What I am disappointed by is how his fans react to criticism. There's healthy respect and there's unhealthy worship. When you have a bunch of people who will get really upset due to any criticism that is on the worship side of the coin. Any community with voting arrows (HN/Reddit) suppresses anything negative said (no matter how supportable/well constructed the criticism may be).
Plus these same fans love to attack competition who are also doing really cool stuff instead of supporting them (e.g. Orbital ATK, Faraday Future, NIKOLA ONE, et al). Using arguments that are often double standards or ignore Tesla/SpaceX's own history to make them work.
But he's changing the world. So I give the guy wide latitude with my opinion. At least he's not yet another useless silicon valley billionaire. He is the least terrible billionaire industrialist IMHO.
This is a great place to meet in the middle between the cynics and fanboys.
I'd say Bill gates still retains that title.
Yes, he has done great things since he left. But he set the computer industry back decades with his predatory business tactics.
A big part of the reason why we have so many walled gardens now is because he started the trend. And we're lucky we have multiple walled gardens. If he had succeeded a little longer we'd still only have one big one.
So one became a humanitarian statesman? And the other became king of the patent trolls, the most feared man in the Valley? Or perhaps soon, humanitarian statesman and inquisitive chef? Image management is mazing.
This is condescending and not constructive. You should know better than to post like this on HN.
What is "tank secured?"
Consumer Reports's testing which went off their scale[0], and the NHTSA crash testing which apparently broke the machine for the roof crush test[1]
[0] http://www.autonews.com/article/20150827/RETAIL03/150829910/...
Plans are 10% of actually building something, at that level. Materials aren't legos, each product needs to be qualified and have its idiosyncrasies addressed. Even at the consumer level, when you change manufacturers you often have to retool your process because while the specs are the same, you're delivered something different.
Keeping technology at the same level requires ongoing engineering. When that engineering is removed, the technology decays. It very quickly becomes a matter of reinvention rather than rebuilding.
Something often forgotten when companies offshore production.
Musk actually said that technology does not move forward if there is nobody (or no company or no government) to push it forward.
The absence of a business case is not the same as the absence of technology.
Technology for supersonic aircraft has moved forward since the Concorde. Economically viable applications for that technology for commercial passenger transport have not, however, appeared. (Or, if they have, they haven't been recognized.)
Given their extreme noise, pollution, and ozone layer disruption it's certainly a good thing there aren't hundreds or thousands of Concorde-equivalents plying the skies today.
Technology is both economics and engineering. Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done if no one is willing to cover the costs.
I don't think the Egyptians used magic, perhaps they knew a trick or two we don't know about, i don't think there's any writing left about the construction techniques.
The Egyptians' "trick" was massive amounts of human labor over a long timespan. Nothing you couldn't do a lot faster today if you were willing to spend the money (and manage to get the permits).
The construction of the pyramids is not impressive from a technological point of view, but perhaps from a logistical point of view.
It would cost something like $5 billion today and would take ~2,000 people ~5 years. Which is relatively speaking a lot less expensive. Put another way, Bill G could build ~17 of them in his lifetime and not be broke.
Awesome! What's at one time only the province of the greatest empire on the planet could become just one of many of a billionaire's projects. Let's scale this out from the present day with something of seemingly unattainable current value: How about The United States of America? Maybe several decades hence, a billionaire will have made himself the equivalent? Colonization of Mars, anyone?
Also, he's planning to spend your money on it, not his.
The point is that technology can be lost. Sure, we may have re-learned the technology in the intervening millennia, but we wouldn't have to re-learn it if it wasn't lost in the first place.
Tesla is reaping the rewards for making a good EV and backing it with the right infrastructure, its not rocket science.
If the motor industry had actually not made a half bothered attempt at EVs and actually tried to innovate they would have had similar success.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=elon%20m...
Which only started picking up after the Model S was released and started getting great reviews.
The idea that Musk is a "master salesman" or whatever is pretty dumb if you watch any of his interviews. He's definitely good at business, but his fame has been fueled by his achievements alone.
They have that too!
He is a brilliant business man with a vision that is refreshing compared to others. He deserves a superhero status for that. Genius engineer ? That's going a bit too far and I guess that rubs the people you mentioned the wrong way.
Willing, or able.
He's taking huge risks because other people are footing the bill.
And FedEx has a huge implicit subsidy via road maintenance. And Walmart, via various welfare policies. And insurance companies heavily benefit from various government policies.
I can think of these all day.
Billions in loans? Tesla received a $465M loan from the department of energy in 2010, which they paid back in full, with interest, by 2013.
As for subsidies (ZEV credits, EV incentives, state tax credits, etc)? Tesla receives absolutely nothing that isn't available to all US car manufacturers.
I'd much rather have a car company take some of my money in taxes than take my health by polluting.
Remember leaded gasoline? That's only been fully banned in the US for about two decades. Entire generations were damaged, like Flint, MI on a national scale.
But ooh noo, Elon Musk takes some of our taxes, the horror.
But honestly, let him have it, I say. He's earning it. He's taking huge risks and succeeding where others weren't willing to try.