What Happened
Leading electric car maker Tesla unveiled a new Model 3 on Thursday night. With a starting price of $35,000 (before federal tax credits), it is the most affordable car Tesla has made to date. Among its many high-tech features, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced all Model 3 cars will come with the Autopilot feature it first debuted in October, which allows Tesla cars steer themselves, change lanes, and even park themselves. Pre-orders are now available worldwide, with first deliveries expected towards the end of 2017.
Market Impact
With the affordable price tag and mass market appeal, the Tesla Model 3 might just be the car to usher driverless vehicles into the mainstream car market. The Autopilot feature may not be perfect right now, but Tesla presumably will have significantly improved it by the time this model ships.
The development in driverless cars is an important market trend that The Lab cares about (and included in the 2020 section of our Outlook 2016) because of the incredible amount of new media time it can potentially free up. The average daily commute time in the States is currently about 50 minutes. If and when driverless cars are adopted by mainstream car-owners, it would make it possible for media owners and advertisers to visually connect with consumers on the go through in-car media such as digital video and video gaming.
Source: The Verge
Header image courtesy of Tesla.com
