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One of the things I find fascinating, and that Tesla has to grapple with at some point with real ramifications, is: are they a self driving car company that jus
by jusben1369 11y ago
One of the things I find fascinating, and that Tesla has to grapple with at some point with real ramifications, is: are they a self driving car company that just happens to be an electric car company? Or the other way around?
I would argue that electric car companies are appealing to a much smaller subset of potential customers than are self driving cars. But the mission behind each is very different and that flows into all the key design and marketing decisions you have to make.
Tesla can easily pivot from one to the other. But Musk is so passionate about the first, and therefore so are so many of their key people, that you wonder what happens if they pivot to being first to market with the best self driving cars that just happen to be electric.
- electrograv 11y agoWhy do you need to define a car company in a single adjective like "[self driving] car company" or "[electric] car company"? Both are clearly the future. So what's wrong with doing both? You say "pivot" as though these are incompatible goals, when in fact they're perfectly complementary paths to a future ideal of ground transportation. To me, your point is like asking "Is Google a search company, or an advertising company?" They're both, in a fully symbiotic sense. You cannot describe it as one of these accurately, without the other.
- jusben1369 11y agoEverything about Tesla has been around helping/saving the environment by accelerating the adoption of battery driven cars vs ICE. Nothing about self driving cars says they have to be electric. In fact, if the first fully self driving car was gasoline that would probably impede Tesla's growth. So it impacts where your limited R&D, manufacturing and sales and marketing $$"s go. I don't think a company as small as Tesla can be both - at least not effectively. One will have to give to the other.
- saturdaysaint 11y agoNothing about making computers says you have to make phones (Apple). As the GP mentioned, nothing about search says you have to sell advertising (Google). And none of the above say you have to make a self driving car (as both are reported to be attempting). I think you're drawing some arbitrary distinctions here. Making big bets in several areas is no small part of why Apple, Google and Tesla are magnets for the best engineers and programmers. There's nothing unfocused about marrying great software and hardware, which is ultimately what Tesla is doing. A lot of Musk's bet in AV is founded on the understanding that the existing automakers are/were quite capable of making a good electric car - they just have too much incentive to drag their feet. Autonomous driving will actually be the major differentiator in an industry that didn't have the software expertise to create a decent infotainment system.
- johnward 11y agoThat level of thinking is what you get from a company like GM. When asked about building charging infrastructure they said "we're a car company, not an infrastructure company". Tesla also quietly changed it's name from Tesla Motors to Tesla Energy.
- jon_dahl 11y agoI think the whole point of Tesla is to be an excellent car company. "Electric" and "self-driving" just happen to be two attributes of an excellent car company at this particular point in history.
- jusben1369 11y agoI would strongly disagree. Tesla was never really about being a car company.
- rohit89 11y agoMusk has said before that he wants people to buy a Tesla not because it is an electric car but because it is a really good car. He will keep adding features to it that make it an excellent car. Tesla may pivot to other products but not IMO to selling self driving kits. In any case, I believe mobileye does the bulk of the computer vision stuff anyway.
- logicallee 11y agoAlso, is Apple a supercomputer company that happened to get into AT&T's telephone handset business and Sony's walkman business? The way AT&T used to make rotary phones? Or are they a telephone handset business that happens to make miniature Cray supercomputers with, for some reason, integrated screens? Because an iPad is stronger than a supercomputer of previous decades. Well, a supercomputer isn't supposed to fit in your backback. And a rotary phone isn't supposed to be wireless and fit in your pocket and play apps. I don't know what to think anymore! It's almost like the world isn't made of categories.
- jusben1369 11y agoGood stuff! I would say that Apple is/was a personal computer company. The form factor changed to mobile but the mission still seems largely the same.
- logicallee 11y agoso we've answered the question: Tesla is a transportation company. hell, in the future their stuff could fly (why not.) but you still buy it to transport you and your family or stuff from A to B.