The governments worldwide have called on automakers and aerospace companies to help acquire or manufacture ventilators and other medical equipment amid the growing number of infections by the coronavirus. In response to a call from the US government, Tesla’s innovative automobile engineers have recently introduced a breathing machine made primarily using car parts to help hospitals treating patients with COVID-19.
And now, the group of engineers shared a video on Tesla’s YouTube channel, explaining its first ventilator, how it works and what it’s made up of, which mostly includes electric vehicle parts.
According to Tesla, the company wants to use familiar, reliable, and readily available materials to produce devices to cure patients. Genuine ventilator spare parts are in short supply, and therefore Tesla does not want to compete with medical device manufacturers.
In the video, the team presents some of its prototypes, as well as a whiteboard of the diagrams, highlighting the number of stages in their design using Tesla vehicle parts. It shows, the breathing machine uses the Tesla Model 3 dashboard screen as a monitor to check a patient’s breathing patterns.
The engineer demonstrated, in real-time, how the ECG-type graphics on the Model 3 monitor would fluctuate to indicate disturbances in the oxygen flow. The system also uses the Model 3 infotainment computer to give the user more ways to manipulate the fan’s function. In addition, the airflow is routed through the same mixing chambers as those seen on Tesla vehicles, then monitored by the same sensors as well.
Like most Tesla prototypes, it’s not really pretty at the moment, but it’s effective. Also, it’s hard to say when a prototype will start testing in the real world, but, depending on what’s in the video, the basic functions are already in place. Besides, the product needs to be certified safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can be delivered to hospitals.