] 02 May 2015 10:19:24PM 1 point [-]

The prices Musk is quoting is a full 10x less than analyst estimates of what those batteries should cost. Tesla would not offer the product unless they felt they could make a sufficient profit, so their costs must be lower still. That is what I was talking about.

Comment author: Lumifer 02 May 2015 10:46:42PM 0 points [-]

The prices Musk is quoting is a full 10x less than analyst estimates of what those batteries should cost.

Can we see some links? These claims don't make sense to me. Musk didn't achieve any breakthroughs in battery technology.

Comment author: [deleted] 02 May 2015 11:42:14PM 1 point [-]

It's improvements in manufacturing, not underlying technology, that Musk is claiming is responsible for the decreased costs. My analyst source was not online so I can't easily provide a link..

Comment author: Lumifer 03 May 2015 02:18:41AM -2 points [-]

10x..? Color me sceptical.