Tesla’s Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy joins me for a candid conversation spanning a wide-ranging number of topics, from the new Model Y to his memories of pivotal moments in Tesla history to the next-gen Roadster and even the upcoming more-affordable cars. Enjoy!

Timecodes:

6:39 Interview begins

7:36 Lars on when he first got into cars

9:42 Remembering his first job in the auto industry, at Honda, and what led him to Tesla

14:01 Early days at Tesla

15:19 He knew the Model S was going to be a special car

17:22 Engineering the falcon-wing doors of the Model X

19:34 The charger snake prototype and its “hubris”

20:21 The Cybercab will be road trip capable

23:26 The most satisfying vehicle project he’s worked on

26:07 Why Tesla doesn’t have any plans to build any more HFS vehicles

26:43 The Cybercab isn’t “painted” in the traditional sense

28:44 Remembering Model 3’s “production hell”

31:20 Tesla fully expected the Model Y to become the world’s best-selling vehicle

33:50 Building the next-gen Roadster prototype

35:36 Status update on the next-gen Roadster

40:55 Learnings from the Model 3 refresh that have been applied to the new Model Y

43:25 Balancing between pushing the envelope and playing it safe on the new Model Y

45:42 The reason the new Model Y doesn’t have steer by wire

47:25 Why the new Model Y doesn’t have a 48v architecture

48:54 The status of the Model S and Model X

50:45 What Lars daily drives

51:50 Why the new Model 3 doesn’t use gigacastings

52:38 Lars’s favorite piece of engineering on any of the cars

54:58 Will the front bumper camera come to the S, X, and 3?

55:09 Will the turn signal stalk return to any of the other vehicles besides Model Y?

55:38 A teaser for the upcoming more-affordable vehicles

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Episode 499: Special Guest: Tesla Engineering VP Lars Moravy

Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast