Tesla, Spacex, Twitter
The man of empty promises: things Elon Musk hasn’t kept (yet).
Elon Musk in April 2023
© Chandan Khanna / AFP
Elon Musk is a man of big ideas. All too often, however, he makes the mistake of selling completely unrealistic scenarios at face value – setting himself impossible deadlines. Of course, that tugs at the reputation of the tech billionaire.
The world Elon Musk predicted years ago does not exist. Parts of his vision consist of ideas that even the man with almost unlimited resources has not yet been able to put into practice. The problem isn’t that Musk thinks big — it’s that he’s raising expectations that he hasn’t lived up to for years — and losing credibility as a result. Of course, this also has an effect on his leadership style. That shouldn’t be easy for his company.
Robotaxis, new models and infinite charging
Tesla is always hit the hardest. For the automaker, the CEO has always set out a grand plan that even the most talented of employees might not be able to keep. This not only affects the properties of his cars or new models, but also his vision for mobility as such. As early as 2017, Musk announced that within the next six months, with the Tesla Autopilot, his cars would no longer need drivers. Around six years later we know that we are still a long way from self-driving cars – and quite a few accidents happen on the way there.
Musk has also often gotten bogged down with the announced models. The Cybertruck is perhaps the most famous example. Musk presented the angular vehicle in November 2019 and expected relatively quick production at the time. Tesla is now talking about the third quarter of 2023. A similar fate befell a previously unnamed inexpensive Tesla, which should come onto the market this year for around 25,000 US dollars. Musk had to put that off because, in his opinion, there were other priorities at the moment. After all, nobody is currently reducing the prices of their vehicles more often than Tesla. So one thinks a little bit of those who cannot afford an electric car at the moment.
Speaking of which: For a long time, Teslas were considered a particularly smart purchase because Musk promised up to and including 2017 that charging with a supercharger would remain free “forever”. A promise that Tesla kept for a long time, but later restricted it more and more. There is no longer more than free contingents for special campaigns.
Elon Musk wanted to tunnel under the United States
Musk also has big plans for his tunneling company Boring. After its founding, the company was supposed to ensure that the notorious traffic jams in the USA finally cleared up and that traffic could flow again through inexpensive tunnels as quickly as possible. Probably the most ambitious project was a tunnel for the Hyperloop suspended train between Washington DC and New York, which should reduce the travel time for the approximately 200 miles from the current four hours to half an hour. Today there is neither a suspended train nor a tunnel. The only city where Boring has actually built anything is Las Vegas. Here Teslas drive underground from hotel to hotel.
But the mobility revolution is not enough for Musk – he also has humanity and social media on his agenda. With his company Neuralink he has been planning a kind of device for communication between computers and the brain for years. This should make it easier to treat serious illnesses and enable the technical expansion of the human body. The company planned the first tests on humans for 2022, but so far Neuralink has made headlines with other topics (16 of 23 laboratory monkeys at Neuralink dead). US authorities reject requests for human trials, according to “Reuters” Therefore currently from – even employees warn against it.
PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX
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As if the companies weren’t enough, at the end of 2022 Musk also took on the burden of wanting to rebuild Twitter. His vision: A marketplace of free speech, uncensored and yet financially self-sustaining. For this he wanted to chase spambots off the site and clean up generously. So far, the new owner has mainly caused chaos on Twitter and has now sacked 6,500 of the 8,000 employees. What remains is a largely uncontrolled side that, miraculously, hasn’t had any major failures so far – even if things got tight here and there.
As a goal for his Twitter purchase, Musk once stated that he wanted to integrate the site into an “everything app” called X. X – that was the name of one of his companies in the early stages. When and what will become of it is still written in the stars. No one really knows, something like Wechat would be most likely. The app without which the Chinese actually have real problems in everyday life. It combines a messenger, social forums and payment functions under one roof.
An AI with a Trumpesque name
Musk’s latest construction site has to do with artificial intelligence. Just a few days ago, in an interview with right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson, he announced that he was planning “TruthGPT”, an AI that works similarly to ChatGPT, but is trimmed to stick to the truth. He accuses current AI projects of being too politically correct.
Musk always gets a lot of attention for going it alone that doesn’t have anything to do directly with his company, but rather with his ego. He wanted to eliminate hunger in the world by the end of 2021 if the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) presented him with a precise plan on how this would be possible. Such a plan followed, but no donation to the program.
Musk made headlines in 2018 when children were trapped in a Thai cave. Musk offered to provide a submarine to rescue the missing. When his idea met with little support, he called caver Vernon Unsworth a “pedophile guy”. He was no help in rescuing the children.
X days since last promise
The list of promises that Elon Musk has made more or less prominently (and probably seriously) is very long. There are many, but not all, examples in this text. The partly somewhat unfair side “Elonmusk.today” has set itself the task of recording the billionaire’s many statements and counting the days that elapse between an announcement and its realization. Unfair because some of Musk’s statements listed there were probably not meant to be taken seriously – others, on the other hand, do.
There is no denying that Elon Musk has undoubtedly achieved a lot – probably more than many other people. It is all the more regrettable that he makes his achievements seem smaller than they are by making bigger and bigger promises. The solution to the problem would be very simple: Only make promises when you have already made concrete preparations in the background.