The American automotive company Tesla motors is dedicated to the advancement of their ideal framework for the transportation networks of not only the United States, but the world as a whole. Through the advancement of their technology, they hope to distribute a newer more fuel efficient way to commute in the future. By doing so, they hope to not only do well as a business, but to provide an alternative mode of transportation that will ultimately transform the way that the world travels on a day to day basis. Through the advancement of an affordable and readily available form of transportation utilizing an alternative fuel source, the CEO of the company, Elon Musk, hopes to effectively alter the landscape of personal vehicles. These advancements are made to address growing concerns over energy instability in the future and, despite facing a difficult market, the company hopes to address these issues with its technological developments.
The basic strategy of the company has been to begin by supplying focused, high-end products to individuals who are willing to pay the money, and using that as a starting point, move into other markets that will effectively reach a larger distribution. By beginning at this high-end point, the company has been able to first draft an idealized design for their product that can then be stripped down and reestablished as a lower end vehicle once the company achieves a certain point in its life. The result of this could potentially be the dramatic alteration of the transportation sectors of not only the United States, but the world as a whole. “The implications of revolutionizing our main form of transportation, national infrastructure, and energy policies are vast” (Nandi 7). In this way, the hope of the company is that they will be a fundamental part of the changing energy landscape.
This is one of the most important aspects of the company, that they, and others like them, are an essential part of the future if it is to become energy efficient and lower the country’s dependency on oil. “At some point in the future, either really soon or just a little soon, we’ll have no choice but to stop running everything on fossil fuels, because they’ll either be gone or too expensive” (Urban). In this way, the diminishing amount of fossil fuels in the world is a driving factor in the company’s need to advance its technology. Through these innovations, the future of transportation can hope to be achieved with minimal impact on the daily lives of individuals in society.
One of the most important departures that the company has made from the normal structure of the automotive chain is that they do not distribute their cars to 3rd party dealerships. Rather, they have their own stores, which do not actually contain the vehicles themselves, but instead showcase what the buyer will be getting with their purchase. This provides a more personal interaction between the salesperson and the customer which is meant to provide the individuals with the full scope of support in the product. While many other electric car manufacturers use a larger, more expensive, type of battery, those manufactured by Tesla are smaller, more compact, and more efficient lithium-ion batteries, similar to those that can be found in laptops and cellphones. By providing these innovation, the company has developed a viable alternative to traditional fuel sources.
One of the most interesting facets of the company is their dedication to sharing the advancements that they have made with the rest of the world. In this way, they hope to drive the technological innovation of the world further away from the need for fossil based fuels towards those that are both renewable and good for the environment. In this way, the world can hope to advance towards a more environmentally and economically friendly form of technology. This demonstrates how the Tesla Motor Company has adopted one of the most important facets of technological innovation. That is, that technology does not necessarily advance all on its own. Rather, there must be some driving factor that leads to the advancement in some technological field.
In looking at what drives these factors, it becomes evident that the goal of Tesla Motor Company is to provide this support for the international community and to develop an innovation that will change the world for the better. The push of those industry is essential in the development of technology. This is due to the nature of technological development. “So if we’re trying to figure out what makes technology move and change, we have to look at two sources of pressure: natural market conditions that ebb and flow and apply continual new pressures on all the actors within” (Urban). By putting pressure on other car manufacturers, Tesla has essentially created a standard for others to follow in the future, creating a precedent that will hopefully have a positive impact, no matter what the ultimate end of Tesla itself might be.
One opposing viewpoint to this idea is that Tesla is too expensive and is not efficient enough in the current market. This idea is based in this same notion that technological innovation will naturally progress towards the most efficient ends. Instead, technology advances in relation to specific pressures that are related to the issues that society is facing as a whole, and often develop in ways that would be anterior to what would happen in the natural world. In this way, there is no basis in the idea that the current market is the most efficient one. For this reason, investors such as Elon Musk, who invest in these types of projects are attempting to push for the creation of a more economical technology industry.
Furthermore, many states do not allow the direct sale of vehicles from manufacturers which has limited the ability of Tesla to reach a larger market. This is another problem that the Tesla Motor Company faces in their goal of providing their vehicles to the world. This issue exists primarily in the United States, as other countries do not necessarily have the laws in place to limit the sale of their product in this way. This is an issue that is based in the infrastructure that is already established in the United States as well. Many other countries might not face this issue due to the fact that they are still developing their transportation infrastructure, while the United States is inherently devoted to the oil infrastructure that has developed in its transportation lanes over the past few decades.
Works Cited
Merriam-Webster. Definition of Tesla. An Encyclopedia Britannica Company. 2015.
Nandi, Akash G. Tesla: Supercharging the Future. New York University. 2013.
Urban, Tim. How Tesla Will Change The World. Wait But Why? 2015.
