Innovative Corona Help: Tesla builds ventilators for corona patients from auto parts message

Elon Musk came under public criticism by downplaying the Corona crisis
Tesla Announces Manufacture of Urgent Respirators
The special thing about the ventilators: they consist mainly of car parts

There are now approximately 580,000 infected in the United States. Although the virus only later translated to the USA, it is even worse there. The number of sufferers clearly exceeds the cases in all other countries in the world. The USA has become the new number one corona crisis state. Over a day, over 2,000 Americans died from COVID-19. No other government has reported so many deaths in this period. An improvement is not yet in sight. Even if president Donald Trump already sees “light at the end of the tunnel”, the deaths will probably increase still further. According to Reuters, government experts estimate that “between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die in the pandemic”.

To prevent this development, good patient care must be ensured. Ventilation devices in particular save lives. Many economic forces have now offered their help to increase the production of these devices and to improve the supply situation in the country. The company Tesla has meanwhile also joined the companies. At the beginning of the pandemic, CEO Elon Musk was critical of the severity of the virus. Similar to Donald Trump, he also underestimated the corona crisis.

Elon Musk is criticized

On March 6, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that the coronavirus panic was stupid. Shortly thereafter, he extended his statement a little and announced that the panic would do more damage than the virus itself. He also downplayed the scope of the virus. According to his assessment, there were almost no new cases of infection in the US at the end of April. According to these beliefs, the Tesla chief continued his main work in Fremont, California. It was left up to each employee to continue working.

According to the health instructions, the authorities classified Tesla production as a non-essential business, so that the continued operation of Musk was against the general regulations. The carmaker could not resist the closure for a long time. A word of power from the local police chief obliged the work to a forced break. The defiant behavior of the Tesla boss brought him some criticism. A user on Twitter asked Musk to stop acting like an “idiot” and finally recognize the seriousness of the situation. The entrepreneur replied that Tesla would henceforth manufacture ventilators if there were bottlenecks – an offer of help that the Mayor of New York City gladly accepted.

Tesla imports BPAP devices from China

The criticism of Musk continued after the first insight. The Financial Times reported that Tesla’s first deliveries to Los Angeles and New York were relatively quick, following the promise to manufacture ventilators. For the newspaper, however, it was very surprising how the company was able to manage the additional supply so quickly, when the whole world desperately wanted it. A photo then brought the insight. Musk did not quickly produce ventilators for emergency patients, but imported so-called “BPAP devices” from China, which are used in people with sleep apnea. The difference between these two forms of ventilation is that the oxygen supply to the BPAP device is non-invasive and therefore without intubation. Although it helps people to breathe, it does not help COVID-19 severely. Use in an intensive care unit is therefore not possible. The Financial Times criticized Musk for this. Especially since the Tesla boss continued to claim to have supplied invasive ventilators and presented himself as a provider to the whole world.

Respirators made from Tesla parts

But now Elon Musk is said to have finally fulfilled his promise. The “NYV Health System” Twitter account posted an image showing a “real” Tesla ventilator. How many of these were delivered is not yet clear, but Tesla engineers explained in a YouTube video how they made the device. The predominant materials for the construction were supplied by our own warehouse, because the products mainly consist of auto parts. “We’re trying to make some ventilators out of some auto parts so we can help the medical industry without compromising their care,” said Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of automotive engineering, in the video. In the next scene, a construction plan of the new machines is shown on a whiteboard. Joe Mardall, the technical director of the electric car manufacturer, explains that they were working on their own design, which was based heavily on Tesla components. “We want to use parts that we know very well, whose reliability we know and which we can use very quickly,” added the engineer.

According to the news channel CNBC, the ventilators are largely made up of parts of a Tesla Model S suspension system. So the air tanks and air pressure regulators would form the oxygen mixing chamber. The infotainment computer with a touchscreen from a Model 3 was converted into a control unit, so that the airflow can be monitored. It is unclear whether medical experts were involved in the development. It is also not yet known how production is planned and whether an official approval process has to be carried out. What is certain, however, is that Elon Musk and Tesla have apparently given up all doubts about the corona crisis and want to actively help society in the fight against it.

Editorial office Forex-news.com.net

Image sources: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com