Back in my Engineering days we used to admit that for every project, there came a time to "Shoot the engineers and build the darn thing". Engineers, as a rule, are perfectionists. They always 'know' that given just one more design iteration, they can make it better/faster/cheaper. I don't sense that Elio is in this position (yet). I've seen nothing indicating they're over-engineering anything. As noted above, failing today, with the internet and 24 hour news, is much riskier than it was 100 years ago. I doubt EM will get to keep iterating until they get to the 'Model T'. Unless "Model T" = "E20". Henry Ford didn't have CAD and Fluid Dynamics Analysis, either. So maybe it balances out.
Many new car models have issues when first introduced. To expect EM to create everything from scratch and NOT have issues is dreaming. But there better not be many issues, and they better not be significant safety issues. After funding, that's my biggest concern. The cost in money and reputation to a major recall could easily wipe out a startup.
