Automaker Tesla has provided updates on the ventilator it is prototyping, based on technology used in its Model 3 car. In a video posted to the company’s YouTube account, Tesla engineers explain schematics and components for a device it hopes will be used in hospitals to help patients of COVID-19, which is tearing across the United States.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took up the ventilator challenge after a plea for help from New York City mayor Bill De Blasio, who has been locked in stalemate with the federal government for ventilators and other medical equipment amid the breakout.
New York is by far the country’s most affected state, with 4,161 deaths and over 122,000 confirmed cases – over a third of all registered Coronavirus cases in the US.
Telsa joins companies such as Britain’s Dyson, and German manufacturers Bosch and Mercedes-Benz in repurposing technology to fight the virus. Fellow American automakers Ford and GM have also weighed in with ventilator plans.
But even if the companies reach their production targets—Ford aims to create 1,500 ventilators by the end of this month—the total number will still fall well short of the 32,000 experts estimate will be needed, if the virus continues spreading at its current rate.