Whether discussing new energy vehicles or interstellar migration, Musk is always a person who cannot be avoided. He is the world's richest man, and he is also suspected of being a leek cut king, or an Internet celebrity with his own traffic. But if we zoom in a little, he is a technocracy among the 7 billion earthlings who dare to think and dare to do it, looking up at the stars and thinking about the way out for the future of mankind. The two hold almost simultaneously and are not contradictory.
On March 3, 2022, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang visited the Tesla factory in California and had an in-depth conversation with Tesla CEO Musk. Qin Gang said in the conversation that some of Musk's explorations seem to be "whimsical", but human beings are constantly moving forward in the process of pursuing scientific discoveries and technological innovations, turning all kinds of "impossible" into possibilities, and his spirit is admirable. As long as it is in the interests of mankind and the progress of the world, it is worth pursuing diligently. We must not only be down-to-earth and protect the earth, but also look up at the stars and think deeply.
On March 4, Ambassador Qin also posted photos of the two meeting and driving on Twitter, and said that he had an "enlightening conversation" with Musk, involving cars, space, and human brain research. In response, Tesla's Twitter account in Greater China replied with Chinese: "Thank you Ambassador Qin Gang, we will continue to work hard."
According to the data, in 2021, Tesla won the global new energy vehicle sales championship with sales of 935,700 vehicles, and its stock price also soared in the past two years, with the market value soaring above the $1 trillion mark, and the highest stock price rose to more than $2300, while before 2020, Tesla's stock price was only $200-300.
Let every link generate flowing big data
After 2012, the computing power of human civilization has exploded, and the era of datafilming of everything has arrived, and the transportation field is no exception. At the step of automobile evolution to electric vehicles, the core has shifted from energy and manufacturing to AI and data. And with the popularization of automation and intelligence, the value of data is still soaring. Simply put, whoever has the most comprehensive data in the field of transportation can stand in an invincible position. Massive data is Tesla's core competitiveness.
One of the functions of big data is to enable rapid iteration of technology to produce innovative products with generational differences.
In the past, we would think of Tesla as a technology company, a car company, an energy company. Now, we define Tesla as a big data company and think about Tesla from this new perspective.
If we go through what Tesla has done in our minds, we will find that Tesla firmly grasps every core link of electric vehicles, and each link can generate big data.
In addition, Tesla grasps all the data from concept cars to scrapping, and does not have to share with OEMs and Tier One, so that it can consider the whole picture, comprehensively optimize the user experience in a system, and iterate products and technologies at a faster speed. Many Apple users are obsessed with the silkiness of IOS, ostensibly thanks to the optimization of the IOS system, and deeper is that Apple has built an ecosystem with IOS as the core, and Tesla vehicles are not like this.
Let's start with autonomous driving. In autonomous driving, the first-mover advantage is very obvious. At present, autonomous driving companies around the world are accelerating commercialization and mass production, all in order to collect data and accelerate product research and development.
Tesla already has more than 1 million car owners around the world, these vehicles have a "shadow mode", generating massive driving data, which will be uploaded, aggregated into a database, continue to superimpose training on Autopilot, so that the software is continuously upgraded, continuously optimized, and finally fully autonomous driving.
There are many more such examples, such as Tesla can transmit the data generated after sales back to headquarters, instruct engineers on which designs to strengthen to enhance safety, and which parts to change for higher life. For Tesla, in addition to the rapid iteration of big data, the greater value lies in the reuse, reorganization, and expansion of new uses of this data.
The big boot doesn't have to think about suitability and compatibility
Not only that, unlike traditional automakers, Tesla has built a complete and closed ecology, almost single-handedly creating a core industrial chain of electric vehicles, it is not a car company, but a collection of more than a dozen head startups in different fields, these "companies" together support the stock price - I summarize it as "big self-operation".
In terms of batteries, Tesla acquired the battery company Maxwell, dry electrodes and cobalt-free batteries on the agenda; in terms of platform, Tesla's EE architecture surpasses all car companies at least one generation, and software-defined hardware is Tesla's housekeeping skill, providing a foundation for the vehicle OTA; in terms of automatic driving, Tesla develops a full set of software systems to become the leader of the visual automatic driving program; in terms of sales, Tesla adopts a direct sales system and masters all sales data. The store is uniformly managed by the headquarters, the price is unified nationwide, and it is completely transparent; in terms of after-sales service, it also adopts a direct operating system; in terms of charging, Tesla has developed its own supercharger pile and laid out the super charging network in the world to solve the user's charging problem one step ahead.
Therefore, we can see that including batteries, vehicle research and development and manufacturing, direct stores, service centers, super charging stations, as well as AP, OTA, three-electric systems, etc., Tesla has always mastered all the core of a car, and the development of all parts is completely customized, without having to consider adaptability and compatibility like other car companies.
Therefore, it is not difficult to imitate Tesla to build several electric vehicles, but it is very difficult to build vehicles that can surpass Tesla.
Because other companies cannot fully grasp the core of an electric vehicle, a large number of its "three electricity" core components and software are "outsourced". From the beginning, these outsourcing companies are independent, unable to achieve data interconnection, let alone completely handed over to car companies, resulting in slow iterations and compatibility issues between components, unable to maximize vehicle performance. Therefore, many car companies can only stay on the surface.
Tesla brings new production methods, new car manufacturing logic, new products and supply chains, new sales models to the automotive industry, in short, everything is new, and more importantly, it opens up the entire business model - and these are enough to support its nearly trillion market value.
But do good deeds, don't ask about the future. As long as you have a strong core competitiveness, it is only a matter of time before you make money.
Write at the end:
Maybe you will say, "Ambassador Qin Gang came to remind Ma Yilong, your satellite don't wander around blindly, stay away from China's space station, and do your electric car well..."
But we must also admit that Musk has indeed created phenomenal smart technology products that have accelerated the transformation of the entire technology industry. In recent years, among the new technology companies in the world, whether it is China's BAT, today's headlines, or foreign Facebook and Twitter, they are essentially "advertising companies", doing traffic and information business, but almost only Tesla is a technology company with industry. It can be said that Musk makes electric vehicles safe, cheaper, and more reliable, that is, down-to-earth. And sending the sports car to Mars, don't interfere with the Chinese space station, explore the universe together, think about the way out for mankind, and can also be regarded as looking up at the stars.
Objectively speaking, Tesla's rapid growth includes a certain degree of respect for Tesla and Musk's courage to expand human civilization into space.
"Life will become multi-planetary, and cross-interstellar travel will become possible..." As Musk and Ambassador Qin Gang said in their dialogue: "Human civilization is like a candle in the darkness." Each of us lives not only to solve specific problems, but also to devote ourselves to exciting and grand causes. ”