00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - So welcome everybody,
00:10 we're here at Tesla Design in Hawthorne.
00:12 I have two very special guests with me,
00:14 Elon Musk, Franz von Polthausen.
00:16 These guys are the architects for all of Tesla
00:20 and their fantastic products.
00:21 We're here to celebrate the Model S
00:24 as our ultimate car of the year.
00:26 So congratulations.
00:27 - Thank you.
00:28 - And we also appreciate you guys bringing out
00:29 a couple of your vehicles,
00:31 including the original concept.
00:34 When was the last time you saw this in person?
00:36 - Actually several years.
00:38 - 10 years have brought back a lot of emotion
00:39 seeing it too.
00:40 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:41 - Like when you see this,
00:42 any particular feature you look at and you're like,
00:44 man, I remember how we really sweated over the--
00:46 - Door handles for sure, the nose,
00:48 every curve, every crease.
00:50 We wanted a car that had just crazy specs.
00:52 - Yes.
00:53 - It kind of felt like we jumped out of the airplane
00:57 and then decided we need to figure out
00:59 how to get a team of people
01:00 to actually design the parachute.
01:02 We were trying to find the people and do the design
01:05 and create the product all kind of mid-flight,
01:07 which is somewhat perilous.
01:09 - Now we were talking earlier though
01:11 about the display you put in there.
01:13 Where did that come from?
01:14 - Screen you can reprogram, you can update.
01:17 Even if somebody has a car from 2012,
01:20 they can get the latest interface,
01:22 more features and functionality.
01:23 Basic principle is it's a computer on wheels.
01:25 So you wanna have a big screen,
01:27 you wanna have a touch interface,
01:28 and that gives you a lot of freedom
01:29 to keep improving the car with software.
01:32 But the overarching goal is like,
01:34 what can we do to make you fall in love with this car?
01:36 The biggest thing about Tesla and the cars that we make
01:39 is that this is not designed by a soulless corporation.
01:43 At the end of the day, we wanna make a car that we love,
01:45 that hits us in the heart.
01:47 - How come nobody has surpassed Tesla in terms of range?
01:52 - I guess the car industry is just fairly slow to evolve,
01:55 and they didn't take electric vehicles seriously.
01:57 I mean, really until probably 2015.
02:00 - There's a fundamental disconnect
02:02 in the business publications,
02:03 whereas if you're in Silicon Valley or in LA,
02:05 and you see Teslas everywhere,
02:07 then it's obvious what the situation is.
02:09 Conventional wisdom said the Model S
02:11 was an impossible car to build,
02:12 and there were many articles written to that effect.
02:13 But once we started delivering them to customers,
02:15 and they were approved by the regulators,
02:17 and met all the safety requirements,
02:19 and it's like Model S is like,
02:20 you got the best safety rating
02:23 that Nitsa had ever tested of any car.
02:25 We saw the light during our Car of the Year testing.
02:27 We think we were the first major award you guys received.
02:30 - That made a big difference,
02:31 getting Motor Trend Car of the Year.
02:32 That was amazing,
02:33 and really helped validate Tesla and electric vehicles.
02:36 - How is Tesla gonna keep being relevant,
02:38 being the leader in EVs?
02:40 What do you have to do?
02:42 - We've got to scale up our production.
02:44 It's like we've got, obviously,
02:45 the Tesla Semi, the new Roadster.
02:47 Later this year, hopefully we'll be unveiling
02:49 the Tesla pickup truck.
02:51 We need to just improve the cost of an electric powertrain,
02:54 the battery pack,
02:55 and the next two massive disruptions for cars
03:00 are electrification and autonomy.
03:02 You'll want dynamic personalization,
03:04 so it's like you step into the car,
03:05 it knows who you are,
03:06 it knows everything you want,
03:07 and the car reconfigures itself automatically.
03:09 So it'll be recreational,
03:11 and cars that you drive manually,
03:13 or drive yourself,
03:14 will be 1% of all cars.
03:16 - Thank you. - Appreciate the time.
03:17 - Yeah, thanks. - Thanks, Franz.
03:19 Thanks for watching.
03:20 Check out all the coverage on motortrend.com.
03:22 (wind blowing)
03:25 (whooshing)
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