Elon Musk is a man with a plan.
That has been apparent for quite some time, but it wasn’t until now and the unveiling of his “Master Plan, Part Deux” that we truly understood the scale and breadth of what Musk has been working towards for the future of Tesla, and indeed the car industry.
So what is “Master Plan, Part Deux”?
Turning Your Home Into A Power Station
Well the first part is beautifully simple. Musk wants to turn your home into its very own power station that can generate, and then store electricity.
To do this he wants to combine Tesla with SolarCity - a solar energy company that was largely created from Musk’s own brain.
As part of one company he hopes to create a single defining product:
“A smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world.”
“One ordering experience, one installation, one service contact, one phone app.”
As Musk explains in his blog, “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.”
“Now that Tesla is ready to scale Powerwall and SolarCity is ready to provide highly differentiated solar, the time has come to bring them together.”
Turning Your Tesla Into A Self-Driving Taxi
So what’s part 2?
Well if you thought part 1 was ambitious you’re going to love part 2.
Musk’s second part focuses very much on the future of electric and self-driving cars at Tesla.
Tesla will be making a pickup truck and a bus and they’ll both be available to see in concept form at least as early as next year.
Musk believes that with the Model S, Model X, Model 3 and the Tesla Semi the company will be able to offer a product that works for anyone.
According to Musk the Semi will “deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”
This is just the start though, as Tesla’s ultimate goal is to nail autonomous driving.
“As the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability, meaning that any given system in the car could break and your car will still drive itself safely.” he explains.
As cars become full autonomous Musk has seen an opportunity for something completely new.
“You will 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.”
Sounds odd but there’s some absolutely pure logic at work here:
“Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.”
So there you have it. Musk’s plan is certainly bold and whether or not he’ll be able to pull it all off will remain to be seen. If there’s one person that can do it though, it’s probably Elon Musk.