Tesla exists since... 2003? They started as a research initiative in 2010, things became only serious business wise when Deutsche Post acquired them in 2014.
Anyway I'm not even sure why exactly we're talking about Tesla. I thought they were going to produce a semi, not a delivery truck?
I'm pretty sure that before the cars went into production, Tesla produced a couple of concept cars, did they not? Does the company not produce concepts for new things they produce?
Yeah, and semi was only mentioned once. Tesla is a weird company. They have a lot of little side projects that seem to have potential, but only a few projects that get enough focus to really make it to market.
They've been able to get by with that so far, as the focus was in the right place (3/Y for example).
But their lack of focus on new vehicle models for the past couple of years seems to be really coming back to bite them now.
I don't understand the mentality people have when calling Tesla an automaker. Automakers today traditionally outsource a majority of their parts and are just glorified assemblers. Meanwhile tesla has much more vertical integration in their cars and owns much more of the stack, from the batteries (there are even rumors they'll go into mining to secure steady supply), to their software and self driving stack, to grid storage, etc.
I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting at here, but it reminds me of back in the day when people called amazon just a bookstore.
What are you talking about? Tesla has been SLOW to ship innovative products after they grew. Musk focused on SCALE not new product development. That's why a 2015 Tesla, now 8 years old practically looks the same as one today. Even the cyber-truck was slow to deliver (other manufactures got to EV trucks first).
The auto industry works a little differently. Some of Tesla's competitors have been in business for over 100 years, making primarily the same product today. Tech companies today exist in industries that didn't exist even 15 years ago.
Tesla Motors has only been around for 10 years (founded 2003), and their first product didn't sell until 5 years later. I think it's safe to say that Tesla Motors is still a startup. They are a startup in an industry that measures time in decades.
Long term I'd like to see what sort of an effect using their own Semi's for delivery would bring. Self driving or not having a fully consolidated supply chain you can tune and rollout for your own needs is a lot of leverage. Logistics is hard, but also a known problem that Tesla should have plenty of tools to deal with.
Tesla as a company is focused on building a manufacturing plant that is capable of producing Electric Semi Trucks. That's what they're working on. Electric Trucks is the product of the thing they're working on.
These guys are working on making Electric Trucks.
The more apt comparison is that these guys are competing with the robots that will go in Musk's factory.
So, would this mean that Tesla would be open to a cottage industry where anyone could start a company building a different body type on top of their drivetrain?
More specifically - could you just buy the S chassis/drivetrain from tesla and build say a delivery van body on top of it?
What is super cool about Tesla is their laser sharp focus on creating a good electric vehicle. From the autonomy announcement and then this one, they are creating tools purpose built for cars, like new chips for self driving, battery tech etc. They have done so much in so little time, we have come to expect more from them. There is only so much a car company can innovate, Tesla has gone beyond it.
Edit: I am a Tesla fanboy but I don't condone their false advertising around FSD.
Anyway I'm not even sure why exactly we're talking about Tesla. I thought they were going to produce a semi, not a delivery truck?
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