Talk:Peter Rawlinson (engineer)

{{Merged from|Draft:Peter Rawlinson (engine

I only copied part of one sentence, everything else was already covered in this page. Jjjjjjdddddd (talk) 07:28, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Rawlinson's Tenure at Tesla

In April, 2010, Tesla announced "two auto industry veterans... have joined the leadership team of Tesla Motors" and Rawlinson's title was " Vice President and Chief Vehicle Engineer", and "is responsible for the technical execution and delivery of the Model S."

According to Green Car Reports, Rawlinson resigned his post in early January, 2012. In the meantime, Model 3 had been in development pipeline no later than 2006 according to Musk's interview with Wired Science.

Key takeaway:

1. Lawlinson could have joined Tesla as early as sometimes in 2009, but not in executive capacity.

2. Rawlinson's Tesla executive tenure is less than two years (April 2010 to Early January 2012).

3. Rawlinson's title was Vice President and Chief Vehicle Engineer, but never was Chief Engineer (of Tesla), as widely and (often intentionally) wrongly reported by many media outlets. This is also supported by Rawlinson's bio at Lucid Motors: "...Peter was Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S."

Minor points:

1. Rawlinson's LinkedIn profile, as of today, inflated his exec position at Tesla to 2009. Also, he likely only worked a few days, if any in early January, 2012 before his resignation. Therefore, his profile simultaneously inflates his exec tenure on both ends. Intentional? Unintentional? You be the judge.

2. Rawlinson's (very brief) Lucid bio inflated his role by stating "he led the engineering of the Model S from a clean sheet to production readiness while building the engineering team." Prototype isn't final product, but not clean sheet either. Similar for building the engineering team (and see below).

Why above minutia? Because Rawlinson himself befuddled "chief engineer (of Tesla)" with "chief vehicle engineer, responsible for Model S" in his Axios interview (https://www.axios.com/2021/12/14/lucid-motors-elon-musk-tesla). Both interviewer and interviewee attacking Musk downplaying Rawlinson's role. According to Teslas' press releases and early reports on Tesla product development and Rawlinson's leave, Musk's X post is more consistent (no contradiction) and credible.

The gem is that sub-3 minute video, a textbook of how to achieve a predefined agenda by mishmashing tidibits of factoids and personal bias and opinions, and doing it conspicuously clumsy.

Interviewer: He even said you were not the chief engineer [long pause]

Rawlinson: Mm-hmm! nod nod nod

Interviewer [long pause] of Model S [while Rawlinson keep nodding]

How many times did they rehearse above part? They both knew perfectly Rawlinson never was the chief engineer (of Tesla). But they wanted to push that impression to casual readers/watchers, and simultaneously don't want taking responsibility for it. So they cleverly "designed" these ambiguous long pausing, "Mm-hmm"ing, and nodding, and glibly ending it with "of Model S" to de-responsible themselves.

P.S. Hairsplitting of Elon Musk's X post:

In response to a post implying Rawlinson as Chief Engineer (of Tesla), Musk replied:

Rawlinson was never chief engineer. He arrived after Model S prototype was made, left before things got tough & was only ever responsible for body engineering, not powertrain, battery, software, production or design.

Rawlinson was never chief engineer - True, as Rawlinson was "Chief vehicle engineer," but this leaves space to extrapolate in both directions, as the "for Model S" part wasn't directly attached to his title

He arrived after Model S prototype was made - True, Model S prototype unveiled in March 2009

left before things got tough - mostly true, as things already tough during Rawlinson's tenure, but it did get tougher

was only ever responsible for body engineering, not powertrain, battery, software, production or design - has to be true, as

- JB Straubel, as CTO, had always been responsible for powertrain and battery (and much more)

- Rawlinson had no experience in software and given Musk's background, the chance of him being responsible for software is zero

- Production: Model S officially launched in late Jun, 2012, i.e. the official production starting date. Given Tesla's product methods and history, Model S production had trial run before that and trial-and-error way of production design and improvement started from then. Rawlinson left in January, so >95% true

- Design: Franz von Holzhausen joined Tesla in 2008 leading design team and was officially appointed Chief Designer (of Tesla) in Apr., 2012. In no way Rawlinson would be responsible for Model S design

- What left after above? Body engineering, which was Rawlinson's responsibility

With Tesla's (and all other Musk's companies) management structure and style, Rawlinson's unofficial responsibility, exactly like EVERY Tesla employee, likely intersected somehow, no matter how negligible, with vehicle design, software, powertrain, etc. etc, just like von Holzhausen, the Chief Designer, functioned as delivery specialist as later as December, 2022. But there was no possible path for Rawlinson took major responsibility other than body engineering, exactly as described by Musk. Tuskla (talk) 03:19, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

P.P.S. Tesla filed Form S-1 for IPO on January 29, 2010. Go to check that document and find out how important Rawlinson was as reflected in the most thorough documentation of the company's business by that point.