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Tesla Motors is a very progress company. Its Masterplan Part Deux is a brilliant blueprint for what a company of the future ought to be. Its vision is beyond compare with the competitors around it, including Google and Apple (both of which have dropped, at least for the moment, the pursuit of an autonomous vehicle), and Uber and Lyft. But is the vision too big, too far reaching, too beyond the here and now to make the difference in the market Tesla needs it to, especially as it pursues ubiquitous solar power?
BMW has released a TNC program in Seattle in direct competition with Uber and Lyft. The German auto manufacturer has done this through its ReachNow program. In May 2016, BMW released the program in Seattle as a free-floating service: anyone could rent a BMW to get around town in at $.49 per minute. One can access the vehicle through a physical card or mobile app, and park it for free in any of the designated parking spots across town.
Now, according to GeekWire, BMW has expanded the service to TNC. BMW claims it would be a more premium experience than riding in someone else's Ford Taurus or Toyota Corolla. GeekWire speculates that the ReachNow program would become a hybrid: one could hail a ride with a TNC driver, or drive oneself around. ReachNow is also likely to charge more for the premium experience than Uber or Lyft.
As part of expanding its services, BMW is also likely to offer a concierge option in which a BMW is delivered to you rather than you having to find one, an airport service (already launched in August), as well as allowing people to lease out their BMWs as part of ReachNow network.
Does the latter point sound anything like Tesla?
The auto market is so hot, so competitive right now, one wonders if Tesla's grand design might be too far in the future to gain the marketshare it yearns for. Indeed, Musk's plan goes beyond vehicles to solar energy and transforming civilization, but he needs a thriving automobile business to succeed--the solar plan hinges on the vehicular one. With well-established automakers like BMW and GM seemingly catching up in the innovation game, what stops them from taking Tesla's grand scheme and setting forth a Part Trois?
Tesla seems to be moving too slow. This is a breakneck innovation landscape. Maybe Musk is stretched too thin, with SpaceX, Solar City, and OpenAI competing for his attention. One only has to think back to Steve Jobs who was running both Apple and Pixar, and himself ragged, to see what spreading thin can do to a person. Jobs was a stickler for simplicity, often writing 10 options on a whiteboard only to cross out 8. While Tesla may have been ahead of the electric vehicle game, there are some tireless competitors vying for marketshare that are much on its heels, if not inching ahead. Musk's fleet sounds like a nice idea, but is beginning to sound all too much like a boutique than ubiquity.
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