Solar roofs, Autopilots and trucks: this is the new Tesla master plan

Tesla publishes a new master plan for its electric vehicles. Founder Elon Musk cites accelerating the arrival of the renewable energy era as a key goal - because: "The faster we achieve sustainability, the better."

Musk focuses on four points

1) Solar power and storage: Teslas are to be equipped with an integrated solar roof with battery unit in the future. To this end, the PV specialist Solarcity, also founded by Elon Musk, is to be integrated into Tesla.

2) New segments: In addition to new vehicle types for private use, goods transport will also be equipped with Tesla technology in the future. Initially, pickups and SUVs are planned, followed by trucks and vehicles for public transport. The latter two types are currently still in the planning phase and are to be presented for the first time next year.

3) Autonomy: Despite the first negative headlines about Autopilot, Tesla wants to push ahead with autonomous steering. Once Autopilot is proven to be ten times safer than the average American vehicle, it will definitely be released from the testing phase. The biggest challenge remains the software, says Musk. Nevertheless, he says that even today, partially autonomous driving is safer than a person driving without assistance.

4) Car sharing: In the future, Tesla owners will earn money with their vehicle when they are not using it. The vision: At the touch of a button on an app, the owner can release his car for use. Autopilot then drives the vehicle autonomously to the customer - and autonomously returns to the owner when he needs it again. This could enable Tesla to compete with providers such as Uber or Lyft in the future.

However, the plans are not yet very concrete - in any case, no precise schedule can be found. But Musk is confident that his new master plan will work.