Tesla has already upended the global automotive industry by changing how people think about electric cars. Say "electric car" and the immediate image that pops into many (but not yet all) people's minds is, "Tesla." And that picture is beautiful, sleek, expensive, futuristic and blindingly fast.
Contrast that to the mental picture summoned up before, say, 2003: electric cars were cheap golf carts, milk floats, weirdmobiles, and punishment vehicles for people who hated cars and thought you should, too.
That change alone means TMC has altered history (in exactly the way it's founders hoped). The Model 3 just expands that wave of change down towards the middle of the market. If they succeed there even more people will see EV's as a great choice now (not "someday"), and oil-burners as so last century. And so will end the Age of Oil, because hacking transport means hacking oil. The good news there is that, more than likely, we won't ever have to worry about running out of the stuff. The oil folks know this. One of their own, a Saudi oil minister, once said, "The Stone Age didn't end because they ran out of stones. It ended because something better came along."
That's what Tesla has done.
Robin