在12月舉行的洛杉磯車展上，多數(shù)汽車公司都利用他們的展示空間來展出新車型和概念車。但很少參加這種行業(yè)活動的、特立獨(dú)行的電動汽車制造商特斯拉（Tesla）卻帶來了一套房子。

這套名為未來之家的房子，安裝了特斯拉品牌的太陽能面板，以及特斯拉的家用電池蓄電單元Powerwall。當(dāng)然，車展上也少不了特斯拉廣受歡迎的電動汽車，包括Model X、Model S和最近發(fā)布的Model 3。這些汽車和未來家居，都是特斯拉正在為全人類定義和設(shè)計(jì)的技術(shù)更先進(jìn)、能源更清潔的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的組成部分。

這當(dāng)中有一個明顯的隱喻。幾乎沒有公司有像特斯拉一樣宏大的理想： 要說這家只有15年歷史的公司只是在顛覆汽車行業(yè)，有些低估了它的影響力。而且很少有像汽車這樣神奇的日常用品，能夠?qū)ξ覀兿胂笠患锲返姆绞疆a(chǎn)生如此迅速和深遠(yuǎn)的影響。卡耐基梅隆大學(xué)設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院（Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design）的教授馬克·巴斯金格教授表示：“他們把物聯(lián)網(wǎng)引入了汽車，或者反過來，把汽車引入了物聯(lián)網(wǎng)。這非常有趣，因?yàn)樗麄儼炎约簶淞⒊梢环N不同的范式。”

華爾街顯然看好這種愿景。截至12月中旬，特斯拉股價在2017年上漲了61%，使公司市值達(dá)到580億美元，與通用汽車（GM）相當(dāng)，并且超過了福特（Ford）。

而扮演夢想者的是特斯拉聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO伊隆·馬斯克。雖然有人聽到他那些宏大的想法禁不住偷笑，例如移民火星，但他的汽車公司所取得的成就是不容置疑的。

從特斯拉推動自動化和自動駕駛功能，到將汽車作為軟件處理（無線推送系統(tǒng)升級）再到讓電動汽車變得炫酷無比，在傳統(tǒng)汽車廠商設(shè)計(jì)和生產(chǎn)汽車的方式當(dāng)中，能夠日益明顯地看出特斯拉新范式的跡象。

在藝術(shù)中心設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院（ArtCenter College of Design）教授知名交通課程的汽車設(shè)計(jì)師蒂姆·亨辛格表示，特斯拉最大的影響，或許在于改變了汽車生產(chǎn)和銷售的陳舊模式。亨辛格對特斯拉的成就驚嘆不已，他表示：“Modle 3即使在最終設(shè)計(jì)階段之前，就已經(jīng)賣出了許多輛。就好像他們在進(jìn)行汽車眾籌一樣。他們在實(shí)際創(chuàng)建汽車的磨具之前，就已經(jīng)獲得了數(shù)億美元的收入。”

這幾乎是前所未有的成功。亨辛格稱：“這在汽車行業(yè)是巨大的成功。在汽車行業(yè)的歷史上，你需要投入數(shù)百萬或者數(shù)億美元，才能實(shí)現(xiàn)盈利。許多公司都是因?yàn)檫@種情況而陷入破產(chǎn)。”

亨辛格認(rèn)為特斯拉的氣質(zhì)與蘋果（Apple）類似，他補(bǔ)充道，消費(fèi)者在整個流程中的重要性日益提高，這同樣具有變革意義。“在流程初期獲得消費(fèi)者的反饋，這是一種全新的做法，也是截然不同的做法。”

另外，在購車體驗(yàn)方面，特斯拉也采取了變革性的舉措 — 將門店開在購物中心里，讓人們可以在線預(yù)訂汽車，為消費(fèi)者提供愉快的購車體驗(yàn)。亨辛格稱：“這種購車體驗(yàn)，與我們在經(jīng)銷商模式中被迫接受的體驗(yàn)截然不同。看到消費(fèi)者被放在了第一位，這讓人感到耳目一新。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

本文將發(fā)表于2018年1月1日《財(cái)富》雜志的“創(chuàng)新設(shè)計(jì)公司”部分。

譯者：劉進(jìn)龍/汪皓

In December, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, most car companies used their display space to show off new models and concept cars. Tesla (TSLA, -2.06%), the idiosyncratic electric-vehicle maker—which more often than not passes on these industry events—brought a house.

Dubbed the House of the Future, it was outfitted with Tesla-brand solar panels and one of Tesla’s home battery storage units, the Powerwall. Tesla’s fleet of highly sought-after vehicles—consisting of the Model X, Model S, and the recently released Model 3—was there too, of course. The cars and the homes of the future are each components of the state-of-the-art, cleaner-energy ecosystem that Tesla is defining and designing for us all.

There’s an obvious metaphor in that. Few, if any, companies think as big as Tesla: To say the 15-year-old company is merely reinventing the automobile industry would be selling it short. And few, if any, have had as swift and profound an impact on the way we conceive of an object, as mythic and everyday, as the car. “They’re bringing the Internet of things to the automobile, or vice versa—the automobile to the Internet of things,” says Mark Baskinger, a professor at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design. “That’s really interesting as they’re positioning themselves as a different paradigm.”

Wall Street has clearly bought into the vision. As of mid-December, Tesla’s share price was up 61% in 2017, pushing its market value to $58 billion—on par with GM (GM, -0.32%) and above that of Ford (F, -0.32%).

Playing the role of visionary is Tesla cofounder and CEO Elon Musk. But while some snicker at his grand ideas—let’s go colonize Mars!—the accomplishments of his car company are hard to deny.

From Tesla’s push toward automation and self-driving capabilities to its treatment of car as software (with system updates beamed out over the air) to simply making electric vehicles cool, the traces of Tesla’s new paradigm are increasingly visible in the way more traditional automakers are designing and engineering their cars.

Tim Huntzinger, an automotive designer who teaches in the renowned transportation program at the ArtCenter College of Design, says perhaps Tesla’s biggest influence will be on the well-worn model of how cars are made and sold. “They managed to sell so many Model 3s, even before the Model 3 was in its final design stages,” says Huntzinger, marveling at the feat. “It was almost like they were doing Kickstarter for cars. They were able to bring in hundreds of millions in revenue before actually creating final tooling for the vehicle.”

It’s been an almost unprecedented success. Says Huntzinger, “That’s huge for the automotive industry. For the entire history of the automotive industry, you had to spend millions or hundreds of millions to even turn a cent. Many companies have gone out of business that way.”

Huntzinger, who compares Tesla’s ethos to Apple’s, adds that the elevated role of the consumer in that process is also transformative. “To get feedback from customers early in the process—that’s totally new and totally different.”

There’s also the radical approach Tesla has taken with the car-buying experience—to make it pleasurable, by placing its stores in malls and letting people order their cars online. “The purchasing experience is so different [from what] we’ve all been forced into with the dealership model,” says Huntzinger. “It’s super-refreshing to see the customer being put first.”

A version of this article appears as part of our “Business by Design” package in the Jan. 1, 2018 issue of Fortune.