Феноменът Тесла

by Hamish McKenzie, Хамиш Макензи, Тодор Стоянов (Translator )

Навсякъде по света електромобилите набират все по-голяма популярност, а бизнес магнати влагат баснословни суми в задвижването на глобална електромобилна революция.

Отличеният с множество награди Model 3 на Tesla, луксозен електромобил, пуснат в продажба през 2018 г., променя възгледите на обществото за моторните превозни средства.

Междувременно главният изпълнителен директор, Илън Мъск, предизвиква полемики в Twitter, а растящият дълг на Tesla изправя компанията на ръба на финансовата пропаст.

Във „Феноменът Tesla” ще разберете защо Мъск се опълчва както срещу нови играчи, така и срещу титани от автомобилната индустрия. Това е историята на една компания готова на всичко, за да превърне всяка кола на пътя в електромобил.

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Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Science, Biography, Audiobook, Economics

320 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Hamish McKenzie is co-founder of subscription publishing start-up Substack and author of Insane Mode: How Elon Musk’s Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil (November 2018). In recent years, he has been the lead writer for Tesla, an advisor to Kik, a tech reporter, and a freelance journalist covering everything from the World Beard and Moustache Championships to the world’s most comprehensive face transplant.

Hamish is a New Zealander who lives in San Francisco. He is represented by Jim Levine of Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

Reviews

[megs_bookrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Even if it died tomorrow, Tesla has already achieved what it set out to do: accelerate the world's transition to sustainable transport. It has convinced the world that electric cars can be great."

I really enjoyed Hamish McKenzie's overview of the pending electric revolution within the auto industry.

I learned so much, particularly in regards to the progress various nations are making to be rid of gas powered vehicles.

Full disclosure: I am a HUGE Elon Musk fangirl and Tesla shareholder.



This being said, my enjoyment factor for this book may be a bit heightened compared to an average reader who perhaps doesn't have that love in regards to Musk or Tesla.

I believe in him; his passion for his companies and their products is contagious.



As far as the format and writing for this book, I think they were both very well executed. McKenzie has a journalism background and it definitely shines through in the best ways.

His ease with explaining a fairly large and complex sector of the market was impressive. I appreciated the way he examined the big picture; the issue of transitioning to EVs from a global perspective and the effects that change could have long-term.



If you are a gear head, or techie, you should definitely check this book out.

It is loaded with up-to-date information on where we stand in our transition away from the internal combustion engine into a more sustainable, as well as potentially autonomous, vehicular future.



Whether you are a believer yet or not, it stands to reason that within a generation or two, the kids of the future will look at our current gas powered vehicles like my nieces and nephews look at rotary dial telephones.

This concise book is a great start to understanding the history, scope and issues in a nonpolitical way. It extends forth a positive outlook on the future, while also questioning how these changes will affect our economy and society in the days to come.



My parting words are, Elon, I love you. Oh, and I want to thank the publisher, Dutton, for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

I always appreciate the opportunity to read a book early and provide my feedback. Cheers~

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got an advanced copy of this and I really enjoyed it.
It's an easy read and speaks of the ups and downs of Elon Musk.

Ultimately this book talks about how Tesla, Elon Musk and a plethora of other people and companies are trying to bring electric cars to the main stream.

They went into real depth about the fact that an electric car is faster, lighter and cleaner then internal combustion engines.

I honestly have to say that I am starting to look at an electric car for the next automobile.

It was interesting how they talked about different inventions disrupted the norm for the better.

The first was salt. Over the centuries that was a major commodity and at times was cash for things. Once refrigeration came around, salt wasn't such a major commodity any more.

Then they talked about Thomas Edison and his invention of the light bulb....everyone was using gas lamps, and the light bulb was a game changer....the same could be said about tvs, computers, vcrs, cell phones.

The biggest issue right now with electric cars are the batteries, the cost and what they refer to as "range anxiety," because a electric charge will only last for so long...and then the variables between cold or hot.

In any event, an excellent book that I would highly recommend reading.

[Patrick Pilz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a Tesla or Elon Musk Biography, it is the story of the electric car. Clearly dominated by Tesla, the story is about other players along with the ecological and economical challenges in other parts of the world and ways to develop cheaper energy storage options. Written more like a travel guide around the world of electric car makers, the story is nonetheless interesting and leaves no doubt that the future belongs to the electric car.

[Amar Pai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been on a Musk/Tesla kick of late. This one is interesting in that it's unabashedly fanboyish-- the author spent a year working for Tesla and is clearly a fan of the company and the man behind it-- but at the same time it gets into some interesting details around the history of electric cars and how big auto companies tried to keep them from happening. (If you've seen "Who Killed the Electric Car", it's that kind of thing).

There's a lot of talk about lithium ion batteries

It was a decent read.

[Andrzej · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been working in automotive industry for quite a few years, read already "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" and I am interested in electrical cars and green energy. So, probably I'm not very objective here, but on the other hand, I am not a die-hard fan of Musk or Tesla.
I'm writing this text in the middle of November 2019. It might be important, because the book in question is a kind of prophecy. And it is incredible that already after one year from publishing date you can judge if some of these prophecies are right. So... Yes, they are.
I could finish the review here, because this should be enough to make everybody read it immediately. But... Let me add some more thoughts.
The author put a lot of effort in research (reference list published at his web page is really long), which is obviously highly appreciated. The title of the book is also long, but well justified by the content. The thing really is about revolution. And it is not only about technology or transport. It is about how we understand industry, environment, our needs and lifestyles.
I liked a lot the description of pivotal moments in Tesla's history and reasons why it is so extremely difficult to build any meaningful car company. Looks like Musk succeeded with the strategy "Let's make an electrical car sexy and then we make it useful". This works so far. Together with renewable energy sources it should rule the roads sooner or later.
A long part about development of electric cars in China was necessary (2nd and 3rd best selling electric cars worldwide in 2019 are Chinese brands), but to me it could be more focused on explaining Chinese car market than on financial ups and downs of local automotive investors.
The chapter about genesis of BMW i8 and i3 is marvelous. It shows perfectly the inertia and a very-inside-the-box thinking of established car makers. By the way, I don't think that many people are aware that the electrical charging sockets are different in the cars produced for different regions. So you have North America one, European, Japan, Chinese. It is ridiculous, because we repeat the same mistake as we did with wall sockets, but that will not stop the advance of electric cars. It only shows how inefficiently automotive world works.
Autonomous cars are only mentioned at the very end of the book, but the author seems to correctly anticipate their potential and risks. Think about it: Eventually, we plan to put on the roads millions of robots carrying people inside and moving with relatively high speed in residential areas. Now compare this to current industrial robots, e.g. welding the car body. They are stationary, operate in a very limited area and never touch any human. Despite that, finally autonomous cars will be definitely safer than conventional cars. Still, numerous people will be afraid, because probably for the first time in our history we will have to practice the applicability of "Three Laws of Robotics" defined by Isaac Asimov in SF literature.
So... Any more doubts about the "revolution" in the title?

[Niclas J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was concerned that it might be very redundant but can recommend reading it even if you already read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Rather than focusing on Elon Musk, this book explores Tesla's impact on the car industry, the challenges Tesla and other electric car companies had to overcome and will still have to overcome as well as the broader societal significance of shifting to electric (and with that autonomous) transport. At times, it was a bit too detailed on "who came from what company to found what small startup" for my taste but overall an enjoyable read for people interested in Tesla and electric cars.

[Cris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing, he's obviously NOT an Elon Musk fan, yet does't hesitate to benefit from using Elon's name in the title! He pads out the book by including nauseating detail about every other electric vehicle whether or not it's on the market, or is even a competitor to Tesla.

Only a third of the book is about Tesla, but there's so much boring detail about supposed competitors that I skipped maybe a third of it. For example, he only has a noncommittal 4.5 line paragraph about the New York Tîmes journalist John Broder who sabotaged his Model S evaluation drive but doesn't mention that Broder drove round in circles in a parking lot to deliberately run out of battery. It was Tesla's software driving log record that proved the sabotage was deliberate.

But Mckenzie does include a one and a half page section entitled: "The pugilistic Elon Musk Powerwall of Fame" (the Broder fake news story is one of eight paragraphs here.) Every story contains a dig, some not very subtle, against Elon Musk and Tesla, maybe because he worked for Tesla for a couple of years yet doesn't care to explain how or why he left. Perhaps he was fired and is attempting payback!

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it well written, eh, maybe? Are there large sections that could be distilled to company boilerplate promises and comments? Absolutely. But the premise of the book is fascinating enough to check out. We are going to be seeing 10-20% of new cars be electric 10 years from now and it's all coming from an unlikely startup that won't go away. Lots of interesting data points about Tesla smear campaigns funded by oil companies and all of the grand electric ambitions being cast by others. The reality is that it's really hard to do well which is obvious because a lot of promises made just 12-24 months ago by these companies have already been scuttled. It's hard to turn a big ship with so many stakeholders like traditional auto: will they manage to change fast enough?

[Rory · Rating 2 out of 5]

The longest and most rambling article I have ever read. Interesting stuff, but should have had more direction and coherence.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book. Good review of Tesla’s ground breaking efforts in the auto industry.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to think Teslas are for those who want to brag about having money. Now I want to work to get one, the book was really interesting for someone who doesn't know anything about cars


“He is very much the person who, when someone says it’s impossible, shrugs and says, ‘I think I can do it.’”

High school, however, was not fun. In those days, South Africa could be a rough place to grow up, and Musk became a target of severe bullying. One incident hospitalized him for two weeks. He was beaten so badly that his father didn’t recognize him. “Kids gave Elon a very hard time, and it had a huge impact on his life,” Kimbal later said.

He didn’t start Tesla or SpaceX to make money, he has said, but because he believed the world needed them. The future for humans on Earth would be terrible if we didn’t switch to sustainable energy, and without electric cars, the peril from climate change would be unimaginable. His goal to colonize Mars is also motivated in part by a moral impulse. In the case of an extinction event, which could be brought on by anything from runaway climate change to rogue artificial intelligence, we’d all be homeless. “I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multiplanetary,” he has said, “in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen.”

Then, in a surprise move, Musk defied convention by declaring that Tesla would make its patents freely available to all. He promised that the company wouldn’t initiate lawsuits against people who used Tesla’s patents without paying—even competitors (provided they used them in good faith). Why would he do this thing? Most companies view patents as a way to protect their inventions and at least ensure that the ensuing license fees provide a reliable source of revenue, but Musk saw them as legal instruments that large corporations use to stifle competition. He wanted to make it easier for other automakers to build electric cars so that the world could benefit from reduced carbon emissions. Plus, the resulting attention could help with recruiting talented engineers, which he saw as key to Tesla’s business.

We say the things we believe even when sometimes those things we believe are delusional.

venture capitalist will place bets on a number of promising start-ups with the expectation that most will come to nothing but with the hope that one will become a Google or a Facebook. Better to have failed trying than to have failed to try.

To make great advances, he believed, you should not look to the future and try to figure out how to get there. Instead, you should start from the future and look back on how you traveled there. This was a view that resonated with statements from Musk, who once said: “The first step is to establish that something is possible, then probability will occur.”

But after months of wrangling, it was Sandoval who ultimately prevailed, thanks to an assortment of incentives that could be worth about $1.4 billion over two decades. Tesla got 980 acres of land for free, a twenty-year exemption for sales taxes on equipment and construction materials, ten-year exemptions for property and payroll taxes, $8 million in electricity discounts, and $195 million in transferable tax credits. In return, Tesla promised 6,500 jobs and a $35 million contribution to Nevada’s education system.

step is to convert the car into an intelligent object. Byton’s cars will include a digital experience for every passenger and connect with other Internet services to personalize the mobility experience. Your car should know when your next meeting is and prepare itself for your commute. It should know you on a personal level, like a whip-smart chaperone. The key for this? Collecting data on a scale that compares to Google or Apple. “Someone told me, if you don’t believe in God, maybe those guys are the ones in the world who know you best,” Breitfeld said, referring to the tech behemoths.

Google or Apple. “Someone told me, if you don’t believe in God, maybe those guys are the ones in the world who know you best,” Breitfeld said, referring to the tech behemoths.

Wu owned a Volvo V60, but he couldn’t drive it that day, a Thursday in May 2016, because its license plate ended in the number 5. The Beijing government restricted personal vehicle use so that, one day a week, each car took an enforced break.

that don’t have to “cruise” for parking spots also release fewer emissions. In one study from 2007, an urban-planning professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that cars looking for parking in one Los Angeles business area generated 730 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

De Botton argues that successful city planning is never an accident. The Renaissance produced great cities because its leaders believed that people are to a large extent shaped by the buildings around them. I am reminded of this comment when I walk the streets of San Francisco, a boomtown that ranks tenth in the world for number of billionaires, and must carefully avoid schmears of human excrement on the sidewalk.

[Alexander Krastev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страшно много ми хареса, но все пак недостатъчно за пълни 5⭐️. Очаквах поредната биография на Мъск, но всъщност вътре има сериозен преглед на цялостния пазар на електроавтомобили и автономни превозни средства. Погледи в миналото и в бъдещето на няколко индустрии, които на пръв поглед едва ли изглеждат свързани. Определено в разгара на енергийна и петролна криза тази книга има смисъл да бъде прочитана и препоръчвана!

[Richard Hughes-Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for anyone interested in EVs but it gives insight into the history of the car and the difficulties electric cars have had in recent years.
Some parts of the book you have to bare with as alot of historical facts are covered but it all adds to the depth of the book.
I would say there were a few grammatical issues where letters were missing.

[M Jahangir kz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on how under the leadership of Elon Musk, how Tesla, the electrical car company is revolutionizing the industry all together, and ending the age of oil, by providing better electrical cars which are not just environment friendly but also require minimum of the maintenance and of course the cost of charging electrica car is way cheaper than the traditional oil.

This books also provide the insights on how the giant oil billionarie are creating a doubt and also funding different studies to deny the climate problems and pollution surrounding the environment through the carbon emission vehicles, to curb the revolution of electrical vehicles.

Despite all the tough times that Elon Musk and his company faced in the past, and after coming out of all those past misseries and adversaries, now His effort are paying off and Electrical revolution in the world is growing at an rapid rate.

The book also highlights the importance of electrical vehicles the autonomous vehicles, also cites different credible sources studies that have shown how the electrical vehicles and autonomous vehicles will provide diverse and unprecedented advantages that have never attained before.

As the demand in the world of autonomous car is growing, so to the demands of electrical cars, because development of both the autonomous and electrical cars go hand in hand. The fact that Autonomous functions are best attained in the electrical cars rather than the mechanical car, because electrical cars are digital and performs on electrical signals, where as mechanical cars aren't suitable to the autonomous, because of their steering, brakes, accleatres are wirely connected .

[Oscar Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish we have more than 5 stars--as this book deserves it. And excellent read--I was under the impression that I knew everything about Tesla--what this book offers is the knowledge Tesla has promoted throughout the world...and how it is everyone is taking it. Quite interesting to notice the super-strong political side of the electric vehicle and what it means for all of us.

I am now looking forward to embrace electric cars and looking forward to the driverless vehicles--to be able to simply use the phone app to go anywhere-anytime. Imagine, just eliminating all drunk driving! That would be a tremendous and quite welcomed alternative for all of us that like to drink and get drunk. No more drunk driving! Like a dream come true.

I love to see how China is also getting ahead on electric vehicle development and their different ideas as how to promote their use in their cities--amazing technology indeed!

But--don't let me tell you about it--go ahead and get this awesome book and read it for yourself- you will not be disappointed.

Even if you don't drive--you will end up loving Teslas after you finish reading this book--I do already. Looking forward to get my hand on one--if I can eventually afford it.

[Gian Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favourite author, nor my favourite topic either.
As a matter of fact, before reading this book I never heard of Hamish McKenzie and I was overall quite unconcerned with the fate of the fossil-fuel powered car industry.
I quit driving long ago and never looked back. True story.
Yet, I found this book so captivating and, more than anything else, highly instructive for someone like myself who doesn't particularly enjoy motors.
The focal point is the (INEVITABLE, if you wish) electric revolution I grew up hearing so much about it since the first time we had a solar panel installed on our roof, and its frontman, Elon Musk.
Arguably, one of the most influential people of this generation, as someone who has already left an enormous mark in history.
A truly informative and eye-opening book of the greatest transformation our entire world is - whether slowly - going through.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[Jillian Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stimulating blending of technical timelines, blended with fascinating life-changing scenarios that illustrate a man's unyielding devotion to change the world.
This well researched overhaul of Elon Musk's devotion to the solar revolution and universal energy challenge encompasses not only himself but all of the major players included in his story; along with their cultures, their stories, and companies we come full circle.
To innovate like Ford, be as revolutionary as Jobs, while keeping a consistent focus on our planet's climate while we pollute our home.
What these incredible engineers have in common is there fortitude, and insatiable desire to change the world, hard work and a consistent passion.

[Destiny Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written background on the rise of electric vehicle technology. The author does include a disclaimer that he did work for Tesla for a time, which is evident in some areas of the book that focus heavily on Tesla technology alone versus general EV tech. Overall a very easy to understand and enjoyable read and certainly makes one excited for the things that are yet to come in the world of EVs. This revolution is just the beginning.

[Bruce Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tribute to Elon Musk and what his company Tesla has achieved to date, but also a look at how others are entering the electric car market, and the changing attitudes of the established internal-combustion car brands. Very interesting. Very honest. Worth reading if you're curious about the future of the motor car.

[Fabio De Bernardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book,in part because it's not a Musk-cult book. It offers a very interesting base for understanding what's happening in the electric car and autonomous driving car spaces. It would be interesting to read this again in 5 and 10 years and see how things have evolved, who and what concepts are and aren't still around.

[bookswithanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kein roter Faden, schlechte Übersetzung und sogar Jahreszahlen wurden vertauscht. Ich war geschockt, als ich dieses Buch gelesen habe. Wie kann so etwas nur einen Verlag finden und dann am Ende auch noch veröffentlicht werden?

[Eren Can Bektas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tesla ile ilgisi olmayan bireylerin ve şirketlerin ismini sık sık kullanıyor olması konuyu dağıtıyor. Yine de Tesla’nın geçtiği aşamaları görmek, elektrikli araçlar ve lityum pillerin geleceği ile ilgili fikir edinmek için faydalı bir kitap.

[Ian Mewhinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5: This was a great nonfiction book about the electric car. Great narration from the author on the audiobook, he has a very thick NZ accent, but did great with character voices in quotes in the book. A short to medium length listen at 10 hours, with a great pace throughout. It does focus on Elon Musk and his rise in the tech industry since he acquired SpaceX and Tesla, but also shows the growth of the market in EVs with the Big 3 and the appearance of new brands in the market in the 2010s, including the growth of the industry in China. I was not aware about the license lottery they have in China for cars, but it says that EV are excluded from it. The author worked for Tesla for a year so he had a great overview and insight of the company in the mid 2010s. Also shows about how Tesla is in the energy market with the solar roofs and battery backups for your home. I have seen videos on youtube about those products. This was published in 2018 so it never goes into how Musk got into his ego trip about twitter and the failure of the Cybertruck development, but as a general history of electric vehicles and the hurdles related with trying to create a car company from the ground up, this is very well written. I am a Mechanical Engineer myself, so I was already aware about the regulations and subsidies involved in the industry, and the press heat about the battery car fires and self driving software accidents. True level 5 autonomy is still not perfect, and is constantly in development.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Induction
1. Get Your Motor Runnin’
2. A Rush of Electrons to the Head
3. The Fight for the Electric Car
4. On Fire
5. Just Deal
6. Range Anxiety
Part Two: Power Shift
7. Go Ahead, Start a Car Company
8. California Dreaming
9. Build Your Dreams
10. A Supertanker’s Three-Point Turn
Part Three: The Open Road
11. Electric Avenue
12. We Didn’t Run Out of Stones, Either
13. Heaven or Hell?
14. Catching a Ride to the Renaissance
A Note on Sources

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 5 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...

This book needs to get points for going into depth about the fact that an electric car is faster, lighter and cleaner than internal combustion engines.

However don’t get it wrong is not a Tesla or Elon Musk Biography book. Its the story of the electric car, and since Tesla together with Elon Musk and other people involved in the company where the first to actually make it through as survive as a fully electrical company a huge piece of this book is about them.

But I get the point why some people (especially the die hard fans of combustion engines) might think that this book is nothing but a very long article. However give it a shot, and don’t trash this book just because you don’t like electrical cars.

I’m actually here under a big impression because i wasn’t expecting how good this book would turn out to be in the end. You can really learn a lot of things in this book if you just give it a shot.

This books starts with talking about Tesla and Elon Musk. And in general all the ups and downs which both Tesla and Elon Musk had from beginning. And the second part of this book are more about other fully electrical cars companies which Tesla and Elon Musk have inspired or influenced at some point.

[Wes F · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of car--with a built-in "insane mode!" Love it. Bring it on--the need for speed. Silent, but deadly! I look forward one day to driving a Tesla--maybe an S model or one of the newer ones? I've only been in one electric car--in Norway with a dear friend--and loved it. Musk is doing amazing things--in several fields--related to energy solutions. I like his focus on reducing pollution & waste, as well as bringing positive disruption to calcified fields of engineering. I mean, Musk's companies are turning whole industries upside-down: space, automotive (including self-driving/correcting vehicles), battery power, solar power, mass transport (hyperlooping), mass production that is more efficient & clean & light/bright. A very exciting time in history when developments are making huge leaps forward; paradigm shifts whose results are making worldwide impact. Lots of parallels can be seen between Musk & Steve Jobs. Visionary, creative geniuses who won't take "no" for an answer and push the limits to get the most out of their workers/engineers--ultimately producing practical tools that exude beautiful designs & class. This was a well-written & well-researched book that kept me engaged & interested from page 1. Borrowed this from the library; read on my Kindle.

[A.J. McMahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that it was about Tesla and Elon Musk, but I didn't really understand the logic of the chapters.

One moment we are right at the topic of Elon Musk and his company Tesla. The next moment (for about 60 - 70 percent of the book) we are talking about anything else other than Elon Musk and Tesla. E.g. other random Chinese car companies, British car companies, etc.

I don't care about the other stuff. I wanted to read about Elon Musk and Tesla like what was in the title.

I feel like this book was more about the "electric revolution" - put in inverted commas because I'm reading through so many claims in the book that different CEO's and people said. All the claims are talking about fully autonomous cars by 2018 or 2021, etc.

I mean, god, we are in 2023 nearly 2024 right now and I don't see any of these self driving cars or robotaxis anywhere.

I stopped and searched about a couple of these claims, and the only one that seemed cool was the Google Waymo robo-taxis that are only happening in Phoenix, USA at the moment. I feel like is gonna be a long, long way off before robotaxis and level 5 self autonomous vehicles become a thing.

Yes, it is beautiful in theory but the practise is going to take at least 10 years or more before it becomes widespread.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish we have more than 5 stars--as this book deserves it. And excellent read--I was under the impression that I knew everything about Tesla--what this book offers is the knowledge Tesla has promoted throughout the world...and how it is everyone is taking it. Quite interesting to notice the super-strong political side of the electric vehicle and what it means for all of us.

I am now looking forward to embrace electric cars and looking forward to the driverless vehicles--to be able to simply use the phone app to go anywhere-anytime. Imagine, just eliminating all drunk driving! That would be a tremendous and quite welcomed alternative for all of us that like to drink and get drunk. No more drunk driving! Like a dream come true.

I love to see how China is also getting ahead on electric vehicle development and their different ideas as how to promote their use in their cities--amazing technology indeed!

But--don't let me tell you about it--go ahead and get this awesome book and read it for yourself- you will not be disappointed.

Even if you don't drive--you will end up loving Teslas after you finish reading this book--I do already. Looking forward to get my hand on one--if I can eventually afford it.

[Jose Miguel Porto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Companies like Tesla, and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, are betting against the establishment to untap new markets and destroy old ones. Prior to refrigeration, salt was an expensive commodity to keep food from rotting and refrigeration technology changed that. Like refrigeration and salt, electricity will replace fossil fuels. The change starts with the car industry, given that cars use much of the fossil fuels pumped from the ground and create carbon dioxide as a by-product that is released in the atmosphere which is affecting climate change. If Tesla and other e-vehicles replace conventional cars, the whole infrastructure will change and a major milestone will be accomplished in transforming our fossil fuel economies into sustainable and renewable energy non fossil fuel economies. And the e-car will also bring with it the driverless car, which will reduce pollution and traffic, and will transform the job landscape as old jobs will be destroyed and replaced by new ones.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read /Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil/, by Hamish McKenzie:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo...

I recently read both the Ashlee Vance book on Musk (Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future) as well as the Eric Berger book (Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX). If you're going to read those three books, start with the Vance one first.

This book was fantastic, except that I think it delved too much in to Tesla's Chinese competitors (likely because Hamish McKenzie moved to China and lived there and had access). That part of the book felt like a detour that was not central to the story on Musk and Tesla.

[Riley Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a journalist & former Tesla employee, the book paints an optimistic picture of the future of EVs and the role that Tesla and Elon Musk play in its development. The parts about Tesla are the most interesting, if somewhat generous to Musk and his vision at points. The middle part about the various other start-ups and larger companies entering the EV space seemed a bit directionless and overly detailed. The end is also generous to the potential impact of other technologies such as optimized electric battery storage and automated driving, with a tech-centered conclusion that Tesla is going to bring about some clean energy revolution primarily using the market. I'm skeptical of this claim, but appreciate of the research that McKenzie has done in observing how one of the most successful start-ups of this century has done their work.