Everything You Need to Know about Tesla’s Shared Fleet Program
Tesla Motors has surely come a long way since 2003, when it was just a startup automobile manufacturer that aimed to manufacturing, designing, and marketing electric cars, battery products, and electric powertrain components. Just recently, the brand’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, introduced a “master plan” that will see Tesla expanding its product portfolio into solar energy systems and electric trucks and buses. However, even more interesting is part 2 of Elon Musk’s master plan, which goes by the name “Shared Fleet Program”.
What is the “Shared Fleet Program”?
Elon Musk had a vision of enabling vehicle owners to cash in on their investment of buying a brand-new car, and that too in a big way. In light of this, Elon Musk introduced the “Master Plan, Part Deux”, which involves four key goals. The first is integrating Tesla’s battery storage by developing solar roofs. The second is to address all major segments and roll out more affordable vehicles. The third is to make its self-driving technology 10 times better than non-autonomous driving.
The fourth and probably the most important of all goals is: creating a sharing program that enables Tesla owners to rent out their autonomous cars to make money. How do they manage to do that? The CEO stated that once its vehicles are fully autonomous, it will create a Tesla Phone app that will allow vehicle owners to add their car to the shared fleet. This means, anyone who may require a ride will be able to contact you through the app to rent it out.
As a result, you will be able to earn money while you’re on vacation or perhaps reached work and have no use of the vehicle till you get off. This can prove incredibly useful, especially if you aren’t in a financially stable condition, or perhaps need to earn more money (without doing much). This will also dramatically lower the costs of owning a Tesla vehicle, as whenever you aren’t in need of the car, you can rent it out to generate cash and pay off the leasing costs or monthly loan.
Since most cars are only used for 5% or 10% every day, this shared fleet program presents a fundamental economic utility. All Tesla’s cars will also be completely autonomous, so owners don’t have to worry about their cars getting misused by others. Musk also noticed that in some cities of America the demand usually exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars. In light of this, he plans to set up his own fleet, so that people can always get a ride.
This may pose plenty of risks for companies like Uber and other ride-sharing platforms in the future. However, Musk stated that the roll out of its autonomous cars and shared fleet program depends on the government’s ability of introducing self-driving car regulations in place. Therefore, Tesla owners and those looking to buy one of its autonomous cars might have to wait a little, before they can actually starting cashing in on their cars.
