Tesla: more than a car company
The automobile manufacturing business started on the late 1880’s after Karl Benz’s invention – the first one-cylinder engine fueled by gas – which ran for the first time on 1879 new years eve [1]. A few decades later, cars were the most popular way of transportation in the United States. On the early 1910’s a more than 170 car manufacturing and assembling companies, such as Cadillac, Chrysler and Dodge were established in the state of Michigan, USA.
As a few decades past, the car industry was immense. After World War II (1939 – 1945) great push trough technological processes were being used. Mass production led to economy of scale which granted innovative companies some big steps in front of their competitors. With this upcoming profits some players gained a lot of market share bringing an end to car manufacturing small companies.
Later within the century, global warming appeard as a big concern for environmentalists, population and, for consequence, chiefs of state. Personal vehicles stood out as one of the major CO2 emission utility, all together car and trucks, account for one-fifth of all USA emissions (2015), emitting more than 20 pounds of CO2 for every gallon [2]. The Union of Concerned Scientists says: “In total, the US transportation sector—which includes cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships, and freight—produces nearly thirty percent of all US global warming emissions, more than almost any other sector” [3]. With the growing demand for transportation some environmentalists worry about the future: “Unfortunately, oil-related emissions may rise in the coming years as the oil industry extracts and refines “unconventional” oils, such as tar sands and tight oil” [3].
In this dilemma about efficient transportation and public health there are some companies working towards a future with less or without CO2 car emissions. Tesla Motors is a automobile manufacturer, energy storage and solar manufacturer company. Founded by the Silicon Valley well-known entrepreneur – Ellon Musk – Tesla begun its operations simply by trying to build an electric car. As the projects developed, the company’s executives realized that with the amount of data, sensors and technology that they had, the possibilities were limitless.
During our Leading Trends in IT lecture, JB Straubel, Tesla Motors co-founder, CTO and former Stanford student, told us about the fast growing business and the expectations that the company sees for the next couple of years. More than an electric-car manufacturer, Tesla Motors is now a clean energy company. The company projects are foreseeing a future where a car owner could travel anywhere with his or her connected car and stop on a supercharger station (spreader worldwide) and be ready for another 300 miles in less than thirty minutes. Moreover, Tesla sells solar-energy panels so when the owner arrives home, he or her can charge not only his or her car, but the whole house trough an eco-friendly process.
Even more exciting is the unexplored opportunities in this area. Tesla receives a huge amount of costumer’s data, such as proximity sensors, performance, engine usage etc. With this flowing information there is no doubt that the company can produce cars with even more quality and user tailored products. Is astonishing to see where the car business has gone so far.
[1] https://www.daimler.com/company/tradition/company-history/1885-1886.html
[2] http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/car-emissions-and-global-warming#.WXI8hnfOrq0
[3] http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-impacts#.WXI-THfOrq0
2 comments on “Tesla: more than a car company”
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Currently Arthur is working as a Project Manager Officer (PMO) for the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team at Lojas Quero-Quero. The retail company is controlled by the private equity fund Advent International.
Once I saw the title, I feel like this is what I thought.
Tesla gives us an excellent example of combining computer science with traditional industry. And the result is that a completely open field with limitless opportunities comes. Through the combination, Tesla can do a lot of things that any pure internet company or any auto company cannot do. And as its technology gets mature, Tesla will be able to expand its vision and create more amazing combination products or industries.
Great post, it is an interesting approach to go back and talk about the very beginning of the automobile manufacturing business and how much the scope of this business has changed over time. During JB Straubel’s presentation, I was also very interested in his comments about Tesla being more than a car company. In order to understand what exactly this means, I did some googling and found this great article (http://verdicalgroup.com/tesla-solar-city-and-the-future-of-home-energy/) that talks about Tesla’s work with Solar City and the future plans for home energy. The article explains how full home energy management systems can be established using electric cars, solar panels, and home batteries. The general idea is that during the day, solar energy powers the house while charging the electric car and home battery. At night, the energy from the home battery is used. Extra energy can be sold back to the grid, providing some income to the home owner (called net metering), which is certainly an incentive for homeowners to adopt this system. The article points out the issue that would arise if everyone adopts this system – there would no longer be a market for selling energy back to the grid. Something that I noticed, however, is the idealization of solar energy acquisition that this scheme relies on. What if there is not enough solar energy during a day/week to power the house and the car? Or what is if the car is being driven all day long, and there is not enough “excess” energy from the home battery to be able to charge the car overnight. Issues like this would certainly enter the homeowner in a vicious cycle of energy-deficiency. While I think these plans for the future are exciting and promising, there are certainly many challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve widespread success.