LOS ANGELES—In the “factory of the future,” manufacturers will adopt over-the-air software upgrades used by Carbon and Tesla as the modus operandi, Carbon CEO Joe DeSimone said yesterday at the Westec manufacturing industry conference.
Carbon’s printer is performing markedly better than it was even a year ago, he said, speaking on a panel that reviewed progress in additive manufacturing (AM). “The more people use it, the better and better it’s getting: That’s the network effect. But you can only do that if the hardware is designed from the onset where every switch, every sensor, every motor is remotely addressable by software.”
DeSimone compared the continual refreshes Carbon customers enjoy because of the company’s over-the-air software upgrades, which are part of Carbon’s subscription model, to his experience of treasuring the over-the-air software upgrades his Tesla accepts every five or six weeks. The car’s autopilot feature is markedly better than it was a year ago, he noted.