Your Tesla will probably become your most prized possession (once you finally have it), so you’ll no doubt want to be extra picky about who you allow behind the wheel. And now, that selection process just might be built into the automobile itself. During his opening remarks at the Tesla Gigafactory battery manufacturing plant in Nevada on Friday evening, CEO Elon Musk expounded upon his plans for the car of the future.
“Whenever you’re not using your car, you’ll be able to just tap the Tesla app on your phone and then add it to or subtract it from the the shared fleet,” Musk said. “And you’ll be able to define, like, well, you know, who can use it, like only five-star users, or anyone, or only family, or whatever.”
These comments come as clarification after Musk revealed last week that the existing Teslas would be transformed into a “shared fleet,” which would allow Tesla owners to rent out their vehicles when they weren’t using them.
“This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla,” Musk noted. “Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5 percent to 10 percent of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.”
But because you don’t want just anyone to be able to take your precious car out for a spin, Musk assured potentially concerned drivers, “It’s going to be totally up to you when you want to do it, or not do it. It’s all yours.” That’s right — no one is going to force you to give up your car, or let you rent it out willy-nilly to a random stranger. No, they’ll have to meet your standards and expectations.
