You may not have known it at the time but 2008 marked a paradigm shift for the American
car industry.
While GM and Chrysler were busy being bailed out of bankruptcy to the tune of $80 Billion
a small car maker called Tesla started selling their first electric car.
Fast forward to 2022 and Tesla is taking the auto industry by storm.
But, it’s not just hype, Tesla has changed the auto industry in some really big ways.
But, Before we get started, be sure to like this video and subscribe so you won't miss
any of our future tech videos.
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Hello Technophiles!
Welcome to Tenzies Tech.
I'm Scott Leffler, and this is our list of the 10 ways Tesla is changing the auto industry.
Number 10 - They made electric cars look cool Do you remember the Citicar of the mid-’70s?
Probably not, it wasn’t exactly memorable.
People compared it to a battery-powered cheese wedge.
It sat two and had a top speed of 35 mph, I could get to the store quicker on my Razor!
Then came the EV1 in the 90s, GM’s crack at the electric car that looked more like
an oversized bar of soap rolling down the road than a car.
Yeah…that’s a hard pass.
Prius was the first mass-produced hybrid electric car, needless to say, they chose function
over form.
No, it wasn’t until Tesla released its Roaster in 2008 that automakers stood up and realized
“Wow, were allowed to make EVs look cool?”
Yes, Auto Industry.
Yes, you are.
Have you seen those Falcon Wing doors on the Model X McFly??
Thank you, Tesla!
Number 9 - Software is at its core Most car companies are exactly that.
Companies that make cars.
Tesla took a different approach, they are primarily a tech/software company….that
makes cars.
While most car companies hire software firms to make and program their chips, Tesla makes
many of their own chips and the chips they do buy, they reprogram inhouse.
To understand why this matters, think of your smartphone.
What if the phone you bought today never upgraded, or never got the latest greatest software
or security patches.
In fact, to upgrade the software you’d have to buy a whole new phone.
But this is exactly how most car companies operate today.
Automakers are notorious for not fixing buggy software in their cars and requiring an expensive
trip to the dealership to run the software update.
Not Tesla, because they control their own software architecture they can upgrade you
every few weeks!
Number 8 - They changed how cars are made There have been three paradigm shifts in the
auto industry.
The first was when Ford started using a moving production line, letting work come to the
workers versus workers to the work.
It’s just like when your wrap moves down the Chipotle assembly line slowly becoming
Burrito perfection by the time you hit the cashier!
The second came with Toyota’s “lean” manufacturing method.
Basically receiving goods as they need them for the production process.
This was good for keeping production costs low and passing those savings on to the consumer
even if mildly annoying at times because of the delays it could cause.
Like when you have to wait for Chipotle to cook more chicken because they weren’t expecting
the mid-afternoon lunch rush!
The third paradigm shift, many believe, comes with Tesla's Giga Press!!
Sounds impressive, right?
It is.
Essentially it’s a giant casting press that helps make car bodies with just a few massive
casted parts rather than a bunch of smaller parts.
The rear end of the Model Y used to be made of 70 different parts assembled by 300 different
robots, now it’s made all at once by one giant machine.
Efficient for making cars, not necessarily burritos… yet.
Number 7 - Simplified Buying Process When’s the last time you saw a Tesla commercial?
I’m guessing it was back that time that never happened.
No wonder…Tesla’s annual advertising budget is lower than what I spend on my weekly Mocha-Chip
Frappe addiction.
Rather than traditional advertising, Tesla is banking on the fact that you’ll hear
about them through word of mouth, Elon’s Twitter, or random youtube videos.
They do have Tesla stores, but they’re unlike any dealership showroom you’ve been to.
The main purpose of this store is to educate, not sell.
What?
No middle-aged shifty salesman looking to make a commission while promising the world…if
his manager agrees???
Nope, get your questions answered head back home, hop online, pick a model, add your features,
put down a deposit and schedule your pickup.
Easy peasy.
Number 6 - Vehicle Autonomy Remember iRobot when Will Smith did the unthinkable
and took manual control of his vehicle!!
The movie was filled with semi-autonomous vehicles traveling at extremely high speeds,
all while under the safe control of AI.
While we’re not there yet, Tesla is making huge strides to get us there!
No, not the “allowing malicious AI to take over the world” part, the vehicle autonomy
part!
You might have heard the studies that indicate “human error” as being the cause of over
90% of vehicle collisions, what better way to fix that than to just remove the “human”
from the equation!
Although Tesla’s Autopilot still requires an attentive driver, it is the leader in production
vehicle autonomy with FSD or Full Self Driving being available for Tesla owners to opt into
today.
While FSD is still only classified as a Level 2 automated system, Musk promised Level 5
or full autonomy by 2022 meaning you can nap or do…
other things…
while the car drives itself.
Number 5 - Bringing Solar to the masses!
While Musk was busy growing Tesla into the premier electric car company it is today,
his cousins were building SolarCity.
Tesla purchased it in 2016 and has since grown it to become the 2nd largest solar company
in America, not only because they look cool…and they do look cool - sleek, low profile, minimalist
- but the price is right as well.
The median price for solar in 2020 was $3.80 per watt (all things considered) Tesla’s
estimate for its system rolls in at $3.32 per watt with the smallest option down to
$2.23 per watt.
And, like it’s cars, you can order the entire system online with a price-match guarantee.
Add in the fact that installing solar will also make you feel superior to all your neighbors
and it’s a win-win-win!
Number 4 - Better Batteries Tesla has long been the leader in this area,
but it’s upping its game with its new 46-80 batteries, due out in 2024, with the promise
to last at least one million miles all the while reducing cost and increasing range by
16% over its existing batteries.
This means a Model Y could travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Amsterdam to Frankfurt,
or Pune to Goa in one charge with power left over to spend driving around to see the sights.
Some estimates put its range over 400-mile or nearly 650 km with promises for its Cyber
truck to last beyond 500 miles.
Still looking at that Nissan Leaf???
The one million mile mark is a big deal, with most EVs averaging around 200,000 before a
replacement is needed.
With the 4680 battery, the cost of ownership goes down and you don’t have to feel as
guilty about the lithium mine your battery came from.
Number 3 - Gigafactory Growth It didn’t seem like that long ago when Tesla
announced it’s first Giga factory in Sparks Nevada but now they’re popping up quicker
than the pimples on your face in middle school!
Born out of necessity and fully self-sustaining, these factories will propel Tesla’s future
growth.
Currently operating in five different factories in three different countries the Giga, meaning
billions, factory gives away Musk’s plan for the future as his own fortune continues
to climb.
These factories are not only self-sustaining carbon-neutral powerhouses, but they are also
sharing the wealth employing 1000’s of people.
Tesla’s last filing with the SEC stated it currently employs close to 100,000 people,
a marked increase from just over 70,000 people a year ago and that’s only the full-timers!
For those stat geeks out there that’s 40% growth in one year.
For comparison’s sake, Toyota increased just over 1% during the same time period…’nuff
said.
Number 2 - Leader in going green Tesla's cars emit zero pollution while sticking
it to the money hungry oil and gas industry that spew about as much misleading environmental
statistics as they do carbon into the atmosphere.
Tesla’s mission statement has always been “to accelerate the world's transition to
sustainable energy” and everyone knows it.
Meanwhile, in auto-industry land, VW was caught cheating on emission performance and a CNW
Marketing study stated the average cost of driving a Toyota Prius over its lifetime is
more than that of a Hummer!
You can google the study, whether it’s legit or not is up for debate, but the fact is most
car companies just aren’t seen as “being green” Tesla on the other hand is just the
opposite.
With a reputation for making decisions that are more focused on our future plant health
than filling shareholders’ pockets.
It’s refreshing when a Goliath can act like a David…while still being Goliath.
Number 1 - Right to Repair What do Tony Stark, Mike Baxter, Dominic Torreto
and The Fonz all have in common?
They all fix, repair, and or tune cars.
The ability to open up the hood of a car and not mistake the carburetor for a blinker fluid
reservoir has been a part of some of our most believed characters for decades.
But this may soon come to an end.
Tesla has been trying to make it impossible or even illegal for anyone but Tesla to fix
or repair Tesla EVs.
Currently, Tesla can disable access to its supercharging network if they find you’ve
strayed from the fold on your repairs.
That’s right, you can’t even repair the car you own and spent tens of thousands of
dollars buying.
And if Tesla has their way, this will become the norm in the car industry.
Tesla isn’t the only one trying to stop their own customers from fixing the products
they own.
Apple and John Deer are two other companies that have been in the news recently for the
same issue.
This is a big issue that only hurts consumers.
If you thought we were just a bunch of Tesla fanboys…
well, you’re not wrong, but who better to call them out on their bullsh!t.
Louis Rossmann is the biggest Youtuber talking about this issue so be sure to check out his
channel.
So what do you think about our list?
Are there any other ways that Tesla is changing things that we missed?
Let us know in the comments below.
And while there, be sure to like the video and share it with all your friends that haven’t
joined the Tesla fan club yet.
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