Tesla Completes Master Plan Part One
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In 2006, Tesla laid out a simple plan:
On Thursday, Tesla completed these goals by announcing a $35,000 base priced Model 3 with a 220-mile range that can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. To lower costs, Tesla is shifting all sales online and closing a number of its galleries. Musk also recommitted to making service a top priority to ensure that the mass market Model 3 comes with the best user experience possible.
While the $35,000 Model 3 captured headlines, Tesla made several other important announcements, among them:
Now that Master Plan Part One is complete, Tesla can focus on Master Plan Part Deux, which includes self-driving and other kinds of vehicles.
Lyft’s S-1 Suggests Autonomous Driving Is Not the Priority that It Should Be
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Lyft filed its S-1 this week with plans to IPO at a $20–25 billion valuation, up 33-66% from its last round at $15 billion. As autonomous vehicles commercialize, ride hailing companies will need a strategy to stay in business.
We looked through Lyft’s S-1 for mentions of autonomous driving. Notably, in its list of nine reasons “Why Lyft Wins”, autonomous is its lowest priority. Perhaps it is not confident enough in its autonomous technology strategy or in the time it will take to play out. Given the stakes, ARK sees this gap as a large oversight.
Thus far, no ride hailing company seems to be pursuing a fully autonomous technology stack, suggesting that most will partner with other autonomous-focused firms. Problematically, most of the autonomous platform fee – the cut of gross revenue that Uber and Lyft currently take today – should go to the autonomous technology provider, leaving players like Lyft with a fraction of the fee for lead generation. Autonomous vehicles may put ride sharing companies at risk of failure.