I'm halfway toward your point of view. But they are not that far ahead. What you always have to remember is that Tesla is a relatively new, startup company. What that generally means is that a company will go out of their way to push a product that major automakers were not even trying to build as to avoid competition. For Tesla that was a high end, luxury, EV. Also, start ups tend to push technology on to the market as fast as they can. An example of that is Tesla's "autopilot". That is all fine and well. But big auto companies like Ford and GM are in the business of selling to the masses and doing it at a profit. They had to face up to the reality that oil prices were low and that windfall profits were to be made by internal combustion engine vehicles. Their goal was not to build luxury EVs just to prove a point. All the major automakers could have been building Level 3 autopilot technology. They have been building cars with autonomous features for years.. Its nothing new. But they foresaw the safety flaws and recognized that it was ultimately gimmicky. Autopilot is cool but what good is it really if the driver has to be aware and engaged and ready to take over in a matter of seconds? Ford decided to go straight to level 4 autonomy. They will have a car on the road by 2021 without any steering wheel.or pedals. It will be part of a ride sharing network. And Ford will be in the mass EV market when it matters when there is a full developed infrastructure for recharging. Tesla is a great company. But for right now its nothing like Apple when it was taking on IBM directly. Or later when Apple destroyed the competition in the mobile phone industry.
qw wrote:
What many of so called experts does not understand is that Tesla does not only produce cars but they develop a bunch of new technologies that are far ahead in the industry. Autopilot, batteries, electric components to name a few. They already have patents for technologies that other companies in the market does not have and they sell these technologies for profit (BMW for example). And that is not it. When the age of oil comes to an end (and it will happen much sooner than you think since for exmaple Norway and Belgium has already restricted sales of new gasoline powered cars starting with 2025 with many to follow) Tesla will be the leading car maker in the world. In everything. Technology. Experience. Market share. So like you or not Elon Musk is at least two steps ahead.