I'm willing to give him credit where credit is due. I am not willing to simply give him the benefit of any doubts though.
He does deserve credit for speeding innovation in the electric vehicle arena, no question. Battery technology was also pushed forward by this. You cannot say it wasn't inevitable simply because entrenched interests were resisting though. This implies that A: big companies cannot change, and B: no other individuals were ever going to make a play with a new company. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. This positive is also colored by the fact that electric vehicles are a good and important step, but not really a solution to anything. You have to be careful that your electricity generation is clean, otherwise you simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant.
Similarly, I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry. A Mars base, however, is a pretty terrible idea that is still many decades away from even the planning phase. A Moonbase or an orbital base, now that's a better idea. I would go into why, but many, many people have already done this, and it's a long, science-filled discussion.
These things granted, they do not exist in a vacuum. I also weigh them against any negatives Musk creates for the world. His gigafactory in Shanghai, his purchasing of twitter, his support for strongmen, pushing pro-Russian narratives etc.
When this weighing is done with as much neutrality and objectivity as I can, personally I find him wanting. On top of this, having formerly been a very big fan of his, this strikes as a betrayal. He used to be a positive impact on the world, but in the final balance, is no longer. I don't quite hate him, but I am certainly no fan any more.
If you want to see things accurately, try to avoid bias both for, and against. Nobody actually deserves benefit of doubt. Make sure you understand the arguments both sides put forward. Then you can weigh. While we can never be perfectly objective and know all the factors, this will at least get a person closer to actual fairness.
When I personally do all this, I arrive at Elon simply being a major corporation, no different from the rest of them. Mainly resting on a bed of marketing bullshit. I treat him as such.
Battery technology was also pushed forward by this.
Tesla doesn't make batteries... Panasonic and other providers do. I wouldn't claim tesla to be any part of this any more than every other industry that requires batteries and buys them from those same providers.
I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry.
I wouldn't. He's shown virtually 0% success.
Creating the demand still gets you partial credit. He does not need to own a battery factory. Regarding rocketry, if it were that easy we'd have done it long ago. It's an iterative technology, where versions come out that improve on previous models. This is something he actually is leading in, last I knew.
Credit where credit is due, he does deserve some where it is fair to give. All people deserve nuanced acknowledgement of any positives they have helped along, regardless of the balance of their actions.
Creating the demand still gets you partial credit.
So why does nobody give Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, or any other EV manufacturer credit? Why does Tesla magically get all the credit from everyone when they didn't really do all that much for quite a long time.
Read it carefully... Realize that Tesla didn't start this. As much as I'm not a fan of "china" BYD started literally the same time as Tesla, and BYD is eating Tesla for lunch this whole time.
Tesla's entire "credit" to the industry was marketing their shitty electric car to english markets. Which was literally inevitable. as they we're being out competed for a long time by other manufacturers...
The world's top-selling all-electric cars in 2014 were the Nissan Leaf (61,507), Tesla Model S (31,655), BMW i3 (16,052), and the Renault Zoe (11,323).
The other credit he deserves is for his raving lunatic filled fan-base.
Regarding rocketry, if it were that easy we’d have done it long ago.
He's made no progress since what we've done long ago is my point. If you want to credit him with no progress and tons of ecological damage. Then fair game I'll help you along. But to claim he's done anything worthwhile at all here is absurd.
Edit:
The Tesla Model 3 surpassed the Nissan Leaf in early 2020 to become the world's best selling electric car ever
And Tesla wasn't even the majority in electric cars on the road until VERY recently. Unlike what most people say.
Sure, if you want to spread the credit around, that's fine. Just don't try to exclude anyone specific just because they're a bad person. Afaik progress has been steady with the re-useable rockets, there's been a steady pace of launch attempts. I don't really follow it closely though.
I'm willing to give him credit where credit is due. I am not willing to simply give him the benefit of any doubts though.
He does deserve credit for speeding innovation in the electric vehicle arena, no question. Battery technology was also pushed forward by this. You cannot say it wasn't inevitable simply because entrenched interests were resisting though. This implies that A: big companies cannot change, and B: no other individuals were ever going to make a play with a new company. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. This positive is also colored by the fact that electric vehicles are a good and important step, but not really a solution to anything. You have to be careful that your electricity generation is clean, otherwise you simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant.
Similarly, I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry. A Mars base, however, is a pretty terrible idea that is still many decades away from even the planning phase. A Moonbase or an orbital base, now that's a better idea. I would go into why, but many, many people have already done this, and it's a long, science-filled discussion.
These things granted, they do not exist in a vacuum. I also weigh them against any negatives Musk creates for the world. His gigafactory in Shanghai, his purchasing of twitter, his support for strongmen, pushing pro-Russian narratives etc.
When this weighing is done with as much neutrality and objectivity as I can, personally I find him wanting. On top of this, having formerly been a very big fan of his, this strikes as a betrayal. He used to be a positive impact on the world, but in the final balance, is no longer. I don't quite hate him, but I am certainly no fan any more.
If you want to see things accurately, try to avoid bias both for, and against. Nobody actually deserves benefit of doubt. Make sure you understand the arguments both sides put forward. Then you can weigh. While we can never be perfectly objective and know all the factors, this will at least get a person closer to actual fairness.
When I personally do all this, I arrive at Elon simply being a major corporation, no different from the rest of them. Mainly resting on a bed of marketing bullshit. I treat him as such.
Tesla doesn't make batteries... Panasonic and other providers do. I wouldn't claim tesla to be any part of this any more than every other industry that requires batteries and buys them from those same providers.
I wouldn't. He's shown virtually 0% success.
Creating the demand still gets you partial credit. He does not need to own a battery factory. Regarding rocketry, if it were that easy we'd have done it long ago. It's an iterative technology, where versions come out that improve on previous models. This is something he actually is leading in, last I knew.
Credit where credit is due, he does deserve some where it is fair to give. All people deserve nuanced acknowledgement of any positives they have helped along, regardless of the balance of their actions.
So why does nobody give Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, or any other EV manufacturer credit? Why does Tesla magically get all the credit from everyone when they didn't really do all that much for quite a long time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle
Read it carefully... Realize that Tesla didn't start this. As much as I'm not a fan of "china" BYD started literally the same time as Tesla, and BYD is eating Tesla for lunch this whole time.
Tesla's entire "credit" to the industry was marketing their shitty electric car to english markets. Which was literally inevitable. as they we're being out competed for a long time by other manufacturers...
The other credit he deserves is for his raving lunatic filled fan-base.
He's made no progress since what we've done long ago is my point. If you want to credit him with no progress and tons of ecological damage. Then fair game I'll help you along. But to claim he's done anything worthwhile at all here is absurd.
Edit:
And Tesla wasn't even the majority in electric cars on the road until VERY recently. Unlike what most people say.
Sure, if you want to spread the credit around, that's fine. Just don't try to exclude anyone specific just because they're a bad person. Afaik progress has been steady with the re-useable rockets, there's been a steady pace of launch attempts. I don't really follow it closely though.