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In a Wide-Ranging Interview, Elon Musk Talks About Visiting Mars, Battle To Keep Tesla Afloat, and Neuralink (medium.com)

Elon Musk reckons there's a 70 percent chance he'll go to Mars, even as he knows there's a good chance he won't survive there. "I'm talking about moving there," the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said in a wide-ranging, but brief interview with Axios on HBO. "We've recently made a number of breakthroughs that I'm just really fired up about."

In the interview, he also spoke about Neuralink, the company he launched last year to build brain-enhancing implants. "The long-term aspiration of Neuralink would be to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence," he said. "If we have billions of people with a high-bandwidth link to an AI extension of themselves, it would actually make everyone hyper-smart."

Musk also revealed that Tesla had been "single-digit weeks" away from death with the company "bleeding" cash as it ramped up Model 3 production. He said he was worried about imploding and that the stress of working seven days a week and sleeping at the Tesla factory was very painful."It hurts my brain and my heart," said Musk, who recently publicly urged people to explore electric cars, even if they come from companies Tesla competes with.

10 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Model 3 Yaaay by stooo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the good thing is, Tesla is on the right track now....

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    1. Re:Model 3 Yaaay by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the good thing is, Tesla is on the right track now....

      No, the good thing is that as Tesla succeeds, it forces other companies to make competing offers. Tesla Motors lit a fire under all the car makers and now they are scrambling to catch up. Without Tesla Motors electric cars would still be in the "well it's a nice idea..." category.

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    2. Re:Model 3 Yaaay by andydread · · Score: 4, Insightful

      c'mon... you know he didn't say anything about inventing the electric car. Tesla made electric cars cool. Tesla proved that electric cars can spank the hell out of ICE cars in dramatic fashion from acceleration to handling (due to dramatically lower CG). That made electric cars cool to the public and drove demand. Tesla is doing it the free-market way. You know this so I don't understand the point of your comment.

    3. Re:Model 3 Yaaay by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's because they are "compliance" cars - they only exist because of California regulations that require them to exist or pay money to competitors with credits to sell (such as Tesla).

      Traditional auto makers and their network of dealerships make way too much money on maintenance for them to give up on internal combustion so quickly.

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    4. Re:Model 3 Yaaay by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      the good thing is, Tesla is on the right track now....

      No, the good thing is that as Tesla succeeds, it forces other companies to make competing offers.

      They're both good. Tesla being on the right track means they stay around longer, which means they exert more pressure on the other automakers, which is the thing you like.

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    5. Re:Model 3 Yaaay by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's doubtful. VW is out saying how they'll have a "Model 3 Killer", in what, 2023? That's so far out it can easily slip to double that.

      I would rather buy an electric pickup from Ford, given that they know how to build a body that can haul rock, pull stumps, and plow snow for three decades, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get that chance. My 25-yr-old ICE Chevy pickup will probably get replaced with a Tesla five years before Ford has their first FE-250 in the showrooms.

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  2. Would mod up if I could .... but yes! by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think any explorer, ever, just came to a new land for the first time and lived an immediate life of comfort.

    The point is, somebody has to be first to attempt to colonize a new land (or world in the case of Mars), and that's a task certain people find a VERY rewarding challenge

    And yes - a few people enjoy spending time in places with very harsh conditions, where there aren't many other human beings around. My dad was friends with a teacher who took a sabbatical leave to visit Antarctica and live in one of those research facilities for a year or so. He came back with some amazing photos and stories, and didn't regret it a bit. (Not saying he'd be eager to do it again or to move there permanently ... but it's something not many people have experienced, so I can see the attraction.)

  3. Sure thing, Elon by Bohnanza · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This guy makes shit up faster than Trump, but people actually believe him

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  4. Range and taking EVs seriously by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which is good, there aren't that many options on the market with comparable range (around 400km), price and specs. You have the Hyundai Kona and the Kia e-Niro, and not much else.

    The Chevy Bolt EV has range that is comparable to the standard and mid-range Model 3. Honestly except for long distance trips on the highway, anything north of 350km range is more than adequate. I have a Bolt EV and I've never had to use a third party charging station yet in nearly 10,000 miles of driving in the last 6 months. The only real range issue I see with it for local driving is that at highway speeds the range goes to shit because it only has the one gear. I think a highway gear would help a lot though definitely not a deal breaker since the battery pack is more than big enough to deal with any reasonable trip in our metro area. I have exceeded the range of a Nissan Leaf but

    After living with an EV for most of the last year, I'm convinced the majority of range and fast charging issues are important but also overblown. I have a gas powered truck for the occasional longer trip or could easily rent one if I didn't have it. Unless your daily drive is something stupidly long with a LOT of highway miles, the range on any of the vehicles mentioned above is more than adequate provided you have some means of doing Level 2 charging at your primary residence and/or place of work. I don't think I've gotten to less than 50 miles of range yet and I've been doing the opposite of hyper-miling much of the time. (EVs are fun to drive)

    Huyndai expects to make 30.000 EVs a year... less than Tesla makes in a month.

    That's because they still aren't taking EVs seriously. Just like almost every other car company. I own a Chevy Bolt EV and it's a good car and good value but it is obvious how much of it is borrowed from other Chevy vehicles. Hell it goes down the same assembly line as the Chevy Sonic which should give you some idea how similar those cars are. Like them or hate them, Tesla is really the only significant company selling no compromise EVs as of this writing. Even dedicated EVs like the Nissan Leaf are just chock full of compromises and ugly/bad design. It's not clear to me why they think every EV owner wants an ugly hatchback compliance car. (seriously, SO many EVs are just hideous to look at) I think my Bolt EV is decent looking but I certainly don't think it's a pretty vehicle and I'm not convinced GM has gone all-in on EVs. I think they made the Bolt and are resting on their laurels rather than pushing hard to scale up EV production and sales.

    1. Re: Range and taking EVs seriously by c6gunner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only real range issue I see with it for local driving is that at highway speeds the range goes to shit because it only has the one gear. I think a highway gear would help a lot

      It shouldn't. Induction motor efficiency doesn't vary with RPM the way an ICE engine does. Electric motors tend to be pretty inefficient at low loads and more efficient at higher ones. Efficiency does taper down slightly at the high end but certainly not enough to cause range to "go to shit".