I have just posted this on the Tesla forum. I'm copying it here since there are probably many here who are interested. Let's discuss.
It has just dawned on me we are witnessing the biggest transformation of the auto industry in the entire automotive history. Our resident visionary Elon Musk is conducting this transformation again. No it's not the EV transition but transition to robot cars although the two are pretty related. We have all been beating on wrong bushes.
Let's look at the history:
-- Elon said in 2015 self driving project was Tesla's top priority. People to be recruited will report directly to him.
-- FSD and TeslaNet was put on the master plan deux as a major goal of the company.
-- Tesla put hardware in every car at likely a pretty stiff cost.
-- When asked how much of Tesla's expenditure was on the self driving car project he said (I think sarcastically) all of it.
Two serious questions are raised here. Why cash strapped Tesla would want to spend those serious money over the years on the project that has little to do with making and selling compelling cars? Isn't it a whole lot better to use the money to strengthen the bottom line and profit to boast the stock price? The other one is Tesla sells car because they are nice drive. What's the point of making driving unnecessary and taken away one of its most desirable traits? The only logical explanation is Elon saw robot cars as the inevitable disruption. With his AI involvements he's in the best position to see that. He wanted the disruption to come from Tesla instead of someone else.
There is this eerie similarity of this to what had happened to Netflix, another company I admire a lot. By the later part of 2000's Netflix's DVD by mail model had dominated the video watching business and killed off all competitors. Then Netflix seemed to have abandoned this position and switched the entire focus to streaming. It had caused its stock to drop more than 75% but the rest are of course history. It's very hard to disrupt your own dominate business. Only visionary with greatest confidence is able to take the risk and be rewarded.
You might say I like to drive my car and I want to do it instead of having cars to drive themselves. Elon likes to drive too but he also knows the reality. He can see how this technology will lead us to. It's very likely that in ten years few would drive their own cars and in twenty years no one will be allowed to. Toyota, VW, Mercedes, Ferrari... I don't care who you are. You will die if you can't compete in the robot car business in the future. It won't even take 10 or 20 years for consumers to see writing on the wall. Elon did say buying a car today is like buying a horse. He's not joking.
One more thing why I said this is still related to his mission. Making robot cars is the best and most cost effective way to get rid of ICE cars.
It has just dawned on me we are witnessing the biggest transformation of the auto industry in the entire automotive history. Our resident visionary Elon Musk is conducting this transformation again. No it's not the EV transition but transition to robot cars although the two are pretty related. We have all been beating on wrong bushes.
Let's look at the history:
-- Elon said in 2015 self driving project was Tesla's top priority. People to be recruited will report directly to him.
-- FSD and TeslaNet was put on the master plan deux as a major goal of the company.
-- Tesla put hardware in every car at likely a pretty stiff cost.
-- When asked how much of Tesla's expenditure was on the self driving car project he said (I think sarcastically) all of it.
Two serious questions are raised here. Why cash strapped Tesla would want to spend those serious money over the years on the project that has little to do with making and selling compelling cars? Isn't it a whole lot better to use the money to strengthen the bottom line and profit to boast the stock price? The other one is Tesla sells car because they are nice drive. What's the point of making driving unnecessary and taken away one of its most desirable traits? The only logical explanation is Elon saw robot cars as the inevitable disruption. With his AI involvements he's in the best position to see that. He wanted the disruption to come from Tesla instead of someone else.
There is this eerie similarity of this to what had happened to Netflix, another company I admire a lot. By the later part of 2000's Netflix's DVD by mail model had dominated the video watching business and killed off all competitors. Then Netflix seemed to have abandoned this position and switched the entire focus to streaming. It had caused its stock to drop more than 75% but the rest are of course history. It's very hard to disrupt your own dominate business. Only visionary with greatest confidence is able to take the risk and be rewarded.
You might say I like to drive my car and I want to do it instead of having cars to drive themselves. Elon likes to drive too but he also knows the reality. He can see how this technology will lead us to. It's very likely that in ten years few would drive their own cars and in twenty years no one will be allowed to. Toyota, VW, Mercedes, Ferrari... I don't care who you are. You will die if you can't compete in the robot car business in the future. It won't even take 10 or 20 years for consumers to see writing on the wall. Elon did say buying a car today is like buying a horse. He's not joking.
One more thing why I said this is still related to his mission. Making robot cars is the best and most cost effective way to get rid of ICE cars.
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