We look at four bold predictions made by Elon Musk that have us wondering whether he’s a mad genius… or completely full of shit.
The man who founded Tesla and SpaceX doesn’t shy away from the ego-centric verbiage that’s ignited controversy. Of course, that doesn’t matter when the man is worth $7.9 billion dollars and could buy and sell your family a thousand times over. We’re talking about Elon Musk, the brother of Kimbel Musk, founder of The Kitchen restaurant in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins. With Apple’s foray into electric car, the squawk box Elon Musk is back at it again, tossing out ambitions like candy to the media.
We look at four bold predictions made by Elon Musk that have us wondering whether he’s a mad genius… or completely full of shit.
1. Tesla will be as valuable at Apple in 10 years
Tesla’s stock bounced around during 2014 reaching all-time highs and tumultuous lows. Nonetheless, four days ago, CEO Elon Musk said that by 2025, the companys valuation would be “basically the same as Apple’s today.” Tesla’s current valuation is at $25 billion. Apple’s? $700 billion — and increasing daily. Sure Tesla’s Model S is a popular pick among Americans, and the new battery factory in Nevada will produce home batteries as well as car batteries, but this dream of Elon’s is about as ambitious as going into the bathroom without your smartphone.
2. He’ll put a man on Mars by 2021
It’s good to know that Elon believes he can put a man on Mars before Tesla reaches the valuation of Apple. At least he has one thing chronologically in order. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Elon said in the best case scenario, he’ll put a man on Mars by 2021 (10 years earlier than NASA prediction). Worst case scenario, 15-20 years. Worst worst case scenario, he’ll show up at your birthday party in a clown suit for a nominal fee.
3. Ground Transportation will be fully electric.
Here’s a prediction we can get behind. He hasn’t given an exact date as to when this could happen and that’s ok. Elon Musk believes fossil fuel era will remembered the way we think of the steam engine today. Fuel efficient batteries — the ones being developed by Tesla — will turn fuel obsolete. His one exception is rockets for space travel. With the price of oil in constant fluctuation, the initiative for a greener planet in full swing and the price and quality of electric cars improving yearly, we can see this prediction coming to fruition within the next decade.
4. Killer robots will rise in 5 years
Finally, someone understands our paranoia. Elon believes that artificial intelligence is expanding exponentially and that’s not good for us human people. Here’s his scenario: if robots are designed to kill of spam emails and the robot relates humans to spam email then it could start killing off humans. Alright, Elon, let’s be real. This isn’t going to happen in five years, more like 15 when the world has reached idiocracy and we’ve already destroyed each other over fake twitter feeds. Come on, you’re better than this Elon.
All in all, Elon’s a brilliant man. He’s an innovator and like all innovators, he’s a dreamer. He’s developed Paypal, which he sold for $1.5 billion to Ebay. He’s built Tesla into a competitor and symbol of efficient vehicles. Finally, he’s built Space X into a NASA alternative, even winning financial contracts from its predecessor. You might or might not think these predictions are plausible. But we can agree, that nonetheless, all of these advancements would have a great impact on our planet ad society as we know it.
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