Everything you need to know about Elon Musk's Tesla 'Master Plan, Part 2'

4 months ago

Elon Musk has published the second part of his “master plan” for Tesla and he has listed some pretty ambitious goals.

The first part of his plan was released 10 years ago when the electric car company’s chief executive revealed his goals that resulted in Model X and Model S cars.

Adding a disclaimer to clarify that future products, services and features are “forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties”, Musk writes in his blog that his ambition is to “accelerate the advent of sustainable energy”.

Here’s everything you need to know about his “Master Plan, Part 2″:

Tesla wants to build state-of-the-art solar roofs.

Tesla has built Powerwall – a giant battery that charges using electricity generated from solar panels – and acquired SolarCity – an American service solar provider.

The entrepreneur says it is time to bring these two entities together in order to build “a smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works”.

“We can’t do this well if Tesla and SolarCity are different companies, which is why we need to combine and break down the barriers inherent to being separate companies,” Musk writes.

Tesla plans to enter the electric truck business – starting with Tesla Semi.

The company wants to prioritise development of heavy-duty trucks and urban transport vehicles. Musk says that Tesla intends to unveil a new truck called the Tesla Semi next year.

He writes: “In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport.

“Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year.

“We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”

Tesla wants to turn its factory into a product.

Musk believes the answer to accelerating a sustainable future is by lowering costs and ramping up production volume as quickly and sustainably.

“That is why Tesla engineering has transitioned to focus heavily on designing the machine that makes the machine – turning the factory itself into a product,” he writes.

“A first principles physics analysis of automotive production suggests that somewhere between a five-to-10 fold improvement is achievable by version 3 on a roughly two-year iteration cycle.”

Tesla is setting its targets to use Model 3 as the template for consumer market.

Musk says that Tesla will make a pick-up truck version of the Model 3 sedan.

The company’s plans for the Model 3 include an SUV version built on the same platform as well as a small pick-up. With a sedan, an SUV, and pick-up, Musk says that the Model 3 will “address most of the consumer market”.

“A lower-cost vehicle than the Model 3 is unlikely to be necessary,” he adds.

Tesla aims to develop self-driving capability for its vehicles that is 10X safer than manual driving.

Tesla wants to make Autopilot (where cars autonomously travel along motorways, change lanes and match speed to keep up with the surrounding traffic) driving 10 times safer than human drivers.

This comes at a time when Tesla’s semi-autonomous system has come under fire after a recent fatal accident in Florida.

Musk defends the Autopilot’s safety record, adding that the feature has been labelled “beta”, so as to “to decrease complacency and indicate that it will continue to improve”.

He says: “All Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability.”

Self-driving cars need to be approved by regulators worldwide and Musk expects that will happen after six billion (10 billion km) Autopilot road miles have been logged.

Tesla wants to give car owners money-making opportunities.

The firm is taking inspiration from transport companies such as Uber. In Musk’s vision, car-sharing in the future is going to be like booking a cab, except Tesla will come to you autonomously.

He writes: “When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else en-route to your destination.”

In addition, Tesla would allow car owners to add their cars to a shared fleet – allowing them to make money by renting them out when the vehicles are not being used.

“You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you’re at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost.”