Seems like a giant waste, where is my thorium power plant? where is my new battery tech? where is my fleet of robot farmers?
These are not flying cars, but batteries that are 5 times cheaper in 10 years is impressive. I don't know much about farming but it looks like now, tractors do most of the job, and the guy in the cab is just checking to see if everything goes well. Farmers are still needed, be we need less and less of them for bigger and bigger fields.
Tesla and Panasonic and CATL are doing R&D on batteries. And Tesla and Panasonic are known long-term partners. So, how do they share the R&D? Do they research different topics (chemistry, manufacturing, etc...), does Tesla pays Panasonic to do the R&D? Directly or indirectly?
Tesla must have played a major role regarding battery technology. Other EV manufacturers too, but I suspect Tesla more than the others since they were the biggest player for quite a while (and still are by some metrics), have loads of money, and offer battery products other than cars.