My project is on Elon Musk and how Tesla aims to revolutionize the automobile industry forever with electric cars that implement impressive tech within the vehicle. Tesla sets aggressive deadlines within their company and their mission statement is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” Elon Musk mentions how tough the automobile industry is to gain a foothold in and ranks the industry as one of the most competitive markets. He goes on to explains that “new technology in any field takes a few versions to optimize before reaching the mass market, and in this case, it is competing with 150 years and trillions of dollars spent on gasoline cars.”
Tesla wants to make their cars more affordable but in order to do so they need high volume and economies of scale, and in the short term other car companies make a lot more cars than Tesla does which means those car companies have better economies of scale. However, as Tesla is able to gradually build up their factories and produce more cars at a higher volume. The increased output of Tesla cars would allow them to make more affordable cars reaching a wider range of people. Tesla hopes to have a $25,000 car on the market within 3-5 years, however, Tesla sets aggressive deadlines so be prepared for possible delays if they run into any issues. The most expensive part of making a Tesla car is the batteries themselves which should continue to get cheaper to produce over the coming years. As batteries continue to get researched and cheaper to produce, along with gas becoming more expensive, electric cars will be superior in both an economic and environmental factor.
(Growth of Tesla Supercharger Network as of 2014)
Building out the Tesla Supercharger’s across the United States. Tesla Supercharger can charge your electric car’s battery up to 80% within 20-30 minutes, the reason being is that batteries charge fast, however, getting that last couple percentage on a battery takes more time because of the density of the cells. Also, a Tesla Supercharger pushes 120 kW, while a traditional urban charger only gets around 70-75 kW. Most car companies that try to make an electric can just use one giant individual battery at the bottom on the car, while Tesla using tons of little batteries at the bottom of the car which allows the car to charge faster.
(Talking Tech with Elon Musk!)
“In the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley, for example, failure is not only tolerated, it is massively funded—because the risks are worth it” (22)
Elon Musk and Tesla embody the mindset of a Silicon Valley company, taking a risks and pioneering a shift from traditional gas cars to cars that run on electricity and take advantage of computers within the vehicle. Elon Musk has mentioned that “new technology in any field takes a few versions to optimize before reaching the mass market, and in this case, it is competing with 150 years and trillions of dollars spent on gasoline cars.” Tesla took a huge bet that cars would shift to becoming electric and that people would want to become early adopters of these vehicles. Prior to Tesla fully electric cars were unheard of and generally would be restricted to hybrid cars, most of them looking somewhat abnormal to traditional cars in terms of looks. Tesla went out to prove that you can create a normal looking car that runs on electricity and simplifies daily driving tasks from assisting with steering and controlling the speed of the vehicle while using the cameras that run throughout the exterior of the car. This quote from the Burdick suggests that as a company, especially in Silicon Valley, you should be afraid of failure because it could lead to something that is valuable.
“Trust in computers’ capacities for aggregation, synthesis, and even selectivity is sure to grow over the coming century.” (105)
A majority of the Tesla factory uses robots to assemble each car, while certain aspects of assembly such as general assembly are more suited for people because some pieces are too complicated to program a robot to perform the task while a human can do it with ease when it comes to finicky tasks. Elon Musk mentions how “doing specific assembly operations manually can be more efficient because if you have a lot of complicated robots and the Tesla factory is a 24/7 operation, so if the robot faults out you got to have 24/7 advanced robot technicians.” This quote from the Burdick explains how computers are only going to get better and more sophisticated as time goes on, making tasks that are difficult today easier as time goes on.
(Tesla Factory Tour with Elon Musk!)
“Games, entertainment, and immersive virtual environments all migrated online. Expectations about the quality of graphics rose as bandwidth opportunities exploded” (9)
As computers continue to get more powerful and integrate with our daily lives, car manufacturers are putting the technology inside their vehicles to aid with cameras and navigation systems. However, once you purchase a traditional car with that technology inside, you’re stuck with that software till you buy a new car. A Tesla car comes with its own LTE data connection allowing it to download software updates to your car to improves varies aspects, forever improving the car after purchase. The Burdick text highlights how since the late 1990s technology has continued to grow and evolve, with each iteration become simpler yet more complex. Tesla is an electric car to its core while implementing impressive tech throughout the vehicle demonstrating how a car and technology can work together. This article is very well written with extreme creativity along with engaging us “young adults” with multi-modal tools and videos, good stuff!
(How Tesla’s Self-Driving Autopilot Actually Works | WIRED)
Prezi: http://prezi.com/lsmzume4weiu/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Peer Reviewers by Davis Topping and Cole Caminiti
Hurricane: A Storm of Digital Humanities 