Elon Musk revealed in an interview released today that the Tesla will aim for a base price of $49,000 for its coming pickup truck. The company also aspires for it to have better “truck-like capability” than a Ford F-150, whilst being a better sports car than a regular Porsche 911.
Keeping on the topic of the appearance, referencing the sole teaser image that has been released about the truck, Ryan McCaffrey also asked “which end of the truck was that?” Elon Musk responded:
The front. … It’s kind of like a Blade Runner truck. That’s the idea. It’s not going to be for everyone … for sure, when we unveil this thing, there’ll be some people who are like — ‘Oh, that doesn’t look like a truck, I don’t want to buy it.’ It’s like when they came out with automobiles, people were like — ‘Oh, I like a horse and carriage.’ … ‘Sure, okay, you can stick with your horse and carriage, but you’re going to get an automobile later (you just don’t know it).
Elon musk sure sounds super confident about this upcoming truck. We are really excited about it, and we hope you are too.
We live in a truly special time to be investing in. We live in a time where the rate of technological change is accelerating to a degree that the world may transform itself beyond recognition during our lifetime – perhaps even multiple times. The fact that smartphones have reached the current level of ubiquity in just 10 years is rather astounding in the context of the PC that took nearly 40 years to do the same – but perhaps not surprising when viewed in the context of the broader history of technological innovation which has always exhibited accelerating change.
Why this is happening
There is a fundamental reason for this, perhaps best known as the core thesis of renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil: the laws of accelerating returns. The crux of this is that like evolution, technological innovation benefits from a positive feedback loop: new technologies that are developed are then used to develop further technologies. This fundamentally makes technological change exponential, rather than linear. There appear to be enough examples throughout history to give credence to this – Moore’s Law being the most famous. In 2001, Kurzweil famously wrote that we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – and that it’ll be more like 20,000 years of progress (at the then prevailing rate of progress). What sounded like hyperbole back then clearly sounds somewhat more credible today, looking back at everything that has happened since the turn of the century.
Share this article on your favorite social media platform!