Can you tell Elon Musk from Donald Trump?
Earlier this week, there was some great hype about an Easter egg that would turn some model of Tesla into the Fastest Car In The World!!!! - By which the hypester apparently meant fastest 0-60MPH acceleration of any current production street-legal car, which is considerably less headline-grabbing.
Today, it's the news that the Tesla photovoltaic roof will cost less than a traditional roof, and the shingles will be less prone to damage in transportation because regular roofing materials are brittle and... wait, what?
I'm not sure what color the ceiling is in Tesla's factory, but in my world, traditional roofing materials are not noted for their brittleness. Yeah, I suppose in a North Dakota winter composition shingles might become brittle, but that's not normal working conditions for roofers, is it? And steel roofing is downright malleable.
...Oh. The cost and brittleness comparisons are based on rich people's roofs. Terra cotta and slate. Not roofing materials that actual people can afford to put on their actual houses that they live in.
Sheesh. If I had that kind of budget, I'd go for brazed copper. Last for centuries, a good brazed copper roof will. 'Course, it makes no sense to put a roof for the ages on a particle-board McMansion, which I assume is the target market here: leave one of those fancy new houses out in the weather for a decade, and it'll get all crumbly like damp Ikea furniture. Chances are, the house will be torn down anyway, to make way for something newer, before the warranty on the solar panels expires.
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