Re:GM to build, test thousands of self-driving Bolts in 2018
by pcurve on Saturday February 18, 2017 @01:11AM
(#13673825)
Absolutely. Big autos have huge engineering know-hows as well as resources to poach talent.
One thing that may work for in favor of Tesla though, is the fact that self-driving car will fundamentally shift people's relationship with cars. Out goes the needs to have best-handling, best crash protection, best-feedback providing cars.
Value of those engineering know-hows will be greatly diminished because computers will be doing the driving. Instead, there will be more emphasis on comfort, software, and efficiency.
Re:GM to build, test thousands of self-driving Bolts in 2018
by rhino369 on Saturday February 18, 2017 @12:39PM
(#13675681)
It's also not an industry you can permanently win. There aren't significant network effects.
There isn't going to be one or two electric car manufacturers. There will be dozens.
This has been pointed out many times on these boards, and I agree with it.
Tesla (Musk) got this EV ball rolling, for real, and deserve immense credit for that. But it sounds too often here that Tesla has "won". Building cars is hard, capital intensive, and there are many massive companies diving into this. And despite what you may have heard, companies like Ford, GM, Fiat aren't staffed with idiots.