Yahoo Autos Musk's Focus on World Domination Is Getting in Tesla's Way
Elon Musk has a plan. A Master Plan, as he calls it, to solve the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. It’s his biggest effort, alongside bringing humanity to Mars — he truly seems to see himself as the savior of the human species. But how does his plan to shift the world to an “electric economy” fit with the day-to-day realities of building and selling Tesla cars? At the company’s 2023 Investor Day, livestreamed on Wednesday night, members of the Tesla leadership team explained their innovations and efficiencies, and how those would benefit Musk’s dream for a fossil-fuel-free, Tesla-branded future.
As it was explained to investors this week, Musk’s dream future revolves around an energy grid entirely powered by renewable wind and solar energy. Energy demand would be cut in half, thanks to more efficient electronics developed by Musk’s companies. Every person drives a Tesla, which can be rented out for other drivers to use while the owner is at home or work. Current home HVAC systems would be replaced by efficient, electric heat pumps (like you’ll find in every new Tesla). Eventually, every cargo ship and airplane will switch to battery power. Musk seems to see the world holistically, and wants every part of it to move to sustainable electric systems bearing Tesla logos.
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After that initial globe-spanning plan to change the entire energy economy was laid out, if you squinted, the rest of Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day presentation looked much like any other investor call. Company leaders took turns outlining their latest innovations and plans for the future, detailing the engineering updates and business efficiencies that will hopefully benefit Tesla in the coming months and years. Costs will be saved, new products will be introduced, and investors will see returns — all pretty standard.
These were the biggest takeaways:
A new concept for vehicle construction, where sub-assemblies are fully built before being merged into one vehicle. Doors get their door cards before they’re installed on the body; the structural battery pack gets carpet and seats laid atop it before it’s all inserted into the car.
New motors for the next generation of Tesla cars, designed to use fewer hard-to-get rare-earth elements.
Simplified wiring harnesses, using a network of switches within the car that connect over Ethernet.
A move to in-house production of electrical controllers, with a goal of 100-percent vertical integration for the company’s next platform.
Updates to fleetwide machine learning, with more refinements to Tesla Vision as a camera-only attempt at self-driving. This one is particularly odd, given that we know Tesla is reintroducing radar on its newest cars.
A system for mapping rough roads, allowing Teslas to adjust their suspensions when approaching potholes or uneven pavement based on data collected by other Teslas.
Further progress to the Optimus robot, which Tesla hopes to use as a replacement for human workers in its factories.
Improvements to the costs associated with Supercharger charging infrastructure, plus further confirmation that those chargers would be opened up to non-Tesla vehicles. The company said its goal is to make Superchargers, rather than home chargers, the primary way Tesla owners charge.
Some of these proposed innovations are pretty unconventional in the auto industry, but as a whole, this was mostly straightforward stuff: Improvements to Tesla’s vehicles and the way they’re built. But everything the company showed off seemed to come with an extra layer of justification — not to the investors, but to Musk himself. Each presentation seemed like it was written for the CEO as much as stockholders, working to convince Musk that reasonable business practices — like vertical integration and better supply-chain management — are for the good of mankind. “Elon, my liege,” each presenter seemed to say, “a 12-percent reduction in the weight of the Model 3's center display is going to help us save the world.”
