Although it's taken several years, mainstream automakers are finally catching up to Tesla, at least when it comes to all-electric vehicles. The Ford Mustang Mach-E and Porsche Taycan are just two examples. And now the world's two biggest automakers have a new problem in the race against Tesla: their electronics technology is lagging behind. The Nikkei Asian Review recently completed a teardown of a Tesla Model 3, currently the least expensive Tesla vehicle on the market. The engineers taking part in the teardown soon focused on the Model 3's integrated central control unit, also known as Hardware 3.

Not only is this technology years ahead of anything from VW and Toyota, but it can also potentially seriously disrupt the auto industry supply chain. In short, Hardware 3 is Tesla's best and most fierce weapon against its rivals. Upon further examining the computer, an engineer from a major Japanese automaker stated: "We cannot do it."