Elon Musk Wants Everyone With a Tesla to Make Money When They're Not Using It

Impact

Elon Musk finally graced us with the second part to his super secret master plan. His vision of the future is brighter than the sun... so long as civilization doesn't burn to the ground.

"By definition, we must at some point achieve a sustainable energy economy or we will run out of fossil fuels to burn and civilization will collapse," Musk wrote in the blog post. "Given that we must get off fossil fuels anyway and that virtually all scientists agree that dramatically increasing atmospheric and oceanic carbon levels is insane, the faster we achieve sustainability, the better."

Everything the light touches is Tesla's kingdom.

Musk's master plan is a doozy — he has some lofty goals to ensure a more sustainable future, a point also recently driven home in Tesla's updated mission statement. These goals include creating a "smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works" thanks to its potential SolarCity acquisition, taking over terrestrial transport with a fully autonomous sedan, SUV and pickup truck and turning the fleet of self-driving Teslas into part-time ride-sharing vehicles. 

Sharing is caring and it could also fuck up Uber and Lyft's bottom line. Musk envisions a future where you can get whisked away by your self-driving Tesla from "pretty much anywhere" and then "sleep, read or do anything else en route to your destination." And when you're at work or on vacation, you can add your vehicle to the "Tesla shared fleet" by just tapping the Tesla app. Musk pointed out that the money made from this capability could potentially exceed the cost of the monthly loan or lease. He also noted that Tesla will have its own fleet of self-driving vehicles in cities, "ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are." 

This plan sounds a lot like how Uber and Lyft operate, only when you tap your app for a Tesla to sweep you off to your destination, there won't be a driver inside. With both Uber and Lyft experimenting with autonomous vehicles, ride-sharing competition is getting steep. And humanless. 

Tesla declined to comment beyond what was written in Musk's blog post. 

Read more: