The Tesla Approach to Distributing and Servicing Cars

There's a standard in North America: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772

Of course vested interests in old industries will do whatever they can to block innovation. We're seeing it with all major industry disruptions. It used to be enough for the vested interests to write laws to block out, limit, or otherwise hinder additional traditional competitors (taxi medallions, ridiculous license requirements for florists[1], etc).

Now we're seeing these same groups try to initiate and bring in new laws to stop competition that is truly an innovative take on an industry. Such as the Uber amendment[2] that was to be written and voted on in less than 24 hours, or cease and desist notices being sent to Lyft and SideCar, telling them to shelve their business while they investigate whether or not they are doing something illegal[3].

Entrenched industries with connections to governments, and governments making tax revenue from these entrenched businesses both have a huge incentive to get old laws enforced past their original intent (which were often written for the sole purpose of protecting those entrenched businesses anyway) and new laws written and passed to shut this down.

However, these truly innovative companies are filling a need that the old ones don't. That's why there are more Uber black cars in SF than there were black cars in traditional services before Uber[4]. These companies that are pushing society forward have so much momentum and support from the communities using them that lawmakers are better served listening to the people than ignoring them.

I have no doubt that Elon Musk and Tesla will be able to disrupt the car-buying market by selling direct to customers. Maybe we'll see another startup come along and piggyback off of their success by selling other cars direct, blatantly ignoring the protectionist laws, and consumers rally behind them to get the laws changed.

I don't know where the future lies in the auto industry, but I do know that innovation and forward progress won't be stopped in the long run, no matter how many road blocks there are. I have huge respect for all of these companies that are not only working on doing the incredibly hard task of creating and trying to sustain a company, but having to fight much larger corporations at the same time.

1. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131571&page=1

2. http://blog.uber.com/2012/07/09/strike-down-the-minimum-fare...

3. http://thesidecarblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/sidecar_cp...

4. From Travis Kalanick's talk at Startup School

"The Product Specialists (...) goal and the sole metric of their success is to have you enjoy the experience of visiting so much that you look forward to returning again."

This is not the experience I had. Walked into a Tesla store, said I want to test drive a Roadster. Salesman went into that profiling mode that all car salesmen do constantly and no customer likes, asking me all kinds of questions to find out how much I earn. Since my answers didn't please him, he told me I could test drive it for $300 for half a day - essentially renting it.

I won't be going back.

This was about 1 year ago.

I'm not sure they've given an official reason, but it's the mass-market sedan adaptation of the Tesla Roadster, so I believe playing off both the Model T (mass-produced consumer car) and S=sedan.