Most of the commentary around the Model 3 is focused on the stakes for Tesla, and many are parsing over every tweet by CEO Elon Musk for clues about the car’s cost, interior, and what sort of options will be available. But how has Tesla changed the way we shop for and drive cars? What realities about the nature of the business has it forced its competitors to face?
Autopilot Tesla
When Tesla first released Autopilot in October 2015, Musk cautioned drivers to “be quite careful.” After all, this was the first time that semi-autonomous technology of this level was being offered in a commercial vehicle.
It wasn’t a fully autonomous vehicle in the vein of a Google car — the primary feature was what Tesla called Autosteer, which keeps the car in its current lane once you’re already on the road and manages speed and distance from the car ahead of it.
AUTONOMY WASN’T JUST A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT BEING FUSSED OVER BY A FEW SILICON VALLEY EGGHEADS
How Tesla changed the auto industry forever
Autonomy isn’t just a science experiment fussed over by a few Silicon Valley eggheads. It is the end goal for all cars, and Musk gave regular people their first taste. Since Autopilot’s first appearance, all the major automakers have announced their plans to roll out semi-autonomous or highly automated systems. GM is equipping the Cadillac CT6 with Super Cruise. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is getting Drive Pilot. Nissan has Pro Pilot. Audi says the new A8 will be Level 3 autonomous. And on and on.
With the release of the Model 3, the big question now is where Autopilot is heading. Last year, Tesla split with auto vision startup Mobileye and embarked on automation. Since then, Musk has announced that all Tesla models will be equipped with technology to make them fully driverless. If there’s no update on the future of Autopilot at tonight’s event, it seems safe to assume that the departure of Mobileye was more damaging to Tesla’s project than the company is letting on. Hands-free will soon be standard in most vehicles, with experts pointing to 2020 as the year we’ll start to see autonomous and semi-autonomous cars on the road en masse. But Tesla got there first.
Electrification
Tesla Supercharger
Much like Autopilot forced the big automakers to begin developing their semi-autonomous systems, Musk’s commitment to bringing electrification to the masses proved to be equally influential. The success of the Model S and X and Tesla’s stock valuation of $56 billion served as a strong signal about the direction of the industry.
MUSK WAS TOO SUCCESSFUL IN PUSHING HIS RIVALS TO EMBRACE ELECTRIFICATION
One could argue Musk was too successful in pushing his rivals to embrace electrification. GM beat Tesla to the punch by releasing its mass-market EV, the Chevy Bolt, months before the Model 3. But Musk may still have a few tricks up his sleeve. Many will be watching to see whether the Model 3’s base model will have more or less range than the Bolt. Last year, Tesla said the car would run more than 215 miles per charge — but how much more? The Bolt gets 239 miles of range. That’s a lot for a base model, but Musk is hyper-competitive and not likely to let that slide.
By 2040, analysts now say that 54 percent of all cars sold on the planet will be electric. France’s environmental minister said yesterday his country would ban the sale of all fossil fuel-burning vehicles by 2040. The UK was quick to follow. And Volvo said it would stop selling gas-only cars by 2019. Welcome to the Tesla party.
Tesla user friendly Design
If you look at all the electric vehicles on the market today, they all sort of look the same. which is to say, not great. Most are squat, ugly hatchbacks with some odd design feature or accent.
None have the smooth, twisted look of the Model S or the capacity for a surprise like the Model X. The forthcoming Model 3 has been criticized for being the ugliest of Tesla’s three vehicles. But that hasn’t stopped nearly a half million people from forking over $1,000 in deposit to reserve one.
Electric cars are still very much in their infancy. Though they enjoy blanket media coverage (ahem, guilty), the EV market still has yet to take off. Sales of electric cars represent just 1 percent of the record 17.55 million cars sold last year in the US. And a recent survey of 2,500 Americans found that 60 percent were still “unaware of electric cars,” eclipsing concerns such as range or charging station availability.
TESLA MADE ELECTRIC CARS COOL AND DESIRABLE
But would many of us be talking about electrification with the excitement and energy we are today had Ford or Nissan gotten to market first? Tesla made electric cars cool and desirable. By transforming its vehicles into rolling tablets, Tesla invited comparisons to that other manufacturer making consumer
products so popular that people line up days before their release.
Look inside a Tesla, and the comparison to Apple comes into focus. Granted, other automakers haven’t made a bold move to replace the center instrument cluster with a 17-inch touchscreen tablet. But those other legacy automakers are burdened with decades of history. As noted by my colleague Lauren Goode in her review of the Model S, “Tesla came into existence at a time when this kind of in-car technology was foundational, not evolving.”
