As it turns out, the Big Three have some distinct institutional advantages over Silicon Valley when it comes to building the future of the automobile industry. First, they have the distribution. The vast dealer networks these companies operate are commanding assets. Second, the scale of their operations is impossible to duplicate; more than 17 million cars were sold in the United States last year (Tesla sold around 100,000). Sourcing and assembling vehicles involves extensive regulations, and the margins aren’t great. Companies need to invest billions of dollars in factories and distribution
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