How Tesla Beats Entrenched Giants

Year after year, scores of entrenched giants make loud claims about overtaking Tesla in vital fields ranging from electric cars and self-driving programs to solar roofs and motile batteries. An example involves a pack of gassy carmakers such as Ford and General Motors, Mercedes and Toyota.

Sadly, though, the dinosaurs steeped in the past will never match Tesla, let alone outrun the prodigy. Although Tesla is now a large company, it still sizzles with the creative spark and work ethic of a fresh startup at the cutting edge of innovation.

The hoary firms love to trumpet gusty plans to close the gap with Tesla within a handful of years. By the time the laggers reach their milestones, however, the leader will have moved on to the next generation of technologies and products, followed by another wave of brainstorms after that. As a result, the dinos mired in the old ways will never catch up. Instead, the stragglers will continue to fall behind for reasons aplenty ranging from greed and sloth to myopia and ineptitude.

In due course, the dodos will fall by the wayside and die off in droves. Granted, a few oddballs here and there might eke out a mangy existence in skimpy niches such as dinky cars or specialized trucks, quirky toys or exotic pets.

In that case, the honchos in charge of the holdovers will doubtless pat themselves on the back for surviving the upheavals wrought by Tesla. Yet, the scrawny remnants of the old order will scarcely resemble their hulky forms of bygone days when life was still laid-back and slow-paced.