March 30th, 2017 by Steve Hanley
Adam Jonas, a stock analyst at Morgan Stanley, recently released another research note for his clients on related to Tesla and the coming Model 3. Jonas has been consistently bullish on the prospects for Tesla stock and currently has a target price of $305 per share on its shares. His latest note says:
“We think the Model 3 will feature hardware and software that provide a level of active safety that could significantly lead all other cars on sale today and could, if the company achieves its goal, be an order of magnitude (i.e. 10x) safer than the average car on the road. According to nearly every OEM we talk to, safety is the number 1 determinant of car purchases. Look for safety to be the ‘ah-hah!’ moment for this car due to launch this year.”
The Model 3 will have all the sensors needed to provide true self-driving capability. It will feature a liquid cooled supercomputer manufactured by NVIDIA that is capable of processing 40 times more data than the the first Autopilot computer introduced in October, 2015. Model 3 owners will be able to select enhanced Autopilot or “full self driving capability.” Both are extra cost options but are expected to be popular with Model 3 customers.
Elon Musk tweeted 2 months ago that he expects a 90% reduction in collisions in cars equipped with what the company calls its Hardware 2 package of cameras, forward looking radar, and ultrasonic sensors. The software to manage all those inputs is gradually being optimized to provide enhanced Autopilot operation. Once approved by regulators, it will be capable of true Level 5 autonomous driving.