America is now going through an AI technological revolution and the company Tesla has been attempting to move to the forefront of that revolution. Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning (4). The company is named after the inventor Nikola Tesa and it is currently run by Elon Musk (4). Tesla is an automoble manufactoring, robotics, and electronics company (5). It has a global customer base focused on selling products to those in the middle class and above (3). Along with selling cars, the company has stock that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange (5). Tesa plans on building an AI supercomputer code named Dojo that will help to train entirely self-driving car's neural networks (1).
The concept for this project comes from my own search for a new car with more high tech safetyfeatures to prevent an automobile accident. My ten year old Ford Explorer has early computer safety features like a rear camera which alone has prevented me on occasion from bumping objects behind my viechle. Dojo is intended to help enable Tesa’s future self driving vehicles and recently announced self driving taxi to safely drive the highways and side roads without human intervention (1).
Tesla has been collecting millions of miles of video footage taken from its vehicles with the intention of using that data to train Dojo to use only camera footage and its artificial intelligence to make decisions (1). Critics claim Tesla’s attempts are a misguided attempt to brute force a problem with endless data (1). Tesla has automative competitors such as Mercades which are in the process of advancing their own AI features on their vehicles (2). Many of the AI offerings such as the Mercedes Benz User Experience infotainment are focused on providing information and advice to the driver (2). Porsche is using AI to provide better recommendations for car preferences for their prospective buyers (2).
Tesla has several structural advanges over its competitors. The company has invested greatly in computing, battery, and electronics and is a leader in these fields along with having a CEO which owns companies that also pushes the envelope in computing and engineering such as SpaceX (3). The current set up enables the cross pollination of ideas by simply moving around employees from one Musk owned company to another and sharing information.
Tesla plans to build a fleet of self driving cabs that utalize AI and take themselves home at the end of the day to recharge (5). Tesla also has longer term plans to build robots that aid people in doing normal house hold tasks that are powered by AI That will interact with the owner and learn to better service their needs (5). This month at a robotics conference, "Tesla's humanoid robots dancing and serving drinks to attendees" (5). The long term potental for AI and robots is to greatly increase human productivity by removing simple time consuming tasks from a daily issue in the lives of their owners.
The AI revolution is still in its infancy and Tesa as a company stands as one of the great potental benificaries of that revolution in the automotive and robotics field. Its vast resources and ability to cross pollinate and collaborate with other Musk owned enterprises sets it apart from its competitors. It stands as a company to watch out for as AI, self diriving cars, and robotics comes into maturity.
(1) Contribution from Tech Crunch
(3) Contribution from Gennaro Cufano: The History of Tesla