All right. Well, hi, Ben, welcome so much. Thank you for joining us at TC sessions mobility 2021. Thanks for having me looking forward to it. Yeah. All right. Well, as I described a little bit in the intro, Ben is the co founder and CEO of Tez lab, which I've always described it as sort of a Fitbit for Tesla's, but then maybe you can give me a little bit more specific about what actually test lab is?
Well, it's actually I mean, it's actually a good example, for sure. It's really about you and your car, and learning. I mean, Tesla's and all electric cars are computers. So there's, there's a little bit of a learning curve. So we built a piece of software to really enable the user to get their car, start driving, and then look at this app and learn everything about how to get the most out of their car. And that's driving and charging, by the way, and there's a lot more in between that I'm sure we'll get into.
But the interesting thing to me, is that how you're able to actually, you were able to even build this, and maybe you can explain, really the entry point, which is the API from the Tesla app is was sort of the doorway, if you will to even being able to create Tesla.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, Tesla is definitely a computer company, as well as a car manufacturer. So they launched the vehicle with an entire application programming interface associated with it. So third party developers, like myself, could build really sophisticated applications. You know, their API is what most people consider still pretty immature. But it's developing as the cars develop. So I think as their company matures, they'll kind of look to Apple and Google and really sort of put a stamp on, we're going to support third party developers and see what they can bring to the table as part of the larger ecosystem for Tesla and other views as well.
So do you envision that they're going to just keep it open as they have now or will create, like almost like a an app store or some sort of means for other companies like yourselves to really build off of it? And, you know, even someday do like a developer conference, like you see, then over at Google?
Well, I hope so. I mean, they're Ilan, in particular, and a couple other senior folks have hinted at it for a long, long time. And I think they sort of sidebar at it, as they, you know, as their priority list grows. But I certainly think in the future, it's going to be a major revenue stream for them. And I think in the interim, they're gonna view it as an opportunity to do r&d for the larger sort of third party network, they'll let people build things. And then over time, as it becomes more established, they'll figure out how to monetize it similar similar to sort of what Twitter had done, and even Facebook early days.
So you mentioned Ilan, and Ilan does have a long list of, you know, things that he wants to do. And he's right. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, what happens if Ilan just like changes his mind as he has want to do? And, you know, closes this off? I mean, is that basically mean, that Tez lab and other companies that might also want to be doing providing sort of, like third party apps, that that would be the end of them? Or is there a future for Tesla beyond? Tesla vehicles?
Yeah, I mean, great question. I think that there's been no indication that it would ever be shut off, I think what you might see is they might start charging for it, you can sort of look to kind of like what Twitter and connected for years before they acquired Connect. So I think I think you you could see that over time. If you look at what Ford has done. They're about to launch sort of, quote unquote, official third party development tool on Nissan is in a similar Camp rivi ins a little early, but I think what you're going to see is they will support third party developers, I don't think I don't think Tesla ever shuts it off. Again, I think what they they could do, though, I don't think they would is start saying, once you have exceeded this much bandwidth, daily or weekly, Allah, I think the Twitter API, then we're gonna start charging you for it. And then it's on the onus of the company, in our case, Tez lab to get some sort of master services agreement with Tesla to sort of stabilize the cost downstream for us
at it. Well, you mentioned Ford rivian, there's a bunch of other automakers out there that are going to be putting electric vehicles on the road. And some will, you know, proved to be pretty popular. So you mentioned earlier that you're building out the services. I imagine you're also building out the types of vehicles that you want on this platform. Right.
Right. So we the cybertruck is already ready to go. We'll see when that actually ships and then We've got you know, we've got Nissan LEAF is very popular. So that's potentially Next on the list likely will probably be the Mk II, the Ford Maki, we are, we're sort of waiting on Ford to finalize their documentation just to make it easier for the developers to add it to the system. But I would look, you know, hopefully by the end of this year, we support the Maki. And then once we support the Maki, it'll be very easy for us to add the F 150 II just like it's easy for us to add the cybertruck. So once you get the manufacturer in, it's then subsequently easier to add follow on cars from there.
I want to dig into data. Obviously, you're collecting a lot of data and you've told me to pass this is anonymized. But how are you thinking about collecting user data, particularly in the fallout that we've seen happening in social media?
Yeah, we're really, really deliberate with how we're using how we think about driver data, charge data we look at, we look at in, you know, other verticals, you can think utilities. utilities are incentivized to figure out how they allow more and more cars to charge on their grid without having brownouts and blackouts. So we'll work with utilities. And we will share our charging data fully anonymized so they can plan for their future as they think about their infrastructure and how they need to sort of bolster it up to support the growth of EBS. So in those in those types of situations, we view our data as a real value add to other industries, as they support and promote other people getting electric vehicles, which is ultimately the purpose of the software.
last questions are really out of time. Okay, you're just one of the many startups that are starting to pop up because of electric vehicle sales. And what's your prediction? Do you see a lot more on the app side? Or what other areas or opportunities do you see in the startup world around this ecosystem?
I think you're gonna see as as the OEMs. And the manufacturers stabilize their API's, you're going to see it's really going to be the next round of building for the platform. The platform is not going to be the iPhone, it's going to be the Tesla. It's not going to be the Google phone. It's going to be the Maki right. So I think and this is why Apple is going to get into building their own cars. I think it's going to be a huge opportunity for developers to start building inside this ecosystem, especially as cars become more and more autonomous.
Great. Well, thanks. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens and thanks thanks so much.