A wonderful quote from Elon Musk about integrated whole systems design
As I wrote in Cold Cash, Cool Climate, one of the most important ways to achieve breakthrough innovation is through integrated whole systems design. That means not settling for incremental change, but redesigning devices as whole systems to help them accomplish tasks as well as any human or machine could with current technology.
Amory Lovins, who is the most prominent proponent of this design approach, says wisely that “optimizing parts of a system will pessimize the whole system”. Rocky Mountain Institute has compiled recommendations about integrated design here and here.
I had the pleasure of doing a tour of the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA on February 6, 2014, and I saw this inspirational quotation from Elon Musk about whole systems design and the Tesla Model S. I wasn’t allowed to take a picture of the wall on which it was printed, but I remembered it so vividly that I had my friend Chris Calwell (who drove to California from Colorado using the supercharger network) get back in touch with the person at Tesla who set up the tour to get the exact quote. It’s wonderful!
With the Model S, our goal was to create the first ‘true’ electric car. By this, I mean the first electric vehicle where every element was considered anew in light of the fundamental change in technology and then designed and engineered as an integrated system. The result is a car that is beyond what people believe a car can be.”
Elon Musk – CEO and Co-founder
It is this spirit of redesigning from the bottom up that all entrepreneurs should embrace. We need innovations that are so much better than what they replace that people will be happy to scrap their old technology to capture those benefits, because that’s the only way we’ll achieve the rate and scope of change we need to truly face the climate challenge. Whole systems integrated design is the way to do just that.
I wrote about integrated design in my GigaOm essay titled “7 ways to unleash game-changing green tech innovation” back in 2012. There’s also a book on the topic, titled Whole System Design: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Engineering, which I’ve browsed, although I haven’t reviewed it carefully.
Here’s a picture of me at the wheel of Calwell’s Model S after the tour, thankfully driving at a reasonable speed according to the speedometer. It’s a terrific car. Now that innovation needs to trickle down to cars that ordinary folks can afford!
