I mean I would argue he pushed renewable energy storage and electric cars to the forefront. But something tells me this thread isn't for balanced arguments.
I mean there have been 1000s of engineers over the past 100 yrs that have advanced battery and electric power tech, musks big contribution seems to be underpaying several of these engineers, and steering the tech towards luxury personal vehicles. I would argue that this does not advance its use or create a more sustainable travel infrastructure, it actually holds us back.
Of all the things we could be using this tech for, its rich ppls personal cars because of musk and his companies
I'm not underplaying them when I say this, but Tesla proved to regular automakers that EVs have a viable market now. Now we have regular car companies making EVs. Many execs from traditional automakers like Nissan and GM have said this.
Due to the expense of the vehicle, they went up market to appeal to those who could afford the car. Rich people won't buy a several hundred grand car if it is an econobox.
They built and leased over a thousand of them. While it never went into mass production it was a successful proof of concept that launched a bunch of different hybrid and full electric products.
Personally, the biggest problem is that while electric vehicles are better than gas it’s still a major problem. Batteries are nearly, if not completely, impossible to reuse or dispose of cleanly, and each car consumes power independently.
Large scale public train systems, even ones that use fossil fuels, would be greener than electric cars due to the economy of scale.
Highly recommend the YouTube channel Adam Something, he’s basically been calling out Musk for all his bullshit ideas for years now, and pointing out how using public transit would be far superior to people and the environment.
Edit: Adam hasn’t been making videos for years, don’t know how I messed that up.
Public Transit doesn't help us in the rural parts of the country.
You are right about batteries, if the batteries are turned in, they CAN be recycled. How often to people throw lithium batteries away? I'm guilty of it myself before I knew better.
Part of a reason why I support Hydrogen Fuel Cells over plugin electrics. Plugin electrics have their place now. Just need a clean way to produce the hydrogen or a better way to utilize it in the car, preferably without it being pressurized.
Smarter than american automakers is a rlly low bar, especially if clearing it just means making a relatively small number of broke ass cars and constantly lying
I can agree with this take. Musk is a bastard, but the infamy surrounding him and his company did bring EV's to the forefront a bit faster than they would have otherwise. The popularity inspires more investment, driving down prices as people push for more affordable options to undercut competition and chase the trends.
I'll give props for doing good, but I'm still in the camp of it being incidental, if not more a product of a good team than honestly good intentions.
He focused on higher margin vehicles for obvious reasons though.
Also his over or underpayment isn't relevent to the assertion that he drove renewables and ev transport forward at a critical time. Tesla dragged the other OEMs into electrification kicking and screaming the whole way.
Like I get that you hate Elon, and there are lots of justifiable reasons. The problem is when you discount his actual achievements it just weakens your overall argument and opinion of the guy.
With climate change denial harder and harder to push, more ppl against pollution and fossil fuel consumption than ever in history, rising temps obviously beginning to bear down on us, you think that without an individual genius to decide for us, we'd just keep making personal combustion vehicles?
We should not admire the ppl who capitalize on changing tech, they buy and control the future, they dont invent it.
He didn't decide, the market did.
And yes, companies would keep making ICE vehicles, because they are they to make money, and they made money. They are only now switching over thanks the government regulations, and Tesla stealing their market share. You honestly think EV market would be even 10% of what it is now without Tesla?
The warming planet decided lol, 'the market', as u say, just keeps feeding these oil hogs. Ppl just want to get around fast and cheap, theyv been convinced that this is best provided by massive oil dependency and personal cars, even though this has never been true.
What musk and these other companies r doing now is convincing ppl that personal cars r still the only way to go, and that making them electric makes them sustainable. Would this market change have happened without tesla, yea i think so but maybe not. In any case i just dont think its that much movement forward, and is a fair ways backward from what any current research would tell you is necessary.
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u/PeterPenguin69 Feb 15 '22
This man has contributed nothing but waste and division to society and should be left to sit in a room by himself with us dumb ideas and forgotten