Tesla, Inc.

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Tesla, Inc.[1] is an automotive and energy storage company co-founded by Elon Musk, Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard, Ian Wright, and JB Straubel. Named after the electrical engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla, the company is based in Palo Alto, California, the company specializes in electric cars, energy charging equipment and is known for its autonomous driving software. It was founded in July, 2013, Tesla's founders wanted to prove that electric cars could be better than gasoline-powered cars. Currently, the company has released three models, Tesla Roadster, Model S, and Model X. With Elon Musk as CEO, Tesla is not just an automaker, but also a technology and design company with a focus on innovating the energy industry.

About Tesla

History

Christie Nicolson, a multimedia science journalist, met Elon Must for the first time at a party in 1989. The second sentence that Must said was, "I think a lot about electric cars" [2]. And there was good reason to, because the electric motor is easier, cheaper, and more sensible long-term plan for power cars. Yet, there tends to be three age-old concerns regarding the viability of electric cars: range, performance, and price. When Musk decided in 2003 to start making electric cars, there were high costs of entry that prevented any startup car company from succeeding. Yet, in the Silicon Valley there were people in one little car technology company AC Propulsion, that were experimenting and making incremental EV breakthroughs. During 2003, a Californian engineer named JB Straubel was also tinkering with electric vehicles. He got the opportunity to propose to Musk for funding for a car project he was working on. Musk liked Straubel's idea a lot and was later brought to AC Propulsion. At the time, Musk was already running SpaceX but wanted to fund AC Propulsion in bringing one of their prototypes into market. Unfortunately, the people at AC Propulsion didn't want to deal with that. Instead they introduced Musk to three guys who also came by the company to present their ideas. Of the three, two were Martin Elberhard and Marc Tarpenning. They wanted to use AC Propulsion's technology and bring it to market as a new company called Tesla Motors, but lacked the funding. It was a perfect match, Musk provided the money and together they formed a team and started to figure out how to create a car company.[3]

Plans For the Future

Business Model

Like any new technology such as the first cell phone or computer, the R&D costs drive up the price of the product. Thus, Tesla had to develop a business plan[4] for the company on how to make, market, and sell their products. As a startup car company, Tesla had to use its money strategically which resulted in a unique approach to getting its first vehicle to market. Instead of trying to build a relatively affordable car that it could mass produce and market, it took the opposite approach, focusing instead of creating a compelling car. Elon Musk said this about the company's mission, “If we could have [mass marketed] our first product, we would have, but that was simply impossible to achieve for a startup company that had never built a car and that had one technology iteration and no economies of scale. Our first product was going to be expensive no matter what it looked like, so we decided to build a sports car, as that seemed like it had the best chance of being competitive with its gasoline alternatives.”

Once, it established its brand, Tesla took a three-pronged approach to selling, servicing, and charging its electric vehicles:

  • Direct Sales
    • Create an international network of company-owned showrooms and galleries
    • Owning the sales channel can help Tesla gain an advantage in the speed of its product development
    • Create a better customer buying experience
      • Unlike car dealerships, Tesla showrooms have no conflict of interest
      • Customers deal with Tesla-employed sales and service staffs
  • Service
    • Believes that opening a service center in a new area corresponds with increased customer demand
    • Combine their direct sales strategy with service centers in their newly expanded retail concept called “Service Plus"
    • Customers can charge or service their vehicles at the service centers or the Service Plus locations
    • Tesla employs Tesla Rangers, mobile technicians who can service vehicles from your house
  • Supercharger Network
    • Create its own network of Supercharger stations where drivers can fully charge their Tesla vehicles for free
    • Building and owning these stations is to speed up the rate of adoption for electric cars

Master Plan

In 2006, Elon Musk announced to the public that the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors is to help "expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which he believes to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution".[5] Thus, to help make that idea a reality, Musk elaborated on a master plan, Part 1 being released in 2006 and Part 2 in 2016, both of which have been condensed below.

Part One

Step 1: High-priced, low volume car for the very rich. First come out with an expensive fancy first product that is worth the price. Hence, the Roadster, a legitimate Ferrari competitor that costs over $100,000.

Step 2: Mid-priced, mid-volume car for the rich. Use the profits from Step 1 to develop a Step 2 car. A luxury car that competes with $80,000 Mercedes or BMW products.

Step 3: Low-priced, high-volume car for the general population. Use the profits from Step 2 to develop a car that is affordable to the middle class, around the range of $35,000.

Part Deux

With the master plan part one in the final stages of completion, Elon Musk wrote a Part Deux of his next master plan. In short, Musk enumerated on four major points:

  • Create solar roofs withe seamlessly integrated battery storage
  • Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major industries
  • Develop autonomous driving capability that is far safer than manual via massive fleet learning
  • Enable your Tesla vehicle to make money for you when you aren't using it

S-3-X-Y

While the Roadster is also a Tesla model, currently the only models in production are the S and X, with the third model, 3, coming late 2017. The model S, nicknamed the Whitestar while under production, was designed by Franz von Holzhausen. [6] One of the main features that was never seen before in any other car was the touchscreen. Tesla placed nearly all vehicle controls and function in this huge control center. Two other new features that didn't exist before were "Ludicrous Mode" speed, which on the high-performance P100D goes 0-60 mph acceleration in 2.5 seconds and Autopilot.

The next model Tesla release was the Model X. The most notable feature that came with this model was the "falcon wing" doors. Along with the release of the car, Tesla also introduced the Bioweapon Defense Mode!. With the touch of the Model X's center touchscreen controls, users go from breathing normally filtered air to hospital-grade atmosphere.

Even though the Model 3 isn't ready for the public yet, prototype models show a re-oriented touchscreen. Both the Model S's and X's screen is in portrait mode, but the Model 3's could be in landscape. There is also a chance that the production car will do away with traditional gauges and instruments.

Technology

Battery

Previous electric vehicles would use lead-acid batteries, which were heavy and limited. AC Propulsion, however, took inspiration from the laptop and phone industry's use of 18650 lithium-ion batteries. By combining several thousand, AA-sized lithium batteries, AC Propulsion created the world's best car battery. Tesla continued with augmenting the technology, allowing an increase in performance and battery range. One of the areas where Tesla truly outshines its competitors is in its packaging and cost of electric batteries. By designing a vehicle from the ground up, Tesla built its entire vehicle around the battery. What resulted is a flat slab that forms the floor of the car, which enables a very large battery without sacrificing interior space.

Autopilot

On October 15, 2015 Tesla released an update over-the-air officially named Tesla Version 7.0, but would later be known as Autopilot. It allowed users to activate a feature in their Tesla that could make the vehicle autonomous under certain conditions. The technology has been proven several time and again to help people avoid accidents.[7][8] Elon Musk even said that Autopilot can reduce accidents by as much as 50%.[9]

Tesla's Autopilot system is made up of multiple ultrasonic sensors place all around the car.[10] These sensors can sense 16 feet in every direction which helps the car analyze and understand its environment, allowing it to steer itself in most situations. The sensors enable the vehicle to realize when something is too close and gauge when it's appropriate to safely change lanes. In addition, there is a forward-facing camera located on the top windshield that helps the car understand what obstacles are in front of the car. It can detect traffic, pedestrians, road signs, and many other things. The camera, radar, ultrasonic sensors and GPS all work together to constantly provide real-time feedback from the Tesla fleet. Over-the-air updates are used to continually improve the system and add new features to the Autopilot system This data is then used to improve the overall system.

Ethical Implications

Crashes

Hacking

Responsibility

References

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