[marshallp]

Tesla are the Apple of cars. Elon Musk is the new Steve Jobs. The other car companies will have non-tech retards as ceo's and will always be playing catch-up. Tesla only has to fear techie's like google or apple itself entering the space.

[cryptoz]

I don't think Google will enter the space of actually building cars - but they most definitely will partner closely with some of these companies for their self-driving cars.

[sbierwagen]

Well, they'll "partner" with them in the sense of buying the bare car from car manufacturers, but they'll probably be Google Robot Cars.

[salimmadjd]

Althiugh agree with the visionary status of Musk. But, your comment speaks to my point directly regarding the differing customer acquisition models. Apple's growth comes from entering an emerging market. Very different than the car industry. The emerging market of the car industry started with another visionary, Henry Ford.

[wmf]

Ah yes. "If smartphones turn out to be the future, people will probably just buy them from existing phone brands that they trust, like Nokia or Motorola." — a lot of people in 2007

[qu4z-2]

For what it's worth, I have a Motorola smartphone, and I certainly wouldn't trade it in for an iPhone.

The point I'm trying to make is that that the prediction is correct assuming "people" refers mostly to the people making the predictions. Or... people tend to project their ways of thinking, and likes and dislikes, onto other people.

[salimmadjd]

Again what I said about different customer acquisition models. 1 - Smart phones have 2-4 years life at about $200 or so price point. They are not $60,000 cars that force buyers to buy a $600/year service contract from Tesla.

2 - Apple had the entire MP3 market with their ipods not to mention an army of long-time fanboys. Translate to a strong consumer brand loyalty. Tesla doesn't have any of these.

[marshallp]

Apple didn't actually create completely new products, just polished versions, same as Tesla. The same with market share, they only want a small segment (the only exception to this rule are ipads).

[lumberjack]

>The other car companies will have non-tech retards as ceo's and will always be playing catch-up.

This is false. Most car companies have been researching electric vehicles since the 60's or 70's when the first oil crises happened. And as for technology, Tesla is not actually ahead, in neither range nor charge up speed.

As an example, this is also a "Startup" thing. An electric bus, that gets better range (everything considered) and faster recharge times:

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/proterra-ecoliner-electr...

[grecy]

> Most car companies have been researching electric vehicles since the 60's or 70's when the first oil crises happened

Exactly. They've spent all those years and dollars, and they still have nothing compared to the Model S.

[marshallp]

It's not simply the battery tech. It's all the extra interior stuff like display etc. It's the total package, like apple does. Plus, just like with apple and jobs, or virgin with branson, there's an extra brand factor developing with musk.