Elon Musk Shares a Video: Making Ventilators From Tesla Parts

Elon Musk shared a new video today from Tesla Engineering. “We’re trying to make some ventilators from some car parts, so we can help the medical industry without taking away from their supply,” it begins. (All three people who appear in the video are wearing a face mask.) It ends with a demonstration of a prototype using a touchscreen display from the Model 3 infotainment system. “There’s still a lot of work to do,” the video concludes, “but we’re giving it our best effort to make sure we can help some people out there.” Yesterday ventilator manufacturer Medtronic also tweeted that Musk’s other company SpaceX “is now making a vital component for critical care ventilators,” meaning more of the devices would arrive sooner for Covid-19 patients. Meanwhile, the New York Post writes:
Musk promised last month to shift production to the sorely-needed medical devices, but evidently found that buying existing ventilators with his own largesse was more practical. He shelled out to send 1,000 of the life-saving machines to California, and also vowed to buy some for New York, earning the gratitude of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Musk made good, with the city’s public hospital system on Saturday tweeting their gratitude for ventilators Tesla donated, now in use at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx. But, with the apex of the contagion possibly upon New York, Cuomo said Sunday that time had run out for Tesla to make new ventilators. “Their time-frame, frankly, doesn’t work for our immediate apex, because whether we’re talking two days or 10 days, you’re not going to make ventilators at that time,” said Cuomo, noting that the hang-up is that some parts have to come from overseas.