The world’s most valuable carmaker is giving tech companies a run for their money. If you had purchased $100 of stock in Tesla last September, you’d have over $600 today for an annualized return on investment of over 600%. This makes Tesla the best performing blue-chip company trading in U.S. financial markets. What separates Tesla from the likes of Toyota, the long-running leader in market cap for car companies? It’s not a car company. Well, not exactly.
Tesla’s pioneering use of technology like its full-electric power and its adoption of autonomous driving make it much more than a car company. Coupled with great customer satisfaction and unorthodox marketing techniques, including the use of the one-man marketing team, CEO Elon Musk, Tesla is, at present, unstoppable. Car companies have signaled that their cars will be fully connected to the internet, unleashing an entirely new world of potential, and Tesla appears to be leading the way.
In 2018, Tesla introduced Teslatari, which allows users to play throwback Atari games, but Musk has hinted that this is just the beginning in May of this year, asking: “Anyone think they can get a good multiplayer Minecraft working on Teslas? Or maybe create a game that interacts virtually with reality like Pokémon Go while driving safely?” Virtual reality and augmented reality will mean driving, as we know it, will change. It will also mean the computers in cars will have to become much more powerful and handle a lot more data.
Real-time high-definition streaming from vehicles will allow autonomous technology the added benefit of being able to be shadowed by remote operators. Until autonomous technologies get to the point where you wouldn’t mind an 18-wheeler carrying hazardous materials being driven fully autonomously, you could use a remote driver to steer the vehicle. Essentially truck drivers will become “drone operators.”
This new advance will require innovation. How can you ensure you’ll have fully robust GSM coverage wherever you go? So far, you really can’t. The solution? Satellites. With ultra-low latencies, Lower-Earth Orbiting satellites will make being connected all the time a possibility. It just so happens that Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX which has begun to launch low-earth orbiting satellites that can solve exactly this problem. With the recent advance in antenna technology, like Alcan System's newly launched non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) antennas, you could potentially drive anywhere in the world and link-up to SpaceX low-earth-orbiting satellites. With speeds of 400 megabits per second, this would mean you could stream high-definition videos and shadow drivers or do whatever else you’d like with such a strong and robust internet connection.
Tesla isn’t a car company, and that’s why it can produce only 4% of the cars that Toyota does and be worth more. Its incredible growth potential is why investors value the company so highly, and unless the legacy car companies catch up, their fate is sad and certain.
