I don’t think you are giving enough credit to several other Tesla advantages:
They are not always advantages, and for the ones which are, they are not that hard to close, or don't need to be closed completely to compete well.
- Over the air update tech and ability to rapidly iterate / add new features.
OTA in Tesla hands is no longer an advantage to me. It allows them to finish an incomplete, or in some examples, complete vaporware features and deliver them over a long time, deliver completely underwhelming versions as compared to advertised feature, or never deliver it at all. It also allows them to change the car by eliminating features or making it more difficult to use. Being happy about Tesla OTA is like being happy about your employer telling you rather than giving you the paycheck you earned, they will split it in to 60 equal parts and pay it to you every month instead, and then on month 20 they decided to pay it out in bitcoins instead, then in month 40 you get company stock of equal value. Additionally, Tesla also ships untested upgrades which in my case one almost caused a major accident, and in another actually did cause a minor accident ($600 damage Tesla refused to cover) - both bugs fixed the very next OTA of course, but so what. OTA capability can definitely be an advantage, but not in Tesla's hands, where customers are just a large test vehicle pool, with Elon's "Ship it now, fix it later via OTA, fix hardware only if we have to" (paraphrasing the words of one of his key designers).
- Enabled by vertical integration of controllers throughout car and central processor (highly efficient and configurable, like the Apple of autos). I believe it was Audi exec that said Tesla architecture is years ahead.
I partially agree, but that's also a double edge sword in Tesla's hands as it is a single point of failure and Tesla designs them like smartphones - same expected lifecycle including hardware dying and software obsolescence (try using the browser on pre-March 2018 Tesla MS/MX). The other guys are all catching up quick (check out VW ID3) with the centralized computer, though they warranty their central computer way longer than Tesla (which they recently halved to 2 years only), maybe because VW built them as automotive parts rather than smarphones?
- Mobile app is better than most.
Agreed, however that gap can be closed very quickly, even quicker if the interface is opened to 3rd party apps and the volume is in millions.
- Efficiency of Tesla’s battery / power train is leading to progressive range improvements and cost decreases that will be hard for competitors to “catch.”
I agree with that, that was the main advantage I stated in my post to which you replied. The point is however, that the other guys don't need to "catch" Tesla, they just need to be good enough, so where Tesla was 5 years ago is ok. Many people will go for 230 miles (207 warrantied) over 400 miles (280 warrantied) if that means they can get things like proper blind spot detection, physical controls (buttons, knobs), quality interior, proper phone integration (Apple CarPlay, Android Auto), AND will be able to buy parts and fix the car themselves if they want to, or at least have competition for service, not the monopoly Tesla has where they charged up to $3,000 to replace an MCU with a refurbed one when a $10 emmc part failed (and then took your old MCU which you were not allowed to keep, changed the $10 part and sold it to the next guy who needed it because his "all integrated car with central computer" was not drivable when the $10 emmc died).
