The Model 3 electric car may be dubbed the Tesla (TSLA) for the masses, but the carmaker's chief designer sees it in terms that are far more poetic, powerful and prophetic.
XTesla's troubled Model 3 provides a link to where automobiles and the driving experience will go, moving into the future, company designer Franz von Holzhausen told the Future of the Automobile conference this week in Los Angeles.
"It's a beautiful minimalist experience that thinks forward to autonomy, when the car is doing the work for you," von Holzhausen said. "The Tesla products, they age into the future. There's no other car that really does that."
Von Holzhausen made the remarks as the maker of electric cars is undergoing a difficult period — particularly with the Model 3. Tesla is under fire for burning massive amounts of cash to get the Model 3 factory line running.
Further, Chief Executive Elon Musk flustered investors and Wall Street when he dismissed questions over the Model 3 cash burn. And the Silicon Valley automaker came under fire in March after revealing its Autopilot system was turned on in a deadly Tesla crash in California.
Big Designs For Car
Still, the company has big designs for the Model 3. Its interior has earned praise from reviewers for being dramatically different from other cars. It strips away extra buttons, switches and gauges — leaving only a giant touch screen that serves as the driver's control panel.
Via that touch screen, Tesla reportedly hopes one day to deliver an over-the-air software update. That will be key to enabling full autonomous driving and replacing the semi-autonomous Autopilot features available today. Autonomous functionality, when it arrives, will enable users to share and monetize their vehicles, Tesla says.
During Tesla's controversial earnings call late Wednesday, Musk refused to answer some analysts' questions on the company's cash position, dismissing them as "boring." Instead, Musk focused on such issues as what he called the "obvious" future of the car industry — one in which individuals share electric, self-driving vehicles. But he doesn't see this shift putting the traditional model of individual vehicle ownership at risk.
It would "enable people to share their cars and be able to offer their cars as effectively kind of a robo-Lyft or robo-Uber, Musk said. He added that it's "sort of like a combination of like, I guess, Uber, Lyft and Airbnb type of thing, where you can own your car and have 100% usage of an autonomous electric car."
Shares of Tesla rose 3.4% on the stock market today after tumbling 5.5% on Thursday. General Motors (GM) added 1.5%, Ford Motor (F) advanced 1.4%. Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) popped 1.9% and Toyota Motor (TM) was up 0.9%.
Robotaxi service
Tesla is under pressure to rev up its autonomous driving strategy. Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Waymo and GM are launching their autonomous taxi services in limited markets in 2018 and 2019.
Von Holzhausen, a Connecticut native, spoke to a friendly audience at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The crowd professed their love of Tesla cars and asked von Holzhausen when haptic touch screens would arrive. No one brought up the niggling issue of Model 3 production numbers or the earnings call that Musk was being widely pilloried for even as the Petersen conference was underway.
Von Holzhausen leads the design team for the Models S, X and 3. He also oversees the upcoming semi-truck and Roadster.
He began his career at Volkswagen (VLKAY), an experience which he said gave him a "European sensibility" and "sense of purity." He said that continues to inform his work at Tesla.
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The post What Model 3 Problem? Tesla Designer Says Cars 'Age Into The Future' appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.
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