Tesla, Musk, and the Future...

"Driving_Impaired" (drivingimpaired) 10/03/2015 at 21:44 • Filed to: None

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Came across this fantastic article with a pretty valid theory on the future of Tesla(s). I think most people aren’t surprised that things are leading to automated vehicles but to see someone put together some pretty compelling evidence towards that theory is pretty cool.

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John Norris (AngryDrifter) > Driving_Impaired 10/04/2015 at 00:03

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Not sure if it’s sleight of hand. It looks to me like he is just trying to make Tesla’s electric cars compete well with the internal combustion standard that is out there. He’s doing that by getting ahead of the bigger, less agile car companies with some of the features they don’t have, and fixing some of the annoyances inherent in an electric car.

Remembering to plug the car in after you’ve pulled in the garage is hard to do 100% of the time while fumbling with your work stuff, or groceries, or the mail, or the trash, or all of that; yet you need 100%. If the car does it for you then that inherent weakness in the electric car just became a strength. I don’t have to be perfect remembering to gas up my car, but I do need to take notice and plan to handle it when I’m down to 1/4 tank.

To me that’s less of a nuisance then absolutely, positively, having to remember to plug it in every night, but more of a hassle compared with never, ever having to remember to plug it in. That looks to me like a giant leap forward for the electric car. As a marketing edge I see that as for more important for the immediate market advantage for electric over internal combustion than a technical solution for the longer range path towards a virtual chauffeur.

Ultimately Tesla has to achieve some of that sales volume that the lofty stock price has built into it. At 50,000 cars a year the stock is way over priced. Market expectations are that the great growth success they’ve had will continue. Most of the sales opportunity to wealthy early adopters has probably been sucked up. They really need to get into the rest of the market. Fixing or mitigating the fundamental problems with the electric car is the only way to achieve that.

So far the fixes for range anxiety don’t appear to have been successful. The charging stations and the battery swap out don’t seem to be part of normal operation yet. But he seems to have established a brilliant development and execution team. Perhaps they still will.

Michael Cohen > Driving_Impaired 10/04/2015 at 12:07

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I saw that too and agree. It does appear Tesla is spending a lot of time on features that are good, if marginal for the owner, but critical for self-driving Taxi, Uber killer, etc.

Having said that, as a guy who regularly wakes up with his phone at 5% battery because he forgot to plug it in that reticulating arm, the snake arm charger would be critical for me.

Good article, thanks for sharing here.