It’s been a busy few weeks for Tesla, with the company overseeing first deliveries of its new Model X SUV and hard at work developing the next generation of driverless vehicles.
At the centre of all the hubbub is Tesla founder Elon Musk, who’s been doing the rounds with the press a lot lately and getting his views across on a variety of subjects, from the future of transport to colonising other planets.
In the past couple of days, the closest the world gets to a real-life Tony Stark covered his thoughts on space exploration, the trouble with being a genius and why he could use a bit more practice on Twitter. Here’s eight things we learned about him:
1 – He doesn’t want to live forever
What’s the next step for a billionaire tech genius whose life work has been dedicated to furthering humanity’s future through sustainable energy, clean transportation and interplanetary travel?
Surely conquering death itself would seem like a worthy challenge, but according to Musk he’s not bothered in the slightest about living forever, even if he doesn’t get to see his visions complete.
“I’m not actually a huge proponent of longevity,” he said during an interview at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. “I think having a good life for longer is better. I definitely don't want to live forever.”
2 – Running two companies is hard
When he’s not busy with Tesla, Musk famously also manages SpaceX, a company which aims to reduce the cost of space transportation and enable the colonisation of Mars.
When asked last Tuesday about how he balances his workload between the two ventures, he admitted that it has its difficulties: “I wouldn't recommend running two companies, it decreases your freedom quite a lot.”
Comparing his businesses to having children, Musk got rather emotional when asked about coping with the stress of running two high-stakes companies, saying: “It’s actually been a very difficult journey.”
3 – Self-driving Teslas might be closer than you think
Autonomous cars is a topic which is dividing experts and laypersons alike, with estimates of when they’re due to arrive on market varying anywhere between a year to two decades.
According to the Tesla founder, however, fully autonomous vehicles will be ready to hit the roads within two to three years, though regulatory approval could take much longer.
In the meantime, Tesla is already slowly drip-feeding new semi-autonomous systems into its cars via online software updates. The company’s next update, version 7, is due for release soon and will include a new suite of autonomous abilities called ‘autopilot’.
4 – He won’t be voting for Donald Trump
Despite famously being anti-politics and getting involved “as little as possible”, Musk said that he really doesn’t want Donald Trump to end up as President of the United States.
“I don't really have strong feelings except that hopefully Trump doesn't get the nomination of the Republican Party,” he said, before addressing the topic of government corruption.
Corruption, Musk says, isn’t as bad a problem as some people think, particularly at the higher levels of government: “The greater the level of visibility, the less corruption there is... basically, how much attention people are paying, that defines how much corruption there is.”
5 – He could use a bit more practice on Twitter
Last Friday, Elon might have accidentally spilled the beans on a new upcoming Tesla vehicle named the Model Y, which may feature the same ‘Falcon Wing’ doors as the Model X.
Soon after being posted, the Tweet was mysteriously deleted, but not before the news had spread across the internet like wildfire after being picked up by numerous tech sites.
“I think it just said something like 'there will be a model 3 and the Model Y, one of them will have the Falcon Wing doors,' which is pretty obviously the Model Y," he said.
“I deleted that and a dozen other tweets because I had a rambling Twitter history. But it has no significance. I don't think deleting tweets makes it go away from the Internet.”
6 – He’s working on new super-intelligent AI systems
Along with Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is also involved in a mysterious company called Vicarious, which has been funded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and, er, Ashton Kutcher…
Vicarious’ aim is to build the world’s first artificial intelligence system that has the ability to think like, and be as intelligent as, a real-life human being. Current AI systems are very good at narrow tasks, like playing chess, but Musk wants a computer that can do as many things as a person can, as good as a person can do them.
The applications are endless, with one of the most important tasks this human-level AI could perform being providing a solution to the ethical considerations of driverless vehicles.
7 – He wants to drop nukes on Mars
One of the more controversial titbits from Musk was the revelation that he wants to drop nuclear bombs on Mars during last week’s SolarCity solar panel launch event in Manhattan.
More specifically, he wants to launch a series of large fusion bombs over the poles of the red planet in order to simulate the effects of a mini Sun in order create a greenhouse effect to warm it up.
Speaking to a dead silent room, Musk pointed out to the audience that while it sounds outlandish, it’s not too different to what happens on earth. “A lot of people don’t appreciate that our sun is a giant fusion explosion,” he said.
“So if you have two basically tiny suns over the pole that would warm up the planet, then you would gasify frozen carbon dioxide, thicken the atmosphere and warm up the water and all of that would have a greenhouse effect. Have a cascading effect to continue warming up the planet.”
8 – He may or may not be a supervillain
He wants to drop bombs on another planet, manufactures rockets and advanced technology, and is in the process of creating a super-intelligent robot. It’s no wonder, therefore, that people have likened him to both superhero and supervillain in the past.
During an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert came out with the question we’ve all been wondering for quite a while now: “At what point do you tip over from visionary to supervillain, and where are you building your secret mountain lair?”
In response, Musk could only offer quiet and non-committal retorts like: “Well, I’m trying to do good things…” and “I’m trying to do useful things…” We’re not convinced, either.
