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| New York Times | - |
He
made no mention of the fatal May 7 accident involving a Tesla Model S
with its Autopilot system engaged, or the federal scrutiny of the
technology.
Business Day
Elon Musk’s Vision for Tesla: More Models, More Self-Driving
DETROIT — Despite federal safety investigations of Tesla’s self-driving cars, the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, is hardly backing off on his grand plans for autonomous vehicles.
In a blog post late Wednesday, Mr. Musk updated Tesla’s “master plan” with a pledge to expand beyond electric cars into battery-powered pickups, semitrucks and buses, and to equip them with advanced self-driving systems.
He
made no mention of the fatal May 7 accident involving a Tesla Model S
with its Autopilot system engaged, or of the federal scrutiny of the
technology. A criticism of that system has been that, despite its name,
its collision-avoidance abilities depend on the human driver’s being
ready to immediately retake control of the vehicle in a crisis.
In
his blog post, Mr. Musk indicated that the eventual focus would be on
vehicles that fully drive themselves. And he doubled down on promises to
improve Tesla’s autonomous driving systems, as part of a major
expansion of its product line.
“As
the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware
necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability,
meaning that any given system could break down and your car will drive
itself safety,” he said in the post.
Mr.
Musk, however, gave no timetable for the technology and acknowledged
that regulators were moving cautiously before approving vehicles that
drive themselves.
“There
will still be a significant time gap, varying widely by jurisdiction,
before true self-driving is approved by regulators,” he said.
Two
federal agencies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
and the National Transportation Safety Board, are investigating Tesla’s
Autopilot system, in particular its emergency braking function.
The
Transportation Department is also developing initial guidelines for
self-driving vehicles that could transform the automotive landscape and
open the door for autonomous models from a number of manufacturers.
Mr.
Musk’s strategy also included a vigorous defense of his proposal to
merge Tesla, which is losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year,
with SolarCity, a money-losing solar-panel maker in which he has a major
ownership stake.
He
said Tesla’s mission to build zero-emission vehicles and battery packs
would be complemented by SolarCity’s sales of solar panels. “The time
has come to bring them together,” he said.
A
major expansion of Tesla’s California car assembly plant is already
underway to increase production to fill more than 300,000 orders for its
planned Model 3 sedan, whose price of about $35,000 would be about half
that of the Model S.
The company is also preparing to begin production of batteries at a new factory in Nevada.
But Mr. Musk is already setting bigger targets for future electric vehicles.
He
said the company was developing a compact sport utility vehicle, a “new
kind” of pickup truck, buses for public transit and the Tesla Semi
truck, which could be unveiled as soon as next year.
But
while Mr. Musk is envisioning a wide-ranging line of future products,
analysts are more concerned with Tesla’s ability to deliver on its
current expansion plans.
“Elon
Musk has laid out a grandiose plan for the future with no time frames
and few specifics, and no mention of how and when Tesla will be
profitable,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with the firm AutoTrader.
Another analyst, Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds.com, said Mr. Musk was further differentiating Tesla from traditional automakers.
“Tesla’s
goals are far different from that of other automakers because they
start and end with completely eliminating the need for fossil fuels,”
she said. “Its competition, meanwhile, is focused on mobility solutions
first and energy sources second.”
The
competition, too, is mainly making money. On Thursday, for example,
General Motors said it had a profit of about $2.9 billion in the second
quarter, in which it sold 2.4 million vehicles globally.
That
compares with the 14,000 vehicles Tesla has said it delivered to
customers in the second quarter. The company is not scheduled to
announce its second-quarter financial results until Aug. 3.
In the first quarter, Tesla lost $282 million.
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