Mr. Asad Hussain

Elon Musk May Buy These 11 Startups To Make Tesla Independent

Elon Musk is buying up more and more startups to make Tesla less dependent on suppliers, and these 11 companies he could take over next, Business Insider reports. Automated driving Tesla is trying to turn the autopilot of Tesla vehicles into a chauffeur - but the development is nowhere near so far that drivers can sleep while driving. The company follows an unconventional approach to autonomous driving and relies on a camera-based system - and not, like the competition, on radar and lidar sensors. According to Asad Hussain, a mobility analyst at PitchBook, startups that specialize in camera technology would be a good addition to Tesla. Two ways to do this would be Hypr , which was founded by the former CEO of Zoox, and Wayve . Another option would be Recogni . The startup develops software and hardware that make object recognition on the road more efficient. Ridesharing Musk said in 2019 that Tesla plans to offer a ridesharing service by the end of 2020 . This should enable Tesla owners with autonomous driving systems to make their car available to others via an app. The service should work like Uber or Lyft, only without a driver. The service does not yet exist, Tesla seems to lack the technical infrastructure to offer this service - but taking over a startup could help. Revel and Kaptyn are already running small ridesharing services with Tesla cars and would be a good fit, says Asad Hussain. Auto Insurance Tesla has been offering insurance to its customers since 2019 - but so far they are only available in California and Texas. The carmaker wants to introduce this service in other countries as well, and a startup with a broad customer base could make that easier. Mark Norman, managing partner at FM Capital, believes that Tesla should most likely focus on startups that sell directly to their customers and not negotiate through third-party providers - this is the strategy the e-car manufacturer is also pursuing with its vehicles. Norman sees Clearcover and Metromile as possible takeover candidates . Tesla Service In addition to the sales processes, Tesla also controls its service network itself. Elon Musk could expand Tesla services further, for example by offering mobile top-up services for private users or companies. According to Mark Norman, SparkCharge and FreeWire would help Tesla with that. Electric Car Batteries Due to the increasing demand for electric cars, batteries have become the focus of the industry. Tesla announced last year that the company was developing its own battery cells to improve costs and performance and reduce dependency on suppliers. The 2019 acquisition of Maxwell was Tesla's first battery acquisition and brought dry electrode technology into the company. If Tesla bought out another startup, it would likely be one that makes battery materials that fit into Tesla's existing manufacturing process. According to Luke Gear, technical analyst at IDTechEx, that could be Sila Nanotechnologies and Group14 - although it's unclear how much Tesla would actually benefit from such an acquisition. #ElonMusk #Tesla This is Armen Hareyan from Torque News. Please follow us at   / torquenewsauto   on Twitter and https://www.torquenews.com/ for daily automotive news. Reference Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.de/wirtsc...

University of Houston

Bachelor of Science

Senior Manager

KBR, Inc. (Houston, TX)

Managing Director

FTI Consulting