Tesla has become the hottest car maker in America and they are doing it by focusing on data, which is something that legacy automakers are not really doing very well today. While Detroit continues to push traditional ad campaigns that focus on speed, performance, and safety, Tesla has taken a drastically different approach — and it is evidently paying off.
In the past decade, a new trend has arisen in the American automotive market. According to Inc.com, millennials perceive traditional cars as expensive and pollution-pumping modes of transportation. Amidst the rise of ride-hailing services, the next-generation of car buyers do not seem very eager to get behind the wheel of a personal vehicle, or at least one that is conventional, and acquired through a conventional dealership.
The main issue is that cars are simply not compelling or “fun” to consumers anymore. They are expensive and boring, and unfortunately, none of the traditional car manufacturers have been able to solve the riddle. Then there is Tesla. In a 60 Minutes segment, Scott Pelley said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was revolutionizing vehicles, in the same way Steve Jobs changed the mobile industry with the iPhone.
Part of the reason behind Tesla’s success so far is the company’s focus on developing vehicles that are built from the ground up with tech. Inasmuch as traditional cars are built on horsepower, Teslas are built on data. Data that’s gathered from every vehicle in Tesla’s fleet, and data that has the potential to improve the company’s cars in terms of performance, safety, and features. Teslas have had over a decade to master this, and the company has gotten very good at its tech-centered approach.
Tesla currently utilizes data from its nearly 900,000 vehicles currently on the road to give engineers and analysts in Silicon Valley an idea of what they need to improve upon. For example, when Tesla rolled out the highly anticipated release of Smart Summon, the company utilized information from over one million uses of the software. Tesla uses the same strategy with its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving suite as well, which are stepping stones towards CEO Elon Musk’s attempts at reaching autonomy.
Meanwhile, legacy automakers are continuing to push SUVs and trucks using tried and tested strategies that are not as effective today as they were years ago. Veteran automakers such as Ford and GM have started adopting a tech-centered approach in their respective electric cars and autonomous programs, but their core remains traditional. To try and keep up with Elon Musk and the company he heads, some are even releasing “competitors” to Tesla’s Self-Driving capabilities, but they simply fall short because of a lack of data.
Take GM’s Super Cruise, for example, which is robust in its own right. While it is a capable driver-assist system that can possibly rival Navigate on Autopilot, the system can only be used in a fraction of areas that Tesla’s system can be engaged in. A lot of this gap can be attributed to the mountains upon mountains of real-world driving data that Tesla’s has, and legacy automakers don’t.
And the gap is only widening, as suggested by Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson in a recent statement. Ultimately, it appears that Tesla is pulling away from its competitors in the car industry. While other companies are struggling to keep up with the transition to electric transportation, Tesla is compiling millions of pieces of data in its efforts to improve.
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Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
Tesla plans to supply over 100 Megapack units to support a large stationary storage project in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities.
Tesla’s Megapack grid-scale batteries have been selected to back an energy storage project in Japan, coming as the latest of the company’s continued deployment of the hardware.
As detailed in a report from Nikkei this week, Tesla plans to supply 142 Megapack units to support a 548 MWh storage project in Japan, set to become one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities. The project is being overseen by financial firm Orix, and it will be located at a facility Maibara in central Japan’s Shiga prefecture, and it aims to come online in early 2027.
The deal is just the latest of several Megapack deployments over the past few years, as the company continues to ramp production of the units. Tesla currently produces the Megapack at a facility in Lathrop, California, though the company also recently completed construction on its second so-called “Megafactory” in Shanghai China and is expected to begin production in the coming weeks.
READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla Megapacks help power battery supplier Panasonic’s Kyoto test site
Tesla’s production of the Megapack has been ramping up at the Lathrop facility since initially opening in 2022, and both this site and the Shanghai Megafactory are aiming to eventually reach a volume production of 10,000 Megapack units per year. The company surpassed its 10,000th Megapack unit produced at Lathrop in November.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week, CEO Elon Musk also said that the company is looking to construct a third Megafactory, though he did not disclose where.
Last year, Tesla Energy also had record deployments of its Megapack and Powerwall home batteries with a total of 31.4 GWh of energy products deployed for a 114-percent increase from 2023.
Other recently deployed or announced Megapack projects include a massive 600 MW/1,600 MWh facility in Melbourne, a 75 MW/300 MWh energy storage site in Belgium, and a 228 MW/912 MWh storage project in Chile, along with many others still.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
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Elon Musk responds to Ontario canceling $100M Starlink deal amid tariff drama
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, opens new tab on February 3 that he was “ripping up” his province’s CA$100 million agreement with Starlink in response to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Elon Musk company SpaceX is set to lose a $100 million deal with the Canadian province of Ontario following a response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply 25 percent tariffs to the country.
Starlink, a satellite-based internet service launched by the Musk entity SpaceX, will lose a $100 million deal it had with Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced today.
Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts.
Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. U.S.-based businesses will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford said on X today that Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts:
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
It is a blow to the citizens of the province more than anything, as the Starlink internet constellation has provided people in rural areas across the globe stable and reliable access for several years.
Musk responded in simple terms, stating, “Oh well.”
Oh well https://t.co/1jpMu55T6s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
It seems Musk is less than enthused about the fact that Starlink is being eliminated from the province, but it does not seem like all that big of a blow either.
As previously mentioned, this impacts citizens more than Starlink itself, which has established itself as a main player in reliable internet access. Starlink has signed several contracts with various airlines and maritime companies.
It is also expanding to new territories across the globe on an almost daily basis.
With Mexico already working to avoid the tariff situation with the United States, it will be interesting to see if Canada does the same.
The two have shared a pleasant relationship, but President Trump is putting his foot down in terms of what comes across the border, which could impact Americans in the short term.
Armored Tesla Cybertruck “War Machine” debuts at Defense Expo 2025
Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
