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Ivanliuks t1_ixfsag1 wrote

Personally-- I think that Musk is neither important to technological progress nor likeable (to any reasonable person). Those who buy into the idea that he is important to technological progress-- even factoring in his wealth-- have fallen for his con.

You'd be hard pressed to name a single project of his which has made it into the mainstream and significantly improved everyday life. The only one-- tesla EVs-- was not even founded by him and is still a far ways off from achieving his goal of replacing diesel vehicles.

His other projects seem to be having significant trouble in achieving their goals. And of course, many, many, MANY, of his promises have been broken.

Even if you like the man personally, you cannot deny that he can't be taken at his word. The fact he has failed to live up to his promises is an empirical fact, and so the ability of any of his technologies' to become mainstream should be met with skepticism before you take him at his word.

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AccomplishedGift7840 t1_ixfv9qb wrote

SpaceX and Neuralink are still WIP and super relevant to technological progress. We need to get off this planet eventually and Brain Machine Interfaces will be how everyone communicates with digital systems eventually.

Starlink is functional - IIRC it was just meant to be a money-making project as a subsidiary of SpaceX.

He did not found Tesla but that's irrelevant - he capitalised it from an embryonic stage, led it and spearheaded a huge EV movement. That's a huge accomplishment.

Seems like he's fucking up with Twitter atm but time will tell.

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Ineedanameforthis35 t1_ixfvlxm wrote

While I don't like Musk as a person, I think that Spacex being the single largest launch provider in the world proves that he isn't just a con man. I also think that Falcon 9 counts as important technological progress, with its reusability. Starship also counts, even if it ends up being far more expensive than he says, it will still be incredibly useful for space exploration.

I don't know much about his other businesses though so those might be garbage, but Spacex is not a scam.

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Halperwire t1_ixfu0ac wrote

>You'd be hard pressed to name a single project of his which has made it into the mainstream and significantly improved everyday life. The only one-- tesla

SMH Need I say more you idiot lol... You say he's a scam artist. I say the dude is single-handedly transitioning the world to battery electrics... Maybe you forgot how things were before Tesla. If only someone could be a force for good and push us past our legacy systems. Naw, let's just seethe in spite of his success and make a hate post on a singularity sub /s

One thing we can all learn from misguided OP is that no matter how smart you are, or how much success you gain, how altruistic you are.. someone will always be there to shit on your parade. In the name of progress I urge you all to not diminish or take for granted the good work of others. Especially those working towards progress and science. This is /singularity after all!

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naossoan t1_ixfvbuo wrote

Drinking the Elon juice, I see.

Tesla would have happened with or without Elon. Without him, it likely would have just taken longer, but some other rich person would have been a VC if it wasn't Elon.

Elon is an extremely dislikeable person in every possible way.

That said, he's very good at selling hype, but not great at delivering.

Tesla may have started the 'EV revolution' which, in the grand scheme is not important at all, but now that the mainstream automakers are "in," Tesla is being outpaced in terms of quality, with range coming soon.

We are much better off redisigning cities and focusing on mass transit, not personalized cars. Not only for the climate's sake, but it would literally make most people's lives better.

Elon is basically a meme at this point.

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Halperwire t1_ixfxczv wrote

You are discounting every single innovator with statements like that would have happened eventually. Yeah bro, Einstein was totally not significant. We would have figured it out anyway.

Oh yeah the other autos are totally going to outpace Tesla… at some point people get tired of the naysayers when it comes to Tesla and people like you simply pivot onto the next thing. “Soon… will be… just wait until…”

If you knew a thing about Teslas you would know no one is even close. For being in a sub about the future, you sure don’t seem to understand how progress is made. Elon has to sell the future and that’s precisely how he’s able to make so much progress relative to everyone else. Just step back and look at what he’s done and on how little time. For example, to judge him for missing a mars mission timeline from 10 years ago is insane. SpaceX has accomplished amazing things without going to mars yet. You see what I’m saying. It’s very easy for critics to judge something he says all while ignoring reality.

Tldr Elon sets his timelines if everything were to go according to plan and that plan was perfect. This puts pressure on himself and his workers to work extremely hard and to deliver.

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AppropriateScience71 t1_ixgiyhp wrote

This. Horrible human, brilliant visions that are changing the world - and he has the $$ and connections to pull it off (or write it off). A viable electric car market would still be 5+ years away without Tesla. High speed internet wouldn’t exist in rural areas in the foreseeable future. Ok, the Mars mission is a bit of a stretch, but, through this, he’s now DoD/NASAs go to for launching satellites. Way cheaper and great track record.

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SpiritedSort672 t1_ixfwt1t wrote

>Elon is an extremely dislikeable person in every possible way.

Come on, the sink joke was funny.

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Halperwire t1_ixfzzg7 wrote

It’s physically impossible to laugh and seethe at the same time. They can’t help it.

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naossoan t1_ixfxyh4 wrote

It was so funny I don't even remember it!

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grokmachine t1_ixhq5dt wrote

I find these to be strange arguments. For example, the charge that he hasn't lived up to promises. What promises? The only really big fail that I'm aware of (and I've been watching the EV world and Musk since 2016) is his claims of self-driving. Everything else has not been a promise, but a goal. Sometimes people fail to reach goals on time, especially when they are the kinds of things that have never been done before. What "promise" has he made that hurt you or anyone else?

You have an entirely unrealistic set of expectations on the transition to electric vehicles. If you look at various projections from major organizations studying clean energy before Model 3 came out, they estimated less than 10% transition to clean vehicles by 2030 for new car sales. Then when Model 3 became a hit, they started bumping it up to around 25%. Now that every other manufacturer (except the Japanese) realized they need to go all-in on EVs in order to survive, the projections are around 50-60% EVs by 2030. That is a huge change, and it requires hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in new technologies and factories and supply chains across the world from dozens of companies. This is lightning speed for the largest manufacturing industry in the world!

SpaceX has transformed the space launch industry and is transforming telecommunications. Ukraine would have been right fucked if they weren't able to rely on secure high speed internet in the field from Starlink. Similar LEO constellations had been talked about for years, but because of the high cost of orbital launch before SpaceX, and general lack of urgency prior to Musk, it had never been done. Everyone else is still years behind, even after Musk lit a fire under them. We would be decades away from high speed LEO internet without SpaceX. It may not matter to you, but it matters to places without high speed cable around the world.

Is he an asshole who strangely wants to advertise that fact rather than hide it like every other CEO? Yes. Is he making a big difference. Obviously, emphatically, yes.

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