The Industrial Revolution was a turning point in human history. Production shifted from hand producing processes to machines and new sources of power like the steam were utilized. Looking back, it’s easy to analyze and see how it changed the world but at the time hardly anyone realized that they were in the middle of a revolution. Just as no one in Europe during 1350 to 1600 AD recognized that the renaissance was happening. It is only with the benefit of a perfect 20/20 hindsight that we are able to do that.
We are going through a revolution right now. It’s not just that the technology has been advancing at a fast pace in the last twenty years but the rate of this advancement is also at its highest. This is because advances in one field are accelerating the progress in others. The auto industry is witnessing a revolution right now. It’s still in early stages but when historians look back on this period, they will identify Tesla as the driving factor behind the revolution.
So what makes Tesla so special?
Tesla is much more than an electric car company.
The idea of electric vehicles as a substitute to gas based vehicles was around for quite some time. Tesla took the lead and delivered fully functional electric cars (something that some of its competitors are still struggling with) that are delighting its customers. But it did not stop there. A novel feature of a Tesla car is its self-driving capability.
Tesla uses Auto Pilot and Full Self Driving (FSD) systems to make driving less stressful and more safe. This is done by 8 external cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a computer onboard. To train the software to drive, Tesla uses AI and neural networks, with the help of the Dojo supercomputer that it has built. And the D1 chip that runs Dojo, is also built by Tesla and has GPU-level compute with twice the I/O bandwidth of the state of the art network chips. Now, can you name any other car company that has put in so much effort into driver safety and comfort? This insane power of hardware combined with the AI/machine learning has enabled Tesla to extend the capability beyond self-driving cars. Tesla is also working on Tesla bot that will be in a humanoid form.
Computers are better than humans in everything they do. They compute much faster with phenomenal accuracy and they do not get tired. These are the things that you would look for in an ideal driver. Computers excel at making split-second decisions needed in critical situations. The 8 cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors in a Tesla car make sure that the computer is watching the surroundings like a hawk and taking appropriate corrective measures.
All other car companies that are developing self-driving capabilities are about 25,000 light years behind Tesla, which, coincidentally, is the distance to the nearest galaxy – the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.
It’s not just the safe driving capability that makes a Tesla car safe. Tesla cars are built and designed in such a way that they withstand collisions way better than its competitors. Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y have received 5-star crash test rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States.
No More Dealerships
One of my favourite comedians is Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry loves cars but his pet peeves are car dealers and mechanics. Seinfeld has devoted one full episode to the absurdity of car dealers. Buying a car has become such a complicated affair that some have compared it to real estate deals. If you think about it, why do we need car dealerships? Why can’t you deal directly with the company? Tesla has done just that. Buying a Tesla has become one of the easiest things to do, as testimonials from Tesla users amply show.
Getting rid of car dealers is a paradigm shift for the auto industry. It’s a move that is beneficial for the customers but will encounter tremendous resistance from the establishment for obvious reasons.
Tesla Does Not Do Ads
The corporate history is replete with successful ad-campaigns, where brilliant strategies were employed to attract the consumers. Even brands with best quality products, ranging from Nike to Apple, did not launch products without successful ad campaigns. Steve Jobs was well known for his advertising instincts and the Macintosh ads have become classics.
Companies spend a tremendous amount of money and effort to make sure that people remember their brands. The minutest details that are taken into account while designing an ad campaign are truly impressive – which age/gender/economy group to target; what should be the tag line; which celebrity would be best suited for the product; what time should the ads should be run; which social media platforms are best suited for it and so on. All around us, brands are fiercely competing with each other for a few seconds of our attention.
And amidst all this, Elon Musk decided to spend $0 on Tesla ads. On paper this strategy looks insane. A billion dollar company with no ads? It’s unheard of. And the strategy is working as Tesla’s quarterly profit surpassed $1.1 billion in Q2 2021.
How is this even possible?
There is only one answer. If your product is so good that people cannot stop talking about it, then they will happily do the ads for you. And Tesla customers are loving the cars. When you see how happy and safe your neighbor is with his Tesla, that will have a greater impact on you than any ad campaign, no matter how carefully designed. Instead, Elon is on Twitter everyday, listening to the customer feedback and using it for constantly improving the product. Can you name another CEO who is doing that? Tesla has turned the world of marketing upside down by disregarding all the principles that are considered sacred in the business world.
Remember that scene from Blade Runner where 3D ads are coming at you from all directions? That may well be our future but Tesla will not be part of it.
2050 A D : The Future Beckons
History shows that people and institutions are often resistant to change. When a new technology is introduced, there is an upheaval in the ecosystem, old systems get replaced by newer ones till an equilibrium is reached. CDs replaced cassettes which were in turn replaced by streaming music. At every point there was resistance until it became impossible to sustain the old way of doing things.
The total gas on Earth is finite and it’s going to run out sooner than later. As I write this I am listening to music on radio, interrupted by news bulletins about the dire gas crisis in the UK.
Electric vehicles are the future.
The great thing about self-driving cars controlled by AI and neural networks is that they are constantly learning and improving at an incredible pace. We should see more and more fully self driving cars in future. By 2050, they would be so common that no one would spend any time discussing them.
If majority of cars on the road are fully self-driving, what will out future look like?
That change will not exist in isolation. Instead, it will have tremendous social, cultural, and legal implications. For instance, no more designated drivers. Everyone enjoy the party and Tesla will drive everyone home safe and sound. Breathalyzers will become rare and laws about drunken driving will need amendments because no one is driving – while drunk or otherwise. Learning to drive will be like learning to ride a horse. You can do it as a hobby but it’s not necessary for your everyday activities.
Tesla cars do not have engines and the software updates are done remotely, so the number of times that a Tesla car has to visit a servicing center is far less compared to a conventional car. In future, we could have a Tesla car computer detect the need for servicing, drive itself to the servicing center, get fixed and be back in time. Or we could have the Tesla bot doing it and finishing a few chores like grocery shopping along the way.
Driving Miss Daisy is a movie based on the bond between an old lady and her driver. The movie cannot be made in 2050 because Miss Daisy is driving a Tesla and it takes her wherever she wants to go.
The Tesla revolution is going to change aspects of our culture in ways that are often impossible to predict.
