Beyond Tesla 's Semi Truck: The Future Of Trucking And Transportation
Tesla
On November 16   Tesla  unveiled  its  long-anticipated foray into the $726 billion world of trucking: A heavy-duty  all-electric rig aptly named “Semi.” The truck itself is wildly impressive in our opinion—a 500-mile range  projected fuel savings of $200 000  and the industry’s most advanced levels of automation—but what excites me the most  really  is the opportunity this truck signifies: The start  as I see it  of a once-in-a-lifetime radical shift in our trillion-dollar transportation economy.
As I have written about before  we are currently entering a period of a rapid change in our transportation systems. And as I see it  it’s the innovator’s dilemma playing out in the wild: Incumbents like General Motors are moving too slowly to adapt to an all-electric future—wasting billions of dollars on stock buybacks—while upstarts like  Tesla   unencumbered by legacy business models  are forging a path into a clean  fully-electric  fully-autonomous future. (GM has spent almost $17 billion in the last several years buying back its stock  three times what  Tesla  has spent building Gigafactories—but I digress.)
I spoke with Perry at length recently regarding  Tesla ’s ambitions and challenges  the future of transportation  and his macro perspective on the innovation taking place right now in the trucking ecosystem. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation. (Full disclosure: Worm Capital is long  Tesla  and all views are Perry’s alone.)
Worm Capital: This week  we're seeing  Tesla  come out with their Semi  and clearly Elon Musk has talked about creating an all-electric  autonomous future. So  existentially  what does this mean for the trucking industry over the next 10  15  20 years? How do you see it evolving from what it is today to what it will be in the future?
On November 16   [TGT]unveiled  [TGT]  long-anticipated foray into the $726 billion world of trucking: A heavy-duty  all-electric rig aptly named “Semi.” The truck itself is wildly impressive in our opinion—a 500-mile range  projected fuel savings of $200 000  and the industry’s most advanced levels of automation—but what excites me the most  really  is the opportunity this truck signifies: The start  as I see it  of a once-in-a-lifetime radical shift in our trillion-dollar transportation economy.
As I have written about before  we are currently entering a period of a rapid change in our transportation systems. And as I see it  it’s the innovator’s dilemma playing out in the wild: Incumbents like General Motors are moving too slowly to adapt to an all-electric future—wasting billions of dollars on stock buybacks—while upstarts like  [TGT]are forging a path into a clean  fully-electric  fully-autonomous future. (GM has spent almost $17 billion in the last several years buying back its stock  three times what  [TGT]has spent building Gigafactories—but I digress.)
I spoke with Perry at length recently regarding  [TGT] ’s ambitions and challenges  the future of transportation  and [TGT] macro perspective on the innovation taking place right now in the trucking ecosystem. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation. (Full disclosure: Worm Capital is long  [TGT]and all views are Perry’s alone.)
Worm Capital: This week  we're seeing  [TGT]come out with their Semi  and clearly Elon Musk has talked about creating an all-electric  autonomous future. So  existentially  what does this mean for the trucking industry over the next 10  15  20 years? How do you see it evolving from what it is today to what it will be in the future?