2030 Finance | April 11, 2017

Where Tesla still lags Ford: Self-driving cars

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ImpactAlpha

Electric car maker Tesla hit a milestone last week when its market value of $49 billion overtook Ford’s $46 billion (while selling 76,000 cars last year to Ford’s 6.7 million).

But Big Auto still may have an edge over Silicon Valley upstarts in the race for self-driving cars. A recent report from management consulting firm Navigant ranks Ford ranks first in the U.S., and Tesla 12th.

Other mainstream car manufacturers like General Motors, Renault and Volkswagen all ranked higher than self-driving car champions like Google and Uber.

“The technology is great, but unless you can build tens of thousands of cars and get people in those cars, it’s not really all that useful,” says Navigant’s Sam Abuelsamid.

Tesla may be focused on other technologies, such as battery storage for utility-scale electricity grids.

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Photo credit: Screenshot via YouTube / Business Insider