TESLA’S MODEL 3 IS HERE, AND IT'S MUCH MORE THAN AN ELECTRIC CAR
The air was electric in Fremont, California, where a lucky few gathered to witness a momentous moment. Thirty employees rubbed their hands together in glee, awaiting their prize after months of waiting. Elsewhere around the world, the faithful—the 500,000-odd people who threw down a $1,000 reservation deposit months ago—refresh their email for notifications. Happy Model 3 Day, Tesla fans.
Everyone is excited for a reason. The arrival of Tesla's Model 3 signals a new chapter in automotive history, one that erases 100-plus years of the gas engine and replaces it with technology, design, and performance hot enough to make electric vehicles more than aspirational—to make EVs inspirational.
Tech trend-watchers may be getting flashbacks to 2007, when another marquee event felt like it was on the cusp of revolutionizing the world: If Tesla gets this right, the Model 3 will be the iPhone of the car world, leading the way for a whole pack of imitators. It may even steer the world toward a road populated by not just electric vehicles but driverless cars, and realize that reality faster than anyone—even Google—has managed thus far.
The car should be a leader in self-driving, too. Right now, Tesla’s Autopilot function is semiautonomous, so the car will only drive itself on a highway and requires a person behind the wheel. But some day soonish, Tesla will send an over-the-air update that enables full self-driving for all its cars on the roads—no hardware changes needed. It’ll be like the day Apple introduced the App Store. Flicking that switch led advances that nobody imagined from a phone: new ways to do things like date and move money, social media’s dominance, and the rise of the sharing economy. This Tesla change will enable drivers to come up with clever ways to lend, share, and monetize their vehicles in ways that are inconceivable now.
https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-model-3-more-than-electric/
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