[nailer]

Because it's hard and Tesla think they can do it.

See 'reusable rockets' and 'having paralysed people control things with their minds' for other examples.

HN often seem to think there's Elon fans downmodding things but it seems more like a case of irrational hatred.

[perardi]

Oh, well let me get in my sub-$30,000 Model S, with a swappable battery and full-self-driving capabilities, and take a fully automated trip to the Hyperloop downtown so I can catch a quick ride out to O’Hare so I can fly out to watch a successful Starship launch…

…oh wait. I can’t. Because for all his successes, Musk has also sowed quite a lot of bullshit that has gone precisely nowhere.

[NetMageSCW]

Just like to point out Hyperloop wasn’t intended for local transportation and isn’t a Musk company, just some BOE speculation (BON?) that others have pursued.

[vel0city]

> so I can fly out to watch a successful Starship launch

Not just watch a launch, but go to O'Hare to launch and go to Sydney in ~30min. In September 2017 they said we'd be flying Earth-to-Earth on a BFR last year.

[nailer]

Technology sometimes takes longer than estimates.

[perardi]

And in Musk’s case, “longer” means “abandoned”. Like the cheap model 3. Or the Hyperloop. Or swappable batteries. Or X as an everything app that includes banking.

[nailer]

In everyone else’s case too. This was supposed to be a Startup News site. Instagram was supposed to be a way to check into cool places in your neighbourhood and see who was around.

[vel0city]

In both of those cases, the platforms actually did those things at some point in time and for one later pivoted a few times.

When did SpaceX do Earth-to-Earth commercial travel service? How many people have ridden on a BFR?

[Qwertious]

More examples, please! Reusable rockets is the load-bearing example, I don't think that argument works without it. You could maybe squeeze in "he kickstarted the EV market".

[scottyah]

maybe? Tesla is the biggest reason there are any electric vehicles on the road today, I haven't heard of anyone (knowledgeable) who has even hinted otherwise. I can understand not liking Elon, but trashing the companies he's formed and the marvels they've created is just proof you don't value a truthful understanding of the world.

[jfoster]

I agree with you, but I find it interesting that BYD got started around the same time as Tesla. They took quite different paths to international distribution.

[habinero]

Elon bought Tesla, he didn't start it.

[scottyah]

I guess that may be technically correct, but that's really just a anti-elon reddit type comment you're parroting. There were like four people and him "buying it" was just investing way more money in than anyone else wanted to.

[_Tev]

Starlink was also ridiculed. "Some upstart beating industry veteran at crewed spaceflight" was also treated as a ridiculous idea (see extra funding Boeing was able to extract from congress).

But all those massive successes are SpaceX . . .

[Fischgericht]

'having paralysed people control things with their minds' would be great if you guys had a healthcare system that would pay for it.

[FireBeyond]

To be clear, Neuralink has shown some promising signs. Has also shown some terrible signs.

And then I don't know if Musk is oversimplifying for a soundbite or more of his Dunning Kruger, but some of the descriptions seem to lack any knowledge of neurology. He describes a universal chip that will do different things and solve different issues depending on what part of the brain it's implanted in. That's not how it works at all.

[MBCook]

So?

They could make the first working flying cars. They could work fantastically.

And maybe one they release them we find out… no one wants flying cars. They sell 500 a year despite only costing as much as a normal car.

Just because you can figure out how to do something doesn’t mean you’re going to make money at it.

[nailer]

Are you saying SpaceX doesn't make money? I have no idea about Neuralink but the first sounds pretty odd.

[MBCook]

Where did I say that?

I was using the classic idea of the flying car as an example of a thing that has been out of reach as an as a product for normal people and may not actually be successful if it were to really be sold.

Replace flying car with whatever example you want.

To put it in a different way, you could be so busy figuring out how to do it that you don’t figure out that a business case doesn’t actually exist.

I wasn’t trying to comment on any of Musk‘s other companies specifically. Only that we don’t know if making robots will actually make money.

[nailer]

> > Are you saying SpaceX doesn't make money?

> Where did I say that?

> > > Just because you can figure out how to do something doesn’t mean you’re going to make money at it.

[MBCook]

Oh come on. Lots of successful companies are based on something they figured out how to do that others hadn’t.

I really was not trying to slam his other companies.

I think you’re reading too much into this. Making humanoid robots is not a guaranteed path to riches. That’s all I’m trying to say.