Elon Musk: Tesla and SpaceX were moonshots with low chance of success

Posted on Thursday, January 14 2016 @ 14:37 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck

The BBC published an 18-minute interview with Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. The interview covers a lot of subjects but one of the interesting things he share is that over a decade ago, he thought Tesla and SpaceX maybe had a 10 percent chance at success.

Musk also talked about his vision for the future and how he hopes to build an ecosystem for sustainable transporation. When the subject moved to Apple, Musk commented that it's an open secret that Apple is building an electric car.

Musk said autonomy and electrification "are the two biggest innovations since the moving production line.” When Cellan-Jones asked Musk about whether he was worried about Artificial Intelligence, (something Musk has spoken about before) the CEO said that of course autonomous vehicles would never become sentient, but he added that computers could be taught to have a will of their own sooner than people may realize. The CEO specifically cited the short story “I have no mouth and I must scream” as a science fiction story that has given him nightmares.

Further details can be read at ARS Technica or you can watch the entire interview below:

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

Loading Comments

Share this story!