Tesla Joins GM in 'Patriotic' Offer to Make Ventilators

[babylonsister]

Tesla Joins GM in ‘Patriotic’ Offer to Make Ventilators
By Jordan Fabian and David Welch
March 18, 2020, 4:10 PM EDT Updated on March 19, 2020, 1:02 AM EDT



Tesla Inc. joined General Motors Co. in offering to manufacture hospital ventilators in auto factories shuttered by the coronavirus outbreak, an effort that would echo Detroit’s contribution to Allied powers during World War II.

Responding to Pakistan’s Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry and a tweet from a Tesla customer, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the company would make ventilators if there is a shortage. GM CEO Mary Barra also floated the idea, top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters Wednesday. On Fox News earlier, he described an unidentified auto executive’s offer to call back workers to idled plants to make the medical devices needed to treat critically ill virus patients, and said it was made “on a voluntary basis for civic and patriotic reasons.”

Barra, 58, suggested ways the company could help during the crisis, a person familiar with the matter said. GM could use some of its excess factory space to build ventilators and has people looking into how that would be done, said the person, who asked not to be identified describing a private conversation.

more...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/kudlow-says-gm-ceo-offered-to-make-ventilators-for-outbreak

[FarPoint]

1. A ventilator is not like a Toaster....

It's a complex machine/ details to deliver accurate percentage of oxygen, pressure of delivery of oxygen, monitor the patients oxygen levels....you don't just connect a patient to a ventilator and walk away! If someone is newly placed on a ventilator then they are in critical condition...needs 24/7 monitoring, suctioning, need the sterile equipment/ catheters, saline...it goes on...much more complicated..It takes skill to attend to a ventilator patient plus have protective equipment to prevent the nurse/ therapist etc does not get infected... Hell..we don't even have enough masks/ gowns/ gloves now! We are at the Gates of Hell.

[Demsrule86]

2. GM can build anything...and built for WWII...hubs worked for them and retired in 2015 he started

right after college. It would be a great idea...and respirators are no more complicated than today's computer car...and there are simple ventilators that can be built quickly.

[Demsrule86]

3. You know you can raise issues with anything we try...but we have to try...millions will die if we

fail.

[FarPoint]

4. I support the effort..

I just needed to add the realistic flair to this...

[Demsrule86]

5. You always have flair...listen GM is one of the last great companies...hub is an engineer and it

was a privilege to be part of the GM family as it was called...I believe they will try...don't like the current CEO, but she will do her best with this I think. When Biden talks about a job being more that a job ... I think of Janesville WI...one of the plants we were at...the union had a museum going back decades...such pride...sadly it closed during the last GOP economic meltdown. I am hoping we use new green technology to bring back manufacturing in this country as consumer based economies are way too fragile... the money is always in building something not in selling hamburgers to each other.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. +1

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. So, a ventilator is like a supercharged intake manifold with or without fuel injection.

Yeah, GM will have to stretch to master that technology. Good thing we have youtube.

Solidarity Forever!

[Lars39]

7. Just fucking do it.