# Tesla Is a Tech Company Not a Carmaker - Torque News



## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

Why do so many people think "tech" means specifically information technology (a.k.a. computers)? Telsa makes nothing but cars, so they clearly are a carmaker (automotive manufacturer). Every automotive manufacturer is a technology company, because a car is a product of many technologies. And by the way, every modern automotive manufacturer produces (including buying from component manufacturers) sophisticated electronic technology. A bigger screen in a vehicle doesn't transform the company selling it into something else.

I didn't even read the linked article - from the title and the quoted assertion, it clearly hasn't earned the click.


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## electrico (May 18, 2017)

Because the understanding of traditional carmaker is changing.


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## Hollie Maea (Dec 9, 2009)

brian_ said:


> Telsa makes nothing but cars


I mean, that's clearly not true.


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

Hollie Maea said:


> I mean, that's clearly not true.


Okay, they sell some of the car battery packs (actually a Panasonic product) for home energy storage, and they own a (bad) solar system installation business. Have I missed something? Do they make mobile phones, or washing machines, or vacuums or something?

Remember we're talking about specifically Tesla, not Musk's various playgrounds, so there are no rockets in the mix.

Tesla is a car company to the same extent that Ford and GM are automotive companies. You can find Ford or GM engines in industrial equipment and boats, but that doesn't mean they're not automotive manufacturers. They're not, for instance, Hyundai (which builds everything from the car to the radio in the car to the ship that brought the iron ore and steel across the Pacific to make the steel to build the car to put the radio in).


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

electrico said:


> Because the understanding of traditional carmaker is changing.


Is it? Automakers have used and advanced a wide range of technologies for many decades. There is literally nothing Tesla does that is not done by other auto manufacturers, and that some of those others were not doing before Tesla was even formed.


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