Tesla, the data company

There is one aspect of Tesla where it is miles ahead of the competition. And that is in its use of data to build what might just be the world's most sophisticated, cutting-edge neural network anywhere. Silicon Valley loves buzz words that metaphorically underscore the "next big thing." Data, for instance, was "the new oil." It was just waiting there, an unrefined asset, ready to be tapped, refined and harnessed to drive competitive advantage. But the hype and hoopla over big data has been eclipsed by the nitty gritty reality of the technical challenges in actually converting that structured, unstructured and semi-structured stuff into something truly valuable.