The news about Elon Musk, the trillion dollar employee, discontinuing the Model S and X got me thinking. Is this a brilliant decision or simply another poorly conceived Musk intervention.
Medicynical Note: I’m inclined to think that the market for personal robots is very very limited and that this decision opens the door to an empty room.
Musk through the years has indeed been a brilliant business guy, affiliating himself with several very successful companies that seem to have been in the right place at the right time. In the last couple of years though his thinking has seemed muddled and delusional and not well considered.
For example, this quick reversal of course reminds me of the incident with the trapped Korean kids in a cave. Elon in what seemed a grandiose delusion, with no experience and few facts at hand, decided that a small submarine was the only way to save the kids. So he sent a tiny “submarine,” obviously unfit for the purpose of the rescue, meanwhile fortunately, experienced divers saved the kids. Then in a fit of jealousy Musk viciously libeled one of the rescuers. Elon sometimes just can’t help himself.
In a similar vein, Musk insisted that his early autonomous driving solution was the best but it kept killing people and proved not perfect enough for prime time. And while he is still working on a reliable safe solution, Waymo using a simpler more economical safer solution was first to field such vehicles.
And finally, in another brilliant CEO move he supported Trump with hundreds of millions of dollars for the Presidency. Yes the Trump who in his splendid ignorance denies climate change, and has cut the ground out from under Tesla and e-cars by vocally and through legislation opposing e-cars in the United States, i.e. Tesla.
And by supporting a luddite, racist,President and by being, himself, an entitled racist dope, Musk has alienated the folks most likely to buy a Tesla. Brilliant.
In the future Space X will be interesting to watch. If we ever have a Democrat elected I’m sure there will be attention given to Musk’s government subsidies. I can’t wait.
Medicynic 