The Cult of Elon Musk Shines With Steve Jobs' Aura 181
HughPickens.com writes Alan Boyle writes that over the years, Elon Musk's showmanship, straight-ahead smarts and far-out ideas have earned him a following that spans the geek spectrum — to the point that some observers see glimmers of the aura that once surrounded Apple's Steve Jobs. "To me, it feels like he's the most obvious inheritor of Steve Jobs' mantle," says Ashlee Vance, who's writing a biography of Musk that at one time had the working title The Iron Man. "Obviously, Steve Jobs' products changed the world ... [But] if Elon's right about all these things that he's after, his products should ultimately be more meaningful than what Jobs came up with. He's the guy doing the most concrete stuff about global warming." So what is Musk's vision? What motivates Musk at the deepest level? "It's his Mars thing," says Vance. Inspired in part by the novels of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, Musk has come around to the view that humanity's long-term future depends on extending its reach beyond Earth, starting with colonies on Mars. Other notables like physicist Stephen Hawking have laid out similar scenarios — but Musk is actually doing something to turn those interplanetary dreams into a reality. Vance thinks that Musk is on the verge of breaking out from geek guru status to a level of mass-market recognition that's truly on a par with the late Steve Jobs. Additions to the Tesla automotive line, plus the multibillion-dollar promise of Tesla's battery-producing "gigafactory" in Nevada, could push Musk over the edge. "Tesla, as a brand, really does seem to have captured the public's imagination. ... All of a sudden he's got a hip product that looks great, and it's creating jobs. The next level feels like it's got to be that third-generation, blockbuster mainstream product. The story is not done."
I'm OK with this (Score:5, Interesting)
Every time I hear the name (Score:5, Funny)
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"Elon Musk, I knew Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was a friend of mine. Mr. Musk, you're no Steve Jobs..."
Re:I'm OK with this (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm OK with this (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm glad to see this comment was posted, and so early too. While Jobs can be credited with the work others have done, Musk is the one that, IMO, has already done far more in terms of technological advancements.
Fixed that for you.
Really? (Score:2, Interesting)
Electric cars were one of the FIRST automobiles [wikipedia.org]. It wasn't until gasoline was able to be produced in greater quantities and cheaper because of "cracking" [wikipedia.org] that the internal combustion engine took off.
Musk is not an innovator. He is taking advantage of the latest battery technology (developed by others) and trying to produce an electric car - which has been attempted on an off for almost 180 years.
Musk is a promotor just like Jobs.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh so you can't be an innovator unless you completely invent every idea from scratch?
That's so novel, you should write a book!
Nothing (Score:1, Informative)
Musk invented nothing.
And your slight and anger just shows that there is a cult around Musk - irrational emotonal outbursts are a sure sign of a cultist.
"Oh my god! Someone criticized my HERO! Time for a flaming!"
Here is what _I_ consider to be an innovator. [wired.com]
Musk is just a salesmen.
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I'm not so much Cult of Musk as a strident Anti-Retard supporter.
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They're both innovators, with the blood testing inventor doing more work. Whereas Musk recognized a good idea and spent millions backing and managing the production of such cars.
You do realize manufacturing cars requires a ton of capital. All inventions are kinda obvious once you seen them in action and know about their internals.
Re:Nothing (Score:4, Informative)
Here is what _I_ consider to be an innovator.
Musk is just a salesmen.
Ok, I'll bite. What exactly did Holmes, or even the other folks as Theranos, invent? Microfluidic blood tests, DNA based tests instead of ELISAs, All that stuff was invented in the '80s and '90s.
Have a look at her list of patents. Which actually present new ideas instead of combinations of well established technologies?
http://patents.justia.com/inventor/elizabeth-holmes
Musk took existing technology, improved it and recombined it until it could support real business plans.
Holmes took existing technology, improved it and recombined it until it could support a real business plan.
Good on both of them.
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To be fair to the original poster, he has a point. California had all electric cars in the 1970s. Even the all electric Chevy Volt was available before the Tesla. So, while the Tesla is an improvement, it's not innovative. Now, his idea for the tube railway thing, that could be innovative. His plan for Mars isn't innovative, colonizing Mars has been talked about for decades. However, there is no doubt that the technology that will be created to make it possible will be innovative. Of course, until that tec
Re:Really? (Score:4, Informative)
The Chevy Volt is NOT all-electric; it's only slightly different than a plug-in Prius.
What Musk is doing is building the entire ECOsystem. Cars, batteries, high power charging stations. over the air updates, solar manufacturing & leasing.
All of those things are already available but no one company has done as much and Tesla is TINY compared to the competition.
Re: Really? (Score:2)
He is not the first to control the entire production chain. Ford did it early on. And the Pennsylvania Railroad before that. That part of what Musk is doing is not innovative.
However doing it with an electric car is new and is why he is visionary versus innovative. He has a vision of how this all could work and is executing that vision.
Put differently, innovative is past tense, it is based on what you have already done. Visionary is future tense and is based on what you see as possibilities.
I'm not putting
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A visionary, I think, is someone like Arthur C. Clar
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I don't disagree with your definition. However, with the Tesla, what is he innovating? There have been all electric vehicles prior to his. The technology he is using isn't being used differently than in those other vehicles. Yes, he is looking at building his own infrastructure, but that has been done before, too. That's not to dismiss what he is doing by any means.
I also agree that the hyperloop is invention, not innovation. While it appears similar to a train or monorail, it really isn't. I would also
Re: Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, musk has contributed a great deal Tesla.
The same is true of spacex.
While jobs would pick winners, musk has worked to make the winning products.
Re: Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
The emphasis on typography that led to the Mac OS UI and to desktop publishing was an input of Jobs to the direction of the product.
Earlier than that, for all the slashdot hero worship of Woz, the Apple II wouldn't have been built had it not been for Jobs, and if it had it wouldn't have had a case, which means it wouldn't have been the breakthrough into offices that the Apple II was.
The idea that Jobs just picked products, rather than had a significant part in forming them is moronic.
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It's not.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, they're both innovators and promoters and visionaries.
They both innovated - Jobs by bringing GUIs to the masses and many other things by realizing what the masses want. (It's easy to bring something for a niche, but much more difficult to bring it to the masses). Musk brought innovative person-to-person payment system - send anyone money over the internet (he's a co-founder of Paypal, after all). Because until then, sending money meant you were basically a business, or were patient and did the whole money-order thing.
And they both had visions on how things should work. Jobs was about computing and making lives better through transparent computers (computers that you didn't see, but did things for you in the background). Musk is seeing how to improve our lives and future. You may not be able to afford a Tesla now, but you know, electric cars are actually very practical machines and you're now able within reason to even drive with an electric car to your destination.
Oh yeah, and both are salespeople because if you can't sell it, there's no point to even trying. Few things sell themselves, and most that assume they would, fail because of the hidden sales message.A few bad news articles and if you're not front and center managing the message, will easily spiral out of control. It's why Jobs made Microsoft invest $150M (message: If Microsoft invests in Apple, things aren't as bad as they seem). Or why Musk gets front and center when Tesla gets news, be it fires or negative reviews or whatever. Because if you're not dealing with the message, it's not going away.
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What's a freetard?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki... [wiktionary.org]
I'm sorry your vocabulary is lacking.
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Ah yes the dictionary anyone can edit.
Still means "I the user of the word freetard do hereby declare I'm an idiot".
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And your attitude on a word with a clear meaning makes you a moron.
Where does that bullshit argument get us?
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Re:I'm OK with this (Score:5, Interesting)
The principle difference between them is that Jobs was always known to be a huge douche-nozzle. If Musk is similar, at least the stories of it haven't spread as much yet.
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Musk seems mostly okay in interviews, but occasionally he does lie/exaggerate outrageously. The stupid thing is, there really is no need for him to do so as his products tend to be really great.
For example, in various YouTube videos he says that you can own a Tesla Model S for $300/month. That's complete nonsense, you can only get to that number if you factor in money saved on vast amounts of fuel, maintenance and guaranteed resale value. I'm not sure about the US but the UK price is about £820/
Re:I'm OK with this (Score:4, Insightful)
Musk is basically the polar opposite of Jobs.
One delivers little with a lot of hype and the other delivers a lot with very little hype.
Re:I'm OK with this (Score:5, Insightful)
The hype is the same with both. Mostly self sustaining and well earned.
And whilst the Tesla EV and SpaceX are important and exciting, bringing the GUI to the consumer has had more impact.
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Jobs was a master at marketing, but he didn't give the engineering enough credit. If he hadn't been fortunate enough to run acr
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If Jobs didn't have Woz, he would have got another engineer to design the computer. A visit to the Homebrew Computer Club would have found quite a few engineers who were just as capable of putting a microcomputer together.
Marketing was only one of Jobs talents. Another was motivating people to deliver their best work. Since Woz stopped working for Jobs, he has done nothing notable - beyond spending the wealth that his association with Jobs earned him. Other designers and engineers that worked for Jobs HAVE
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Note that Xerox did not "bring the GUI to the consumer".
And the extent to which Lisa and Mac OS was like Xerox Star is vastly overexagerated. Later GUIs such as Windows and the various Linux ones were derived from Mac OS, not Star. They copied features that were invented for Mac OS and were not in Star.
Love your Leaf as you might, it has nothing to do with Elon Musk. Even if you don't use any Apple products, you are far more affected by what Jobs did that anything Elon Musk has done.
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Most of that hype is fan created rather than directly from Musk or his companies.
Re:I'm OK with this (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't get it. Why the downplaying of Jobs' achievements? Yes, yes, asshole, RDF, marketing, design, blah blah blah. Whatever.
1. Jobs led the team that developed the Macintosh: the first GUI-driven computer that had more than niche appeal. He changed the face of computing and everyone in the field furiously struggled to badly copy the Mac for the next decade or so. This made computing accessible to the masses, where previously the CLI had been a pretty big barrier for consumers.
2. He introduced the first MP3 player that actually worked well. Billions sold, total market domination etc.
3. He introduced the first smartphone that worked well. Billions sold, total market domination etc.
Do you get the pattern yet? Innovation is not just about designing hardware. Designing a comprehensible interface is a major achievement in its own right.
Jobs made computing accessible to the average man. If I were to exaggerate as much as the parent: Musk just makes cheap rockets and expensive cars.
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It's easy to let rose tinted glasses come into play when looking back at computing's past, and excusable to a certain degree, but your claims really push the limits of how far I can distort my direct memories of some events.
For one thing.. the Mac was always a small if not a niche player in the personal computing realm. DOS or Windows based PCs have outsold them by a large factor, from a minimum of about 6 times as many sold in when the Mac was introduce in1984 to over 50 times more sold in the mid 2000s a
Musk Innovated, Jobs Devolved (Score:2)
For p
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Engineers reading Slashdot don't want to admit the truth: Jobs was a true visionary who directed his engineers into making great products.
Sorry, the truth hurts.
What exactly has Elon Musk innovated? (Score:2)
I'm glad you didn't mention iPad. Remember the expensive devices Microsoft was pushing in late 90th?
For me, and I'm pretty sure for most owners of the pocket PC's in early 2000-s transition from "Pocket PC" => "Pocket PC + Phone" was more than obvious.
The only thing that was missing, was cheap enough tech.
Apple was not the only company working on it.
Multi-touch => pitch to zoom and the likes is obvious too, we had that back in 90th.
Musk, however, managed to create electric car market, when car manufac
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Have you got a lisp? Because "90th" sure sounds like one.
It's 'nineties' (90's) , not 'nineteeth' (90th) :-P
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Steve Jobs was born in 1955, Elon Musk in 1971. Are you sure you want to compare them based on accomplishments to date? I think we can assume Jobs won't be accomplishing anything else, but it's a bit premature to judge Musk's lifetime achievements. Lots of people live into their 70s, some are productive into their 90s, especially if they can afford expensive medical care. Even if Musk were to die at the same age Jobs did, you really aren't giving him a fair comparison unless you restrict your comparison to
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Truly epic trolling. Well done.
Tony Stark (Score:2)
Since about 2012... (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.latimes.com/busines... [latimes.com]
His 2010 cameo in Iron Man 2 didn't hurt either, and neither did the use of SpaceX for filming of some scenes.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ve... [forbes.com]
It also helps that unlike Ellison his products are both physical and have direct practicality for most of the population so he is more easily associated with the inventor aspect of Tony Stark persona.
Signature red color of his space-age car is another bonus.
And so is the whole "rocket man" thing.
In comparison, Ellison is more like Tony Stark BEFORE Iron Man.
Yachting billionaire who collects cars, jets, islands and women and has a million dollar entertainment system which uses a swimming pool as a subwoofer, while his "charity" donations seem mostly to revolve around lawsuits.
As for comparison to Steve Jobs...
As the Iron Man 2 article above stated, Steve Jobs has "always been less Iron Man, more Willy Wonka".
Who, while espousing such lines as "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?" ended up selling overpriced toys.
While Musk actually seems to be trying to actively fulfill the second part of that quote.
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Why would Tony Stark be based on Larry Ellison?
Larry Ellison owns a company (Oracle) that makes awful products and races boats occasionally.
It's unfair to compare Tony Stark to that douchebag.
Obama's done more than Elon musk (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it's actually Obama who's done the most on climate change concretely. He signed into law new fuel economy standards that will double the fuel called me a new vehicles. Elon musk is selling a couple thousand cars a year, well Obama standards will affect millions of cars every year.
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I agree. But Musk is also making the electric car cool.
When the big 3 automakers tried their hands at it years ago, they made these ugly slow shit boxes that only greenest of the green wanted - so they sold hardly any and shut down production.
Re:Obama's done more than Elon musk (Score:4, Insightful)
And you're going to hold him up as having done *more* for the environment than an entrepreneur who spent - and risked - his entire fortune to make electric cars a mainstream reality.
Seriously?
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not to mention, the engineers of the US automotive industry were asked their roadmap and what was possible. Hence, what the politicians wrote. What Obama has done is line the pockets of "green" energy scammers
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Not this. Fuel economy standards were fixed for 25 years, and the average fuel economy remained constant. Companies design to the standard. It's important to know what companies can achieve so you don't make impossible goals, but standards drive change.
Designing to the minimum (Score:5, Interesting)
Fuel economy standards were fixed for 25 years, and the average fuel economy remained constant. Companies design to the standard.
Quite so. Companies don't compete on fuel economy and fuel economy is usually about 20th on the list of things car buyers actually care about. So unless the government forces their hand either directly through mandated standards or indirectly through gasoline taxes, car companies are going to meet the fuel economy standards and not much more. I fully expect our current fuel standards to not be updated for another 20-30 years regardless of what might be actually achievable.
It's important to know what companies can achieve so you don't make impossible goals, but standards drive change.
Nothing in even the most absurd proposal for CAFE standards was technologically impossible and it is unlikely that it was economically impossible either despite protests from certain groups. We have the technology TODAY to make cars that get well over 100mpg or the electric equivalent. They would be quite different from what we are accustomed to seeing on the road but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. (Tesla is a good example) Any automotive engineer (and I am one) who tells you doubling average fuel economy in passenger cars is impossible is either lying or badly misinformed. Modern engines are far more efficient than those from 30 years ago but we've increased the horsepower so much that the net result is (almost) no change in fuel economy.
Re:Designing to the minimum (Score:5, Insightful)
What's interesting is over the past 20 years OEMs made tremendous strides in efficiency, but instead of boosting MPGs they invested these gains into cars that were bigger and more powerful while meeting the same standards.
Missing economic incentives (Score:3)
What's interesting is over the past 20 years OEMs made tremendous strides in efficiency, but instead of boosting MPGs they invested these gains into cars that were bigger and more powerful while meeting the same standards.
Exactly. And the reason is that people don't shop for cars primarily by fuel efficiency because they have no economic reason to do so. Gas is (relatively) cheap and people like big cars that go faster than necessary with lots of frivolous bells and whistles. Fuel economy is nice to have but generally considered as an afterthought.
Unless the government either mandates higher fuel economy standards or taxes gas prices until they are high enough to adjust buying behavior, then companies will build cars with
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I'm as guilty as anyone else. I drive a pickup truck for practical reasons but even the most economical pickup available tops out at just under 30mpg highway (currently RAM 1500 Ecodiesel).
I would not for a second recommend that you drive one, but ye olde VW diesel golf-based pickup can do better.
WTF, "It's been 3 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment" ... I have great karma, what the fuck are you dingleberries (not you, the ones behind the scenes) doing to make slashdot grate today?
"It's been 4 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment" seriously, did some posse just go back and downmod a shitload of my comments just old enough not to appear on my list thereof as I
Light pickups (Score:2)
I would not for a second recommend that you drive one, but ye olde VW diesel golf-based pickup can do better.
The old Rabbit pickups are pretty hard to find in good shape since most have long since rusted away. They also don't have enough cab space for my particular needs - I need a crew/extended cab. There are some light pickups sold in Europe that have better fuel economy than anything available in the US but we seem to have an allergy to good fuel economy in a pickup on this side of the pond.
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Wrong, *standards* don't matter, the actual fuel economy of U.S. vehicles has risen year after year in the last 30+ years. That fact destroys your argument, you made up a world view between your ears that has nothing to do with reality.
Obama's (actually Congress) new standards came from the auto industry, it is their roadmap. Your hero politicians accomplished nothing.
Made up "facts" (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong, *standards* don't matter, the actual fuel economy of U.S. vehicles has risen year after year in the last 30+ years.
Really? The facts say you are wrong [washingtonpost.com]. Average fuel economy barely budged between the early 1980s and 2007 when the new fuel economy standards [wikipedia.org] were put in place. They started to creep up a bit in 2004 as fuel prices rose. After 2004 the average fuel economy has risen steadily due to a combination of higher fuel prices and increased mandated fuel standards. Now I'm no genius but I'm pretty sure that's a cause and effect relationship there. The fact that car companies are selling certain vehicles at a loss to ensure higher average fuel economy standards is proof positive that the standards are forcing the car companies to make more fuel efficient cars.
Obama's (actually Congress) new standards came from the auto industry, it is their roadmap.
The first increase in 2007 came under the Bush administration [wikipedia.org] we've seen a steady increase in fuel economy since. In 2011 the Obama administration along with the major auto manufacturers came up with new CAFE standards that will take effect in 2017 and beyond [wikipedia.org].
Got any more unsupported "facts" you'd like to make up?
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link to the EPA in my other post trumps your rag, you lose
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Yes this.
Standards were fixed? Irrelevant! They don't matter,the fuel economy of real vehicles in that time frame do. And reality shows the fuel economy of vehicles in the last 30+ years rising year after year:
http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/si... [dot.gov]
The only thing "fixed" in that link is the fuel economy of *imports*
The new standards are merely the auto industry road map, made by engineers and codified by Congress.
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Yes, the fleet averages improve year to year cuz the fleet is turning over and oldest cars retied. Mystery solved!
Re: Obama's done more than Elon musk (Score:2)
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http://www.nbcnews.com/id/2232... [nbcnews.com]
When posed with the question: Would I prefer 50 politicians like X or businessmen/inventor's like Musk, my answer would be more Musks in the world.
Politicians should be lauded for doing the
Re: Obama's done more than Elon musk (Score:2)
When gen 3 hits the market in about 3 years, few will want to buy a fuel cell car. As it is, the only reason why leaf and volt outsell model s is not because those owners do not want Tesla. It is simply because they can not afford it. Gen 3 will force all major car companies to switch to electric, rather than loose major shares to Tesla.
Steve Jobs' products changed the world? (Score:3)
At least with the computer you could say that he was the co-designer of the modern computer, designer because neither of them invented the idea just popularised and commercialised on the idea. But I am not sure that the Apple computer really had that much sway on the idea of what the PC is/was.
And while he was the leader in mp3 players and then smartphones, I am not sure that his designs were anything other that high-quality copies of what others had already done well before him. If Jobs was a leader in anything it was of aesthetic design and branding. Musk is the new Jobs, but he seems to be doing a better job of actually leading the pack instead of just following.
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What have you done? (Score:2)
I agree, for all the praise people give him, all Jobs really did was be a guy that could get people to buy stuff.
If you think that is all he did then you really haven't bothered to look or are cherry picking facts. Yes he was an outstanding salesman but only someone with an ax to grind would pretend that there was nothing more to the man. Could I sum you up in one sentence? I doubt it. Let's not make more of the man than what he was but let's not make less either, ok?
He invented nothing, he treated his family and friends like shit, I'm not even going how he acted to his employees.
And what have you invented that we should all be impressed by? Steve Jobs has his name on 313 patents. How many do you have? Steve Jobs founded Ap
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You mean modern toys in vintage Braun cases?
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Re:Steve Jobs' products changed the world? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure to what extent Tesla innovated to create the cars they have, but certainly they made the first EV that people actually wanted to have for reasons other than it being an EV or hybrid. It was also one of the first mass market EVs that doesn't look like utter crap (the Honda Civic hybrid being the other one). Interestingly, some analysts suggested that Tesla should stick to supplying batteries and drive trains for other car makers... after having stood the EV market on its head. I for one hope that they'll continue to make cars, but the real test (and the tipping point) will be the moment they create a family EV in a mid-range price class.
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I'm not sure to what extent Tesla innovated to create the cars they have, but certainly they made the first EV that people actually wanted to have for reasons other than it being an EV or hybrid.
The Tesla Roadster made electric cars cool, in that it was a car for the ultra-top end market, people who otherwise would be buying a Lotus or Ferrari. So, it was an existence proof that you could make an EV that contended with top-end sports cars.
It was also one of the first mass market EVs that doesn't look like utter crap (the Honda Civic hybrid being the other one).
Actually, Leaf is the top selling EV on the market right now. If you count electric cars with gasoline backup, Volt would be on the list.
Tesla doesn't make a mass-market EV yet; their Model S right now is rather a luxury car rather than something for the averag
Re:Steve Jobs' products changed the world? (Score:4, Insightful)
What turned the iPhone into something important was not the revolutionary device, the device was not revolutionary, it was the widespread belief that this was something important. In other words, marketing. It was the belief that made sales and created the customer base, it was the belief that brought all those developers, and it was belief that made people put up with the idea of a completely closed ecosystem - the idea that it was okay to buy something which wouldn't really belong to you even after your purchase. Again, not a revolutionary idea, but something that Apple's extraordinary marketing power could make happen. That was the new thing, the game changer.
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Have you actually tried using a cellphone prior to the iphone? 5 to 7 tiny buttons are all you get to control the device. These multi-button controls are a lot slower than the iphone and require memorization and they are vastly limited in their capabilities and features.
The iphone changed all that... vast number of functions available at a tap of your finger. Most
You're just as wrong as he was. (Score:2)
Touchscreen smartphones existed for years prior to even *rumors* of the iPhone's development. The key differences in the iPhone's user experience were:
Technologically: Multitouch, rather than stylus or fat-finger+buttons. The tech for capacitive multitouch screens already existed, but it wasn't being applied to any kind of even vaguely mass-market device. Styluses provide better precision and can be used with minimal disruption even on very small screens, but you need a place to stow them (you'll lose them
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I'll agree that Apple is a very heavily marketed brand and set of products, but I can't help but give Jobs credit for taking ideas and making technology accesable and usable to wide variety of people.
And it's not like Musk invented cars or even electric cars, he had a vision of a better electric car and made it. And even if you argue the Tesla is a more visionary car than the iPhone was a smartphone or the Macintosh a computer, there would still be people arguing about its technology, limits, cost, etc.
If
Apple's products did change the world (Score:3)
They did? I sort of thought he just "invented" slightly tweaked things that already existed and respectively made the second most popular version of them, and then the most popular version of them.
Without getting too hyperbolic about it, yes you could say Apple's products have changed the world. I'm old enough to remember the world before Apple computers. Yes they really did change things. EVERY PC, smartphone, tablet computer, and MP3 player you buy today was influenced in demonstrable ways by Apple. While we shouldn't overstate the importance of that, we should shouldn't understate it either.
As an aside, you keep saying "he" as if Steve Jobs was personally responsible for them. He was the lead
Please.. (Score:2)
Not until his signature fragrance... (Score:1)
There's a pretty massive difference (Score:4, Interesting)
Musk is more the Antithesis of Jobs
http://www.teslamotors.com/blo... [teslamotors.com]
Not Even Close to a Fair Comparison (Score:5, Insightful)
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> Steve Jobs revolutionized personal
> music players and smartphones.
Along with the GUI and the personal computer itself, but hey, don't let me stop you from cherry-picking facts to support your position.
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SolarCity? The Gigafactory (which hasn't even been built yet)? Tesla?
The common denominator in all these businesses: tiny market share.
And the iPhone, iPad, iPod? Huge market share.
So, I guess Musk is a genius at making stuff nobody wants.
Tesla Motors, Inc.'s Demand Is Growing Faster Than Production [fool.com]
Model S has been an enormous success. Not only has the all-electric luxury sedan been outselling all comparably priced cars in North America in 2013, but Tesla is expecting sales to increase by more than 50% this year. Most surprising of all, however, is that Tesla is achieving this without spending any money on advertising.
People want the car, but most people can't afford it and Tesla still can't build the car fast enough to keep up with demand. But I suspect you knew that. You also probably know that consumer reports is calling the Tesla Model S the best car it has ever tested. [cnn.com] The Gigfactory is part of the plan to price the Model 3 such that the middle class can afford it.
And you forgot to mention SpaceX [spacex.com] which has single handily brought commercial satellite l
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Clearly you don't like the guy but to call him a huckster is ridiculous. As is accusing him of "sucking at the government teat." Tesla got a loan and paid it back with interest (unlike GM that got partially "bought" by the US government, bailed out, and then sold back to the private sector at a substantial loss.) As far as tax credits, all manufacturers of EVs get them.
You're upset that they build an expensive car to fund the development of less expensive ones? Your mad that 10%ers (not 1%), are funding t
Wealth or intelligence (Score:2)
Mars journey will be toughest nut (Score:2)
Musks 'Mars Vision' has human physiological limits that are unknown.
No one has proved that human eyes can survive the length of a space irradiated trip to Mars & back. All we know is lengthy stays in space degrade astronaut's eyes.
Elon Musk much more visionary (Score:2)
If Jobs had not helped make the iphone, I am sure someone else would have made something similar and just as good, and already were. I have doubts of someone would be doing electric cars and SpaceX, in quite the same way that Elon Musk is doing them.
Out of reach of the common people (Score:2)
Tesla cars are interesting, but their impact is currently limited. The cars are simply too expensive. We'll have to wait and see if the impact of Tesla can change the industry. Other Elon Musk endeavours are also too early to tell. SpaceX is already going to space, but as others have commented, low Earth orbit is not really space yet. This is the cosy neighbourhood of our home. Getting to Mars and beyond is currently nothing but a dream.
It is too early to compare Musk to Jobs. In spite of its many documente
it's all about advancement of society (Score:2)
Guys, it's advancement of society based on our social judgement.
Gates, Jobs, Brin and Page and similar folks will be found by history to be the Henry Ford's of our time. Addressing problems of the many by bringing forward solutions of the affluent to everyone (e.g. bring access to the masses).
Musk, Bezos, maybe, just maybe Zuckerberg (or likely not) will be found by history to be the Howard Hughes and Disney's of our time. Addressing pure world problems by tackling it with new approaches (e.g. a new way of
Musk vs Jobs (Score:2)
Jobs took on the pc industry and lost. But helped introduce a lot of great technologies in the PC industry. They also got it started.
Jobs took introduced the GUI that was largely ignored until Windows was popularized in the early 90s.
Jobs took on the music industry and unblocked the online music market.
Jobs took on the cellphone market and beat the incumbents.
He created the tablet market (even though MS created it first).
Musk revolutionized online Payments with PayPal.
Musk took on the Car industry and unblo
Mars natural resources (Score:2)
I keep hearing about this "colony on Mars" stuff, but we don't need to go out of earth because there is not enough space for all the people, there is plenty of space to build more cities available. We need to do it because we need more natural resources, do Mars has arable fields and water for them? Oil? Gold, silver, iron, aluminum? Rare earth minerals?
To me asteroid mining seems far more interesting.
Re:He's a nasty little man (Score:5, Informative)
Face it, he's a little shit who covers his mistakes and his products weaknesses with astroturf and false PR.
Sounds like Steve Jobs
Re:He's a nasty little man (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure the man has an ego the size of Jupiter and a temper to match, but at least he has some reason to have those. He's getting things done in several difficult industries. The comparison to Apple and Jobs is apt in more ways that one: like Apple's flagship product, the Tesla has caught the attention of many, and every little flaw is put under a magnifying glass and blown out of proportion.
Re:He's a nasty little man (Score:5, Informative)
The NYT drove the car in circles in a parking lot to run down the battery, then lied about the range. Musk pulled the GPS data and PROVED they were lying.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blo... [teslamotors.com]
Re: (Score:2)
If the open source developer in question is Lennart Poeterring then yes.
Re: (Score:2)
But the world needs Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Andrew Canarge and John Rockefeller's of the world.
No, it doesn't.
Re: (Score:2)
This story is rated too complicated for a broad audience to understand.
Re: More like Steve Wozniak with charisma (Score:2)
Re: Never made an honest dime (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
One thing that does bother me a little is that all the successes of any company get attributed to the CEO. They have a lot of hard working, very smart and creative people working for the company, who have their accomplishments left in shadow because of the the CEO being the public face of the company. It's not all The CEO!
FTFY. I mean, it isn't like Eric Schmidt wrote every line of Google, Gmail, and Youtube. Jeff Bezos didn't sit down and engineer the Kindle. And Steve Ballmer sure as fuck didn't build the
Re: Mars is rubbish (Score:2)