Gary Zhou 
Tesla has substantial influence on the automotive industry, and that’s pretty remarkable for a business that’s only been making cars for 12 years. The company has not only shown that cars can be driven by batteries and still be cool, but other, more subtle aspects are changing. For starters, cars don’t need buttons and knobs for every function. Other car companies are embracing streamlined designs, simply because Tesla has shown that they are just as successful, if not more, as all those irritating buttons that used to dominate car interiors.
In addition to those subtle details, the overall market penetration of the EV sector can essentially be attributed to the mass appeal of Tesla. Tesla has a great “brand,” though Elon Musk has always said that branding is stupid. For once, people believed that EVs were these moaning cars that could only go 80 miles before you had to plug it in again. Tesla, however, is different. Tesla has a mystique about it, a certain attraction to the brand. People look at Teslas for $35,000 the same way they do Lamborghini for $200,000.
But the fact that car companies that have been around for over 100 years are chasing after a 12-year-old car company run by a guy who likes video games, goofy jokes, and is more engaging with followers than any other CEO on the planet is what could be more amazing about Tesla than its appeal to customers.
The fact of the matter is, Tesla changed the game. Although they may not have invented the first electric vehicle, the concept was made better by them. While they might not be the first company to produce a semi-autonomous vehicle, they have improved the concept. And although the first battery that ever went into an EV might not have been designed, they made the concept better.
Everybody is hopping on board now. Do you think that, if Tesla never existed, Volkswagen, GM, Ford, and others would be developing EV tech?
Reviews and examples of the Full Self-Driving Beta have flooded Tesla news this week. It’s been out for about a week and a half, and in a number of settings and environments we’ve seen the self-driving function. We all know this is a rough draft of what will be published to more owners in a few months, and we know there will be critiques and criticisms about what should have been done better by Tesla.
Consumer Reports is saying that Tesla Autopilot is a “distant-second” to GM’s Super Cruise. The Tesla community has come to believe that mainstream newspapers and journalism outlets will side with other firms.
Interestingly, before Tesla’s FSD Beta was released, Super Cruise wasn’t widely talked about by media outlets. Now, it is important to consider the fact that GM has this all-capable Super Cruise, which is so much better than Autopilot. If that was the case, why didn’t anyone ever discuss Super Cruise before then?
Batteries are another example of Tesla “leading the herd” and directing other car manufacturers. All outside the community was skeptical when Tesla began talking about a million-mile battery a few months ago. Telling friends and family about their inventions was like trying to persuade them that Santa Claus is real. They just didn’t buy it.
GM then claimed that they were closer than ever before to a million-mile battery. Have they outlined their plan? Have they said where they’ve been sourcing material from? No. They just said, “We have a battery. It’s better than Tesla’s.” That’s it, and everyone outside the community bought it.
What does Tesla do? They hold an event devoted to batteries and cell development. It was something to admire to show the latest 4680 cells, to break down how it would be better yet more affordable, and how it would be on par with gas car costs. However, people still didn’t believe it after seeing the cell, how they were building it, and explaining that it was already being produced right down the street from Fremont.
GM was all talk, and it was believable. Tesla showed it, and it was unbelievable.
Before ever admitting that what Tesla is doing is revolutionary in any sense of the word, the media will go for what is common and side with the proven and long-lasting carmakers. With FSD, we see that, with Super Cruise, Tesla is head and shoulders above GM. However, GM continues to offer credit to these MSM sources, saying that Super Cruise is better than Autopilot, and it is comparable.
I know this is probably due to money, it usually is. But the truth is that Tesla has made all of these topics important, and the business just doesn’t get any credit. Tesla has made EVs important, but even if their technology doesn’t even exist yet, other car companies are getting the hype. Tesla has made the creation of battery cells important, but other businesses get the credit and attention, even if they don’t have an EV in production. Tesla turned self-driving vehicles into a possibility.
The truth is that legacy car manufacturers are becoming important to the name of Tesla because they adopt whatever Tesla does. If Tesla did not exist, none of these car companies would have changed their strategies. This is all evidence that Tesla is the planet’s most powerful auto maker, and everyone is chasing them.
It is more than just customers who have an impact. It is about an industry as a whole, which, according to a former GM executive, is now being dominated by a corporation that was “graveyard bound.” Now, GM is chasing after the little man, along with the rest of the automotive world.
Want to buy a Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Model S, or Model X? Feel free to use my referral code to get some free Supercharging miles with your purchase: http://ts.la/guanyu3423
You can also get a $100 discount on Tesla Solar with that code. Let’s help accelerate the advent of a sustainable future.
