I think ergo is on to something.

I recently heard this described as another Apple vs Android... OpenAI and Anthropic are the premium Apple equivalent. Open weight/source models are the Android equivalent.

Ford Maverick base is $28,100. It comes with 4 doors, stereo, and Apple Carplay. Slate is $26,400 with 2 doors, no infotainment, and unknown reliability from a startup company. I reserved an allocation on Slate's debut, but the $7500 tax credits are gone. Slate is going to be a tough sell.

>Texas slams on the brakes for 1,800 data centers, power grid requirements are five times higher than peak record demand

Those are some wild numbers.

>Sub-$300 diagnostics tablet jailbreaks modern vehicle software locks

Finally!

The company that makes the roof racks makes $600 inserts for other models. I agree, not bad for fully custom.

Most bids were $2400-2800 for the 4 plates. Highest "go away" bid was $36,000. Shipping quotes were all $200-800 on top. The $1,030 bid above was revised twice due to "estimator engineer errors" and put it well into the $2k+ range,

Xometry is a custom manufacturing marketplace intermediary for 5000 suppliers. One of their Chinese suppliers bid $783.90 shipped. I decided to see what would happen.

They showed up a few weeks later in a custom wood crate. 14.4 lbs each. Everything looks great and lines up. Nut/bolt hardware is ordered. Next step is powder coating.

Great way to maximize use.

>we need people that can talk, explain things and to and interact with the general public. Engineers aren't always good at that.

That reminded me of the famous Office Space scene.  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z4Xw6WMvfNk

Thanks Ergo. Hoping for a permanent solution that will last years.

First China supplier quote is in. $1k (shipping not calculated yet). Now we're getting somewhere.

Gem estimates:

"Your single honeycomb panel will take roughly 22 to 25 minutes of active machine time to complete on a modern fiber laser.

If a commercial job shop is billing their 6kW or 10kW laser out at $240 an hour ($4 per minute), the sheer machine time alone costs around $100, plus the $70 to $90 cost of the raw aluminum blank, plus setup time and overhead. This is why you should expect realistic, competitive commercial quotes for a single panel to land in the $200 to $250 range."

Send Cut Send is quoting $600.

there are 9 bars going left to right across the top of the truck. Gemeni says solid sheet of anything will create a sail effect with a lot of drag. It's odd to me that the quotes are so expensive. The manufacturer of the rack offers roof deck panels for different models.. similar laser cut panels they make in house, then powder coat, and sell the whole floor for $600. Not sure why my current quote for bare aluminum is $2400 for the same area. Gem seems to think my quote should be $800 for the 4 units. I'm going to try local laser shops.

1 inch tall grid like that on the roof is going to create a ton of drag. I asked Gem about any kind of plastic/polymer sheet material it could think of. It said for the application, aluminum is the absolute best.

Update: Moving in the right direction, but sheesh. I need to find the Chinese equivalent of SendCutSend to make this viable.

I want to cut some aluminum sheet to add a walkable roof deck to my SUV's aftermarket roof rack.

The panel is 39 inches by 23.5 inches, material is .25 inch 6061 aluminum. Need four copies of this panel.

I fed Gemeni the use case, roof rack support specs. I asked it for a slotted holes design, then a round holes design, then a hexagon holes design to minimize weight while maximizing strength.

It said hexagons are the most efficient. I asked it to optimize the hexagon size and spacing for the use case.

Unfortunately, the first optimized design was a small, dense hexagon pattern with 2,800 holes. The fabricators said the laser will warp the panel with the tight spacing. Also the initial burn through for a new hole takes extra time, raising cost. I did get one quote back for $36,000, heh.

The below photo is an updated version with larger hexagons. Trying again today with the simplified design.