His efforts turned out to be a bit of a damp squib but that's because the rescue effort was launched earlier than expected due to coming heavy rains.
There was talk about having the kids wait in there until as late as November, or maybe a long process of drilling an escape hole.
If the rescue had begun a week or two later, perhaps Musk's gadget would have been used. As it is, the divers already had a plan that, by the time Musk arrived, appeared to be working well.
But yeah, he tweets a lot about his projects, and no doubt has some thought toward self-promotion.
He appears to follow through, so I can't be too cynical about his apparent opportunism.
Talking about drilling escape holes.
The Dahlbusch rescue device was improvised in 5 days, with no patents claimed whatsover. Wonder if Musk will do the same with his contraption.
I would guess the "sub" was not much wider than the kids. While an adult or kid couldn't get through while wearing a cylinder, a cylinder a little bigger than a kid (or smaller than the torso of a Navy SEAL) might get through.
The problem may have been more that it would be too long to navigate some bends in the caves.
It also occurs to me that, being made of aluminum, the tube would act like a giant heatsink in the cold water, chilling whoever was inside.
But with more time before the rescue, and by consulting with divers familiar with the caves, the problems might have been worked out.
So, yeah, taking the tube to Thailand was kind of pointless, but I guess at least shows that it wasn't just empty tweeting. There was an effort.
Is the second half of this even true? If you create something that is impractical for the mission and won't be used have you been useful at all? I think not.
I got the feeling that he just jumped in on that, without further thinking (which at least to me seems sympathetic). Got the feeling that it rather hurt their PR as people were quick to call it a PR stunt, which is foreseeable if you mainly think about PR.
How dare you slander our lord and savior Elon Musk! /s
Seriously though, there's a strong cult of personality at play and HN readers frequently downvote any comment that is even slightly negative about Musk or Tesla or SpaceX.
In my discussions with people, it seems like he’s becoming increasingly polarizing. His fans are idolizing him, but others see his behavior as attention-seeking theatrics. Interesting to see how it plays out in the long run, in terms of company PR.
You're arguing the point that because his help wasn't needed in the end that he shouldn't have offered to help.
But it's conceivable that his expertise could have been useful.
Did any other organisations offer subterranean expertise? Genuine question, e.g. mining companies, drilling, or was it just that Musk made the most noise about it?
My impression was that this was not a good-faith effort to help but rather to be seen to be helping, without any concern for whether his efforts were useful.
Which is itself a bad faith evaluation. I'd prefer to be kinder and thus keep the door open for other such "help" in the future. Fundamentally, he didn't do any harm.
Actually, I believe that other people were exploring the options of drilling a rescue tunnel from the surface. IIRC, there was even the beginning of projects to make a usable tunnel launch site for such a rescue tunnel.
I wonder how many on HN are thinking more about Elon Musk's now-not-needed rescue plan than the delight those mothers of those boys must be feeling!
There is also a tragedy going on in Japan right now with a lot of people actually with us no more. But a few million people with flooded homes is a 'statistic' whereas a few boys in a cave is a 'tragedy' to paraphrase Stalin.
I think that there is a time for offering assistance in a big public way, there is also the 'George Michael' approach. He was willing to help many desperate people that happened to get into the news, however he helped out anonymously or in a way where it was clear that publicity was not sought. When he passed away a lot of people then learned how many people he had extended his hand of friendship to.
"There is also a tragedy going on in Japan right now with a lot of people actually with us no more."
This is true, and a tragedy, but I think it's natural for "12 kids in great jeopardy" to draw more interest than 100+ people who are already gone due to a flood and perhaps couldn't have been saved.
To be honest had the kids been found dead in the cave, it would have been a relative blip on Western media like the flood deaths in Japan or the 41 dead in the sinking of the Phuket tourist boat.
"He was willing to help many desperate people that happened to get into the news, however he helped out anonymously or in a way where it was clear that publicity was not sought"
In this case, talking about it on Twitter was probably an easy way to get in touch with the relevant authorities at the rescue site.
Similarly, when he offered PowerWall batteries to help Puerto Rico, perhaps that made it easy for people who knew where they were needed to get in touch with him.
There was talk about having the kids wait in there until as late as November, or maybe a long process of drilling an escape hole.
If the rescue had begun a week or two later, perhaps Musk's gadget would have been used. As it is, the divers already had a plan that, by the time Musk arrived, appeared to be working well.
But yeah, he tweets a lot about his projects, and no doubt has some thought toward self-promotion.
He appears to follow through, so I can't be too cynical about his apparent opportunism.