Drone motors cost $25 in BOM but sell for $300: ex-Tesla engineer explains the 'idiot index'
lukas_m_ziegler · x · 2026-09-20
An ex-Tesla engineer applied Tesla's 'idiot index' (retail price / BOM cost) to drone motors: raw materials cost about $25, yet most US incumbents sell them for $125-300 — an index above 5 in many cases. After visiting incumbent production lines, he attributes the gap to three factors: operations that aren't AI-native (spreadsheets and legacy software for inventory, scheduling and support), expensive locked-in production lines where high retail prices prop up ROI, and related structural inertia. His takeaway: the price bubble reflects lagging operational digitization in hardware manufacturing — and represents an opening for AI-native newcomers.
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