“My concern is that trouble in AI could spread across the group, putting otherwise strong businesses at risk,” he added. “SpaceX’s success should be protected, not used to bankroll an ever wider set of ambitions.”
Whether or not the companies merge, Tesla’s technological ambition is already commanding the attention of traditional rivals.
The flying Roadster “certainly shows that even in the car world there’s a lot to do,” Ferrari’s chief executive Benedetto Vigna said at a recent automotive conference in Milan.
Tesla is already driving wider change in the industry. Like Musk’s company, China’s Xpeng, South Korea’s Hyundai and Japan’s Toyota are expanding their robotics businesses while General Motors and Ford in the US are pursuing new revenue from their energy storage businesses.
Autonomous driving in particular has become a major battleground for the global car industry as EVs with similar ranges and pricing proliferate.
Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said Tesla was “a classic case of an innovator that disrupts and the other follows because they don’t want to be left behind.”
Among traditional carmakers, General Motors last year hired former Tesla executive Sterling Anderson to oversee the Detroit carmaker’s product development, with a mandate to develop a new generation of fully autonomous personal cars.
Other European carmakers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz have also partnered with technology groups such as Qualcomm and Nvidia to bring a “Level 2 plus” driver assistance system, which requires active monitoring by a human driver behind the wheel.
“The leading carmakers today… are trying to reconsider their strategy completely,” said Igal Raichelgauz, chief executive of Israeli autonomous driving technology start-up Autobrains. He added that manufacturers wanted to move to a subscription model with a more advanced eyes-off technology to generate new revenue.
Volvo Cars chief executive Håkan Samuelsson acknowledged Tesla’s position as the frontrunner in autonomous technology.
“Tesla is probably leading the development in the west,” he told the FT, while claiming that Volvo was still firmly leading in software. “We will, together with Nvidia, develop our cars to be door-to-door automated and that will come in a new Volvo car pretty soon here.”
Additional reporting by Mari Novik in London.
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