Thoughts of the Day17 Feb 2021 13:27
"In the race to catch Tesla, some have underestimated the Silicon Valley automaker, William Boston reports in the Wall Street Journal, “For years, industry leaders and analysts pointed to the German automakers as evidence that, once unleashed, the old guard’s raw financial power paired with decades of engineering excellence would make short work of Elon Musk’s scrappy startup.”
“What they didn’t consider: Electric vehicles are more about software than hardware. And producing exquisitely engineered gas-powered cars doesn’t translate into coding savvy,” according to WSJ.
Ever since Tesla launched its first car in 2008, “there was this feeling that the really serious players are going to come,” said Peter Rawlinson CEO of electric car startup Lucid Technologies and the former chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S. Now, he says, “the Germans have finally come and they’re not as good as Tesla.”