Technology magnate Elon Musk isn’t shy about his bold vision for the future. Ten years ago, he purposefully “leaked” his own “master plan” to put Tesla Motors, at the time a mere side-project, on the GPS-enabled map. Yesterday, Musk released a follow-up titled “Master Plan, Part Deux”, which addresses the direction Tesla Motors will take in the coming years.
At the end of his post, Musk offers a summary:
Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it
The post is worth reading in its entirety, but it’s the innovative concept of sharing that grabbed my attention the most. Uber and Lyft have brought widespread attention to the social innovation of ride-sharing. Musk dares to take the concept further by appealing to the greatest consumerist attitude of the 21st century: passivity.
In his own words:
When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else enroute to your destination.
You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you’re at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost. This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla. Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.
In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are.
Musk has thus-far been successful in implementing stage one of his master plan. I look forward to seeing stage two develop in my lifetime.
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