Snider: Anyone that can raise millions of dollars to start a car company is a savvy businessman in my book. I’d have trouble getting $2000 of investment hehe.
As for Fisker’s design, the sculpting is nice (done by a team of other people). I’ve always found the front end of Fisker’s own designs to be a little too fussy. When Aston gave him their front end, he did a much better job.
Scott B: In the article, Ford also describes the virtual product testing. They say that is where their resources are going now and that the physical tests are just to verify the results.
As Mo-i says though, there are somethings that are difficult to predict, especially the squishy human bit behind the wheel. Even with plastic parts though, I have doubts on a computers ability to predict all of the potential failure modes of a part. Defects are unavoidable in millions of products and a few will make it past QC.
Also, I agree with your analysis, Tesla seems to be taking this effort much more serious. I think Fisker is going to be the Zimmer of 2010.