Tesla’s entry-level Model 3 was announced on Thursday with a $35,000 price tag and a 215 mile per charge capacity. This more affordable electric car has been Tesla founder Elon Musk’s goal for over a decade, and the Model 3 was met with widespread excitement among the tech media.
But how do regular people feel?
Has Musk given the people what they want?
To gauge public reaction to the Model 3 announcement, researchers at Unanimous A.I. used a method called “Swarm Intelligence“ to capture the collective sentiment of the general public. Unlike polls, where everyone responds in isolation, dynamic swarms are real-time systems where the participants “think together” to converge upon a unified response. In other words, swarming is an interactive process where the participants negotiate in real-time and converges on optimized solutions that best reflect reflect the collective perspective. A sample of 70 randomly selected car-owners were used in the study, who all responded together in real time to a series of Tesla related questions.
First, the 70 person swarm was asked to select the best reason to buy a Model 3:
According to the Swarm AI, the environmental benefits of the all-electric car still outweigh the Model 3’s relative affordability. Still, the internet is buzzing about the Model 3. So, why wouldn’t people buy it?
As you can see, the swarm of 70 people thinking together, reveals that the entry level Tesla could still be out of reach for the average consumer. With that in mind, the last question asked of the Swarm should be obvious:
Is $30,000 the magic number for bringing electric cars to the masses? It’s too early to tell, but clearly cost is still a concern, even in the wake of the Model 3 announcement. The good news for Tesla is that the launch price is not too far off the mark. If they can get their pricing down another 15%, it may truly be a car for the masses.
Want to be part of a swarm? Great. Swarms are forming to explore topics of all kinds from politics and sports, to movies and music. If you’d to be a BETA TESTER for the UNU swarming platform, just fill out the form below.
