Long road to success for mass-market electric and driverless cars

Elon Musk has built the Tesla Gigafactory in the midst of the Nevada desert. But even the deep pockets of the greenminded billionaire could be challenged by the investment needed to create mass-market cars that are electric and driverless, writes Jon Gertner.

Twenty miles east of Reno, Nevada, where packs of wild mustangs roam free through the parched landscape, Tesla Gigafactory 1 sprawls near Interstate 80.

It is a destination for engineers from all over the world, to which any Reno hotel clerk can give you precise, can’t-miss-it directions. The Gigafactory, whose construction began in June 2014, is not only outrageously large but also on its way to becoming the biggest manufacturing plant