News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The Boring Company raises $112M from Musk, early employees. Parent comment

Re:The Boring Company raises $112M from Musk, early employees by adventured on Tuesday April 17, 2018 @09:21AM (#16857992)
GM's mediocre EV1 electric car was not going to turn the car industry inside out. The battery technology wasn't even remotely close to ready to enable EVs to replace fossil-fuel vehicles. That includes both production scale capabilities, and the 60-100 mile range of the EV1. It was the Li-ion electronics industry that made today's EV industry possible.

Telsa is what changed the industry. It wasn't subtle, it rattled every car maker into action. They demonstrated the technology was ready, such that you could build a full, proper replacement EV vehicle. A car people actually wanted to buy and drive. Further, the Model S being reviewed as one of the greatest cars ever made, made it clear that you could actually build an extraordinary EV vehicle. Not a hybrid, not a 30 or 60 mile battery joke, a full replacement. GM restarted their EV program entirely because of Tesla.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The Boring Company raises $112M from Musk, early employees by maxerickson on Tuesday April 17, 2018 @09:29AM (#16858051)
At least 95% of the credit should go to small electronics driving investment in battery technology.

And then they still aren't good enough for electric cars to make much sense to people spending their money carefully. But that happens in years not decades.

[ Parent | on HN ]