Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has forced the auto industry to turn electrified and is actively involved in the new conquest of space.
In August 2006, the billionaire introduced what he called the "Secret Tesla Vehicle Master Plan (right between you and me)" through a blog post.
Elon Musk is an expert in the art of theatre, and trilogy lovers tell you how he succeeded.
Part I: Building an affordable electric car
If Musk was famous in the tech world for co-founding the PayPal (PYPL), then the world's commitment to another charismatic entrepreneur, Apple's Steve Jobs, came from his promise to revolutionize the phone and the iPhone.
"Background: My day job is to run a space transportation company called SpaceX, but on the other hand, I'm chairman of Tesla Motors," Musk wrote. "As you know, Tesla Motors' initial product was a high-performance electric sports car called the Tesla Sports car."
He added: "Some readers may not realize that our long-term plan is to build a variety of models, including affordable family cars. That's because Tesla Motors' primary goal (and that's why I funded the company) was to help accelerate the transition from a mined and burned hydrocarbon economy to a solar-powered economy, which I think is the primary, but not the only, sustainable solution. ”
This is the first phase of the "master plan": building a sports car; building an affordable car with this money; building a more affordable car with this money; and offering zero-emission power generation options while doing the above.
Did Musk, the hero of his own trilogy, and Tesla accomplish their mission?
The issue is undoubtedly divisive. One thing is for sure, things are not easy. Tesla has already produced and sold the Roadster, Model S sedan and the entry-level Model 3, an electric car for the masses.
Part II: Cybertruck and Self-Driving Cars
In July 2016, ten years after the publication of the first volume of Master Plan, Musk published the second volume.
"Part of the reason I wrote the first master plan was to fend off the inevitable attack Tesla would face, accusing us of just caring about building cars for the wealthy, implying that we felt there was a shortage of sports car companies or some other strange reason," Musk wrote in July 2016. Unfortunately, the blog doesn't block countless attack articles for these reasons, so it achieves this goal almost completely.
However, the bombastic billionaire adds: "The main reason is to explain how our behavior adapts to the larger picture so that they don't seem so casual." The point of all this is, and still accelerates, the emergence of sustainable energy, so that "we can imagine a distant future where life remains good." That's what "sustainable" means. It's not a stupid hippie thing – it's important for everyone. ”
He then reveals the pillars of Volume 2: creating stunning solar rooftops with seamlessly integrated battery storage; expanding the EV product line to cover all major market segments; developing autonomous driving capabilities that are 10 times safer than manual through massive fleet learning; and making your car money for you when you're not using it.
Musk doesn't want to limit himself to passenger car development. He wants to deploy electric and autonomous vehicles in public transport.
With regard to public transport vehicles, he wants them to be 100% autonomous, imagining that they are smaller and able to adjust their speed in urban traffic, thereby increasing the mobility of urban traffic.
But it doesn't stop there.
The businessman also wants to rethink the service by eliminating the fixed bus stops. He envisions developing an app that can call a bus from your home, which picks you up and takes you to your destination to avoid detouring other passengers.
Musk's other ambition is to replace Uber.
The billionaire wants to make driving fully autonomous and doesn't want to one day see self-driving cars on our roads.
All in all, in addition to the full autonomy of the vehicle, the utopian billionaire wants his company to become an expert on public transportation and solar panels. Musk hopes to lead the world towards an energy transition by shifting the world to renewable energy-based electricity consumption.
Almost all of the vehicles announced in Volume 2 are already available: the Y-SUV, the futuristic Cybertruck and the Heavy Truck Semi, even though the last two won't start production until at least 2023.
The third part of the trilogy: Robots?
On the other hand, we are still far from having self-driving cars. Tesla's advanced driver assistance software, Fully Autonomous Driving (FSD), is under investigation by regulators. However, Musk promised that Tesla motors will achieve self-driving by the end of this year. The only problem: He's made such a commitment many times in the past. That won't stop Musk.
The entrepreneur just said he was working on Volume 3 of his master plan.
"Part 3 of the master plan is being developed," Musk wrote on Twitter on March 17 to his more than 78 million followers.
He did not provide details of the date or announcement, thus opening the door to various speculations of his admirers. At the time of writing, the tweet has been liked nearly 201,000 times.
"Obviously including robots, and...?" One user commented that he was referring to Musk's robotics project.
Musk said on a fourth-quarter earnings call in January that the next big product Tesla develops in 2022 is Optimus, a robotic-clad human that the company launched in August 2021. Known as the Tesla Bot, Musk said, using the same artificial intelligence (AI) system as Tesla Motors.