Around 02:00 this morning Tesla has dropped a bomb, demonstrating once more its leadership ambitions in the automotive sector - or should I rather say, manifest its leadership?
In short, all Tesla Model S, X (and 3) will have all the necessary hardware to go fully autonomous, starting today. The necessary software is still in the make but Tesla ensures to have it ready for a real life test by the end of 2017. By then a Tesla will drive from Los Angeles to New York City completely autonomous. Rumor has it, even charging will be automated.
For clarifications I have added a graphic, which explains the different levels of autonomous driving capabilities. At the moment Tesla is at Level 2.
Source
This announcement comes at the right time, while german legislation disputes with the company about the appropriate naming of its level 2 service "Autopilot". I'm again embarrassed to see german bureaucrats trying to wrap their head around some piece of technology and its future potential, they do not understand. Need another example: well, think free wifi spots and this ridiculous law called "St枚rerhaftung".
While german government pretends to protect its citizens by forcing Tesla to come up with a new name, Diesel powered vehicles gas the entire population of Germany, Europe + the world and the german government does not care.
Leadership
Long story short, the american company has achieved some pretty amazing things over the last couple of years. One has to acknowledge every tiny bit of it, because Elon Musk challenges the biggest industry in the world, dominated over decades by 3 german enterprises.
PT (post Tesla) Mercedes, BMW and VW ruled the automotive sector with innovations. Revolution after revolution were invented in Wolfsburg, Stuttgart or Munich, but since Tesla has arrived, all those revolutions turned out to be evolutions at best.
EV - fully electric
Tesla is the first serious car maker of fully electric vehicles. Their strategy is perfect, because they aim at every single problem coming along with this new technology.
Batteries - you need to provide sufficient range
Batteries - you need to do research and secure manufacturing capacities
Charging - your customer need easy access + simple payment processing
New technology is expensive, that's why you sell a luxury sedan first. People in this segment do not care about 5k plus
At the same time they benefit from the much simpler requirements, when building an EV.
Digital transformation
While others are still scratching their heads, how to become more digital in many ways, Tesla just did it.
Selling cars online
Remote software updates
Sell digital enhancements seamlessly
The future of mobility
Generation Y,X or Z are not very keen on driving. When I turned 18 my first car was very (!) important. It meant freedom and independence. Nowadays more and more people live in cities around the world. Those citizens know how a traffic jam looks like. They do not long for owning a car.
Services like Uber and Lyft will change the way we commute in the future. People will share rides and cars, which ultimately leads to fewer sales from. This new way of commuting becomes even more attractive, ones you remove a human driver out of the calculation.
Tesla equips all vehicles with the necessary hardware to drive fully autonomous. They invest heavily in this hardware. Of course they also ask for a return on investment. Obviously Tesla can't wait until 2025, because cars from today will then be 7 years old. No, this announcement and investment means driverless cars are basically here. A closer look at Elon's Masterplan #2 now makes a lot more sense, because his strategy obviously is competition with Uber and Lyft. He doesn't really focus on Mercedes anymore, because Tesla really did its homework.
Times again got a lot harder for VW, BMW and Mercedes. I'm pretty confident many of those highly paid managers had swallowed hard this morning having breakfast.
