Speaker A
[Music] My next guest, um, I'm going to give you a little bit of a heads-up in terms of who this next gentleman is and also admit that I am coming to this interview, uh, I think with the freshest eyes that
Kevin Pollak interviews Elon Musk about Tesla, electric cars, and the challenges of launching innovative technology.
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk has been passionate about electric cars for nearly two decades.
- Tesla’s Roadster was designed as a high-performance vehicle to prove electric cars can be desirable.
- Transitioning to electric vehicles is crucial for environmental sustainability and energy independence.
- The electric car industry faced setbacks, such as GM discontinuing the EV1, which Tesla aims to overcome.
- In-depth conversations provide valuable insights into the motivations and challenges behind innovation.
What the video covers
- Kevin Pollak hosts Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, discussing his journey and vision.
- Musk shares his long-standing interest in electric cars dating back to college.
- Discussion covers the environmental and economic reasons for transitioning to electric vehicles.
- Elon explains the technical and business challenges faced in creating Tesla's first car, the Roadster.
- The interview touches on the history of electric cars, including GM's EV1 and its discontinuation.
- Musk outlines the rationale behind starting with a high-end sports car to fund future affordable models.
- The conversation highlights the importance of sustainable energy sources like solar and wind.
- Kevin emphasizes the goal of having real, in-depth conversations rather than sound bites.
- The interview includes live questions from Twitter viewers, adding interactive elements.
- Musk discusses the future of electric vehicles and Tesla’s ongoing development efforts.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Guest Background
- 03:56Early Interest in Electric Cars
- 07:30Vision for Electric Vehicles and Market Strategy
- 10:45Challenges in Developing the Tesla Roadster
- 14:11Tesla Model S Development and Focus
- 17:56Business and Technical Difficulties
- 21:16Sustainability and Future of Electric Vehicles
- 25:48Interactive Q&A and Closing Remarks
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
he's probably faced in a while. That is to say, I was an instant fan when I found out about, um, what this man has done, but I wanted to have him on so that I could ask the, uh, the real
Speaker A
straightforward simple questions, which is, um, one of the reasons I wanted to do this show, which is to not only meet people that I admired as well as have people on that I've worked with, but when I meet people and they know me from
Speaker A
movies or what have you, they all want to know really the hardships and how you got from there to here, and then they want to hear about your projects. So, um, I think that's where we're going to start
Speaker A
today, and, um, I'm going to now welcome the, uh, founder and CEO of Tesla Motors as well as SpaceX. I hope I pronounced those correctly.
Speaker A
Oh yes, absolutely. And Elon Musk is also, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, um, so thank you very
Speaker A
much first of all. You're welcome for, uh, for joining us here, and I also have to thank you profusely for not bolting out the door after watching the last four minutes of my show. It was difficult. It
Speaker A
must have been, yeah, because it's a very different world, and, um, I'm sure that there was a moment, at least a moment, one in your mind that said, oh my God, am I doing here? What have I gotten myself
Speaker A
into? Well, here's the thing. These, uh, these interviews, um, have you been on Charlie Rose yet?
Speaker A
Uh, no, but I will be, I think later this month or early next.
Speaker A
Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainly watched the show, yeah, as a viewer. You
Speaker A
understand that one of the wonderful things about his show that I'm trying so desperately to emulate blatantly is actual conversations.
Speaker A
Yeah, uh, throughout my career I've been fortunate enough to do almost every talk show that's existed for the last 20 years, starting with
Speaker A
Johnny Carson and Larry King and all of them, and they're all about little sound bites, and they're all about little quick anecdotes. In my case, with punchlines and characters, rarely is there an opportunity to have an actual conversation and to find
Speaker A
out more details about what it is that drives you to do what you do, sure, and got you to the place that you're at today. So thank you very much for everything you're about to share. We've got twitter.com asking questions live.
Speaker A
We've got folks, uh, uh, uh, actually very excited to ask questions. I'm going to start, uh, pretty much with, um, you know, reading a lot about you in preparation. Um, all that stuff is, you know, Wikipedia and various sites to
Speaker A
find out one's history. How old were you? It's all hit miss. I know it's all h. I find it to be that way. How old were you, if I may? Let's just start here when the first vision popped into your head about
Speaker A
working and bringing an electric car to the consumer.
Speaker A
Uh, well, I've been interested in electric cars for a long time actually. I used to, um, think about it quite a bit in college, so it's been probably 17, 17, 18 years that I've been
Speaker A
thinking about the area. In fact, I used to talk to my dates in college about the importance of electric cars. And how did that work out for you?
Speaker A
Not, not well. It's not a great date conversation. No, uh,
Speaker A
no. In fact, I ran into someone who I had briefly in college, uh, and, uh, she brought this up. Um, she's a, she's a writer for Scientific American these days, um, and, uh, uh, came to do an interview with me and
Speaker A
actually mentioned that, uh, it was a memorable date, uh, not necessarily a good way, right? One she would never forget.
Speaker A
Yeah, absolutely. Um, but I'm kind of a, you know, science nerdy guy, so for me it's been
Speaker A
obvious for a while that the future we have to figure out a way to, to, to get off, uh, oil, and that the solution, um, is electric cars, right? Um, the advantage of electric car is that you can generate
Speaker A
that electricity by renewable means, right? Um, and so, uh, if you consume the electricity, if, if, if you're running electric cars and then you're, you know, generating your power with solar, wind, geothermal, which is increasing dramatically, by the way, it
Speaker A
sure is, um, and, uh, if you're doing that, then you have a sustainable solution for the future.
Speaker A
Yeah, um, and obviously if you're, if you're burning oil, that's something that's going to end sooner or later, and, and so it's
Speaker A
better to do it sooner and avoid the environmental damage, uh, then later, um, and have the environmental damage plus a massive wealth transfer from, from the United States to, to other countries.
Speaker A
Yeah, well, that's a big part of it too, is how do we take back control of our destiny quite frankly, um, and so when this idea came to you 17, 18 years ago, I think it was around that time that, for the most part, those who were starting to hear
Speaker A
rumblings of an electric car, myself included, were thinking whoever puts out a gorgeous as well as functional electric car wins, sure, in terms of exciting first a few and then the masses eventually with, as the prices become more, uh, affordable to all consumers.
Speaker A
Initially, what people are, are praying and also damning, you know, there's both sides of it. Initially, you, uh, started with the Roadster, right? Uh, the Tesla Roadster, which is a huge success. It has been very successful.
Speaker A
Yeah, how just walk us through, if you wouldn't mind, the chronological pieces of business here, because this really is fascinating to a great many of us from conception to rolling out that first model just in terms of a brief history of the—I can't
Speaker A
imagine the hardships that took place in trying to get this thing to come to fruition.
Speaker A
Um, yeah, it's certainly been technically quite difficult, uh, from a business standpoint quite difficult, and then it's been overlaid with a bit
Speaker A
of a sort of soap opera from a post standpoint, um, so please feel free to share all of that, whatever you're comfortable sharing. We'd love to hear whatever, whatever you can legally share.
Speaker A
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll try to, actually I'll focus on the non-personnel elements.
Speaker A
Uh, fair enough, and, uh, uh, because I think that that's more putting it for the future. Um, so in terms of, you know, where do we come from, where are we headed, and that kind of
Speaker A
thing. So in starting, um, a car company, it's obviously a high capital endeavor, and particularly when you're talking about something which is a brand new technology, right? Um, and, and no one had really gotten all the pieces to work
Speaker A
together quite right, uh, for, you know, to create a compelling, uh, product as far as electric cars is concerned. There are a couple of people who tried and a couple companies that came and went. Well, and some of those companies are, are sort of
Speaker A
still here today, like, you know, General Motors had the EV1, right? Um, and, and actually if they continued and produced the EV2, EV3, and continued that development, uh, there probably wouldn't have been a need for Tesla. Um,
Speaker A
but, uh, but they didn't. Unfortunately, they took those cars away from people, uh, forcibly, and crushed them, um, and people literally crushed them. And if people have seen, um, Chris Payne's movie Who Killed the Electric Car, which
Speaker A
which I recommend, you can see some of that. You know, it's amazing that the people who Jim gave those EV1s to held a candlelight vigil for the cars getting crushed. I mean, can you imagine anyone holding a candlelight vigil
Speaker A
for a GM car? No, I really can't, or any product, or any product is the point. Why would you just, why would you discontinue a product line with that level of customer interest?
Speaker A
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Um, yeah, and it's pretty well documented in that film.
Speaker A
Um, okay, so, but I'll give you the chronology and the reasoning why. Why did we start with the car that we started with? Because I do get asked the question, why do you, why are you making this
Speaker A
expensive sports car, um, you know, with implying that we somehow think there's a shortage of sports cars in the world or rich people really need a break or something like that, which is, I mean, it's absurd if you...
Speaker A
and you weren't making a uh uh an inexpensive sports car you were making a brand new state-of-the-art sports car that was some of the negativity that I didn't understand uh because it didn't seem to come from naive people it seemed
Speaker A
to come from people who seem very scholar in their uh particular areas of exper who who completely missed the uh obvious justification in terms of what kind of vehicle you are actually making from the ground up and it being the first of its kind I
Speaker A
I I I'm astounded by well a com misperception is that because we've for the road so we worked with lotus right um and we we we did uh initially intend to uh use a modified Lotus El leas chassis for for our car uh people think
Speaker A
oh it's just it's just modified Lotus but actually we had to redesign almost every part of the car sure um and our initial thought of well we can just use a Lotus at least chassis turn out not to
Speaker A
be true because the weight distribution is all different the load points are all different our car ended up being 30% heavier we had to redesign almost everything in fact there's only 7% Parts commonality between arar and Elise 7% 7%
Speaker A
that in fact and those are the letters first of all there's five letters in Lotus so that's that's a bit of the 7% right there well there's no Lotus actually there's I don't think any Lotus logos on the car but of course not um
Speaker A
but nonetheless it it is it is uh so 7% Parts commonality is actually that that means if when when when somebody like J Ford announces an an all new car that all new car has more than 7% commonality
Speaker A
with prior cars excellent point so in other words this is a newer new car than most new cars almost all new cars um and uh yeah so you it's was uh tricky to bring it in for for the the price that
Speaker A
that we did bring in in fact there was some some pretty big mistakes made initially on on the estimates of cost and that that forced us to raise the price later in order not to be shipping product at a loss what's the time frame
Speaker A
from the first sort of breaking ground on the space where you're going to manufacture this car obviously a prototype to the San or the no there the roach is in production right but you how long did it take yeah
Speaker A
but I mean they're on the road now yes yes in fact we've uh delivered over 300 uh cars and so approaching 400 cars and when when was the first one delivered the road the the well the first production car was delivered in February
Speaker A
of last year um and that that was that was my car but it was I mean the initial production rate was about one every three 3 to four weeks wow um and then it's it it's you know got up to two
Speaker A
every 3 to four weeks four and then and now we're at the point where we're about 20 to 25 per week okay and wow and now at what point during the Roadster uh building process does the s model begin its drawing boards almost
Speaker A
immediately well we we've been working on the model S for about two years if you take the sort of early conceptual stuff into account um so you really obviously have to focus everything on the Roadster first get it up and running
Speaker A
and then but in the back of your mind the master plan is the yeah the basic plan of action the master plan is was and is uh to to produce uh an expensive car in low volume than a lower
Speaker A
cost car in kind of medium cost car in medium volume right and then a low cost car in high volume right um and that's that's the the plan uh that was my plan from the beginning and and that remains
Speaker A
the plan today um and we've we've been able to accelerate that uh the local cost car a little bit uh by working with damla the maker of Mercedes and smart uh to create an electric smart car oh really yeah that's the third phase after
Speaker A
the well model I think we'll probably still do um a third generation platform of our own right but but as a means of accelerating uh low lowcost vehicle access uh we're working with companies like daa to u to to to get there sooner
Speaker A
so Min understanding is dla is planning to to have uh the beginning of that uh th car test Fleet on the roads towards the end of this year so you're already focusing on working with an existing manufacturer in terms of yeah bringing
Speaker A
the electric car to a a larger consumer base yeah the the the the really the the overarching uh point of Tesla is to accelerate the electric car Revolution and that's going to be a combination of cars we produce and and cars that uh we
Speaker A
help other companies produce in fact we've been trying to s technology to Detroit and to other uh car companies in other parts of the world uh for a couple years now um and uh it's um it's ironic that the really the the first company to
Speaker A
do that is not an American company but it's it's a German company uh Daimler in fact Daimler was the one that invented the internal combustion engine car um so um you know they're the oldest car company in the world um and they're
Speaker A
actually being and here they are jumping in with the electric car full force um as we move into your describing the model S and its conception we have some photos that we can throw up and let people look at while you're talking
Speaker A
about it um because I got to be honest when I saw the Roadster um I was wildly impressed but I was waiting I was waiting for a non-sports car more of a sedan right which is what and most people were in fact yeah and I
Speaker A
do feel like the larger audience is already chomping at the bit and when I saw this car I flipped out I just could not believe something like this had been achieved when I wasn't looking because you did an awfully good job keeping it
Speaker A
under wraps all these months if not how the first prototype was completed yeah well the first prot flight was was just completed uh last month when we and that's when we did did the unveiling of the of Model S the first drive prototype
Speaker A
we've been working on the model S in in Earnest for about uh a little over a year a little over a year yeah so you're saying only a week or so before you unveiled it on March 26 was it March 26
Speaker A
March 26 only a week before was it actually fully functioning and ready to be driven uh yes that's fantastic because that sort of thing happened my business yeah you not fantastic for you I can't imagine uh I don't understand
Speaker A
how you have any hair left after that sort of nail biter in my business that sort of thing happens all the time people rushing to get their film ready for the Sundance Film Festival I've seen big Studio films that are still
Speaker A
polishing and doing last minute special effects adjustments way after they've announced the release date and and rushing it into theaters and oh my goodness I can't even imagine the sort of pressure involved so uh we've been looking at some pictures yeah
Speaker A
wonderful um we're still looking at them great because this car is so gorgeous um okay I'm going to to um I'm going to get a little selfish here sure and also lean this towards people like myself who want to who have
Speaker A
uh the next series of questions which are when will this car be available to me and what is the process for me to sign up and get one now well um well the car will be available in two years which
Speaker A
is that that's when we'll be finished with all the the crash testing and all the regulatory stuff and have built out the factory because this is a true mass production car in fact the model S will be the first uh mass production electric
Speaker A
vehicle in or you know true car that Highway capable what num type of thing what numbers of mass production are we talking about we're talking about 20,000 a year and uh so when you unveil you want to have 20,000
Speaker A
ready well um we'll still be it'll over year time roll them out it'll take a little bit of time to spool up the production line but this will be these will be U Mass manufactured cars worth you know where robots are doing doing
Speaker A
things as opposed to handbuilt cars cuz the road through is really a handbuilt car uh right and um you got robots building the mod a a lot of it yeah now I've heard everything from the third quarter of 2010 to the beginning of 2012
Speaker A
what's realistic for the model S well our aspiration is to um have the first production cars um available in in the third quarter of of 2011 MH so just just over two years from now right um and I
Speaker A
think it's achievable um and I think we we've um there's a lot there's much less technology risk and uncertainty uh than there was with the Roadster right so I I do feel reasonably confident that we can meet that date um of course it is
Speaker A
dependent on um when the department of energy um disposes funds for the the the Loan program that they have there something called the uh advanced technology vehicle manufacturing program yes uh which which which was actually put into effect by Congress last year um
Speaker A
and then the the doe is just uh on the verge of of of awarding those those loan uh loan programs it's intended to provide a lower cost of capital uh to companies that are developing energy efficient cars well it couldn't make
Speaker A
more sense to those of us who've been waiting for this to happen so we're glad that they're going to pitch in there's also going to be a $7,500 rebate to there is there is already $7,500 uh rebate that was that's as of January 1st
Speaker A
right um so it's a tax rebate applies to any to to anyone um regardless of your tax situation and then the first base price is $499 and it goes up from there depending on the size of the battery yes
Speaker A
the base price of the model S is $49,900 right um and that's for the the the basic version which has 160 mile range M but you can get a battery pack that goes up to mil in range right and
Speaker A
in fact one of the things we we think we'll probably do is have the 300 mile packs available for for rent so if you're if you're just you know using your car about time please do that yeah yeah absolutely please do that
Speaker A
because it it it this car is unbelievably exciting and I think the the instinct is much like other forms of technology there's going to be the I want the everything package and then there's going to be a lot of
Speaker A
people who can't really afford the everything package they can barely get into the car as it is but they're dying to get into this car sure so that sure would be fantastic if they could rent that larger battery if and when they
Speaker A
ever needed it because for a lot of people 160 m around town as their everyday car is fantastic right it's 160 you know average person drives 30 mil a day so 160 mil is five times what the average person drives in a day are all
Speaker A
three batteries this quick charge of 45 minutes capability yeah yeah the car will have a standard 45 minute all cars will come with the ability to charge in 45 minutes now I should point out that the 45 minutes does require an offboard
Speaker A
charger so you won't be able to use the onboard charger to do the 45 minute charge the onboard charger you have to pull over and and you take the battery out well uh no you just need you need to just go to a a
Speaker A
charging station that's that's a could have an industrial strength power charging station because that's that's a lot of power more than most houses are capable of delivering but um the onboard charger that's built into the car will be capable of of recharging the car in
Speaker A
about 3 to four hours so overnight you plug the car in yeah no problem and is it going to be like my computer where I can overcharge it and then it's bad for the computer I don't want to leave it in
Speaker A
plugged in overnight there's a lot of intelligence in the battery packet won't allow itself to be uh charged incorrectly excellent um will I get better service than AT&T than I do with my iPhone is a real question here um the
Speaker A
computer on board yeah but before I get to that there's one thing that uh Wired Magazine wrote a very I thought supportive article about the model S and then there's all sorts of debates going on in the comment section of that
Speaker A
uh article right and a lot of naysayers as as always they line up like idiots we seem to Tesla seems to generate a a bipolar response I mean well you know what that's fantastic though I I mean if anything it it
Speaker A
challenges you to rise above all uh uh questions and inquiries and be able to answer them all and be able to attribute the the genius and expertise of of your you know designed people and yourself cuz I I do understand also that you've
Speaker A
as an engineer yourself have really been at the for front of of the design of yeah I you're s to think of the right title but I'm I sort probably a good description would be product architect so uh would we at at Tesla we do have a
Speaker A
chief technology officer JB strable who's been with the company from the beginning and really is the person most responsible for for leading the uh the technology of Tesla um he's he's an awes you know great great guy um and also
Speaker A
like to credit you know fman Hol house in terms of the design of the model S right um and you know the way I look at it is I sort of work with with them and the other members of of the Tesla team
Speaker A
to create a great product because I think great companies have buil in great products yeah well yes hell yes uh forgive me for reading this but I don't want to miss this and I want I was hoping I could put this to you to
Speaker A
address the why is the model as still so expensive question a wonderful article in Wired Magazine written by um Chuck squatriglia which I'm sure I'm destroying his name I'm sorry um very supportive the design not only the car
Speaker A
but the master plan in general of Tesla Motors to roll out uh the so-called more expensive models first uh with the $19,000 Roadster and then now the 49,000 up to 54,000 I think it is Model S a tons of comments posted one reader
Speaker A
obviously an EV driver hit on some wonderful points sure I wanted your feedback on that really sort of drove a point home that I don't think a lot of people are considering and that is wildly ignored I think
Speaker A
um when you know these people are considering the sticker price only as opposed to the fuel and maintenance yeah and when you own a car you pay for more than just the initial purchase price you also pay for fuel and maintenance and
Speaker A
it's these two very important unavoidable truths that EV costs a minuscule of what the ice or internal combustion engine uh cost the EV motor has only one moving part uh on the Roadster and presumably the model S the
Speaker A
only uh regular this is true well technically there there's some gears but yeah right um the regular maintenance items really are brakes and tires uh not even the brakes actually cuz regenerative braking means that your brake pads see very little wear I love
Speaker A
this yeah the E's actual fuel cost they've narrowed it down to 2 to three cents per mile sounds familiar that's about right so if you keep your Model S with the average of 10 year 100,000 mile lifespan you replace your tires brakes
Speaker A
which is not the case for say $1,000 each time again these numbers can vary uh and pay up $3,000 for the fuel over this 100,000 mies your 49,900 purchase price only increases to around 54,9 the IRS says driving a IC internal
Speaker A
combustion engine car costs 50.5 C uh per mile inclusive of fuel maintenance at that rate over the lifespan the same lifespan Ford Taurus with a sticker price of $225,000 increases over that lifespan to $775,000 75 and 500 75,500 the theoretically
Speaker A
therefore the IC car with a sticker price of zero would still cost more than the model S after those 100,000 miles I don't think people have done that math in terms of the initial investment oh my God it's so much more than a Taurus yeah
Speaker A
well actually I think perhaps the best way for to to address that question is not even to have people do the math because we will have our car for lease um and so if you take our least cost
Speaker A
right and and you and the least cost of gasoline car and you add in the cost be ridiculous the cost of fuel fuel and maintenance on the gasoline car and the cost of electricity and maintenance on the electric electric car then you have
Speaker A
the savings from the beginning there's no need to add this up over five seven years or or whatever you can simply say how much is transportation costing me every month and you will have the savings from day one but I will shove people out of the
Speaker A
way who want a lease so that I can get one well so to buy one if you do that in fact we're going to put a calculator on our website right um uh hopefully in the next week or two so you can plug in and
Speaker A
you can say okay what do you think the price of gasoline is going to be and you can put in the price of gasoline and what's your electricity cost you put in the cost of electricity and then we'll
Speaker A
say what the pro what's the probable operating cost per month um and then and then how does that compare and and compare that to to cars of different types um and um it becomes pretty clear doesn't it yeah and and then it's it's
Speaker A
pretty obvious that if you assume that gasoline is going to get back up above four $4 a gallon which I think that's a certainty in fact I think it's going to go way way beyond that um and then you
Speaker A
put in the the cost of electricity um particularly if you have time of use meters like in places like California where you can get you know s cents a kilowatt hour um then our car is is comparable to a Ford Taurus well let's
Speaker A
talk about what you need in your home to keep this car charged on a regular basis what sort of setup do you need you really don't need much of anything you can if if you um are only driving say you know 30 mil a day or
Speaker A
something like that you can actually plug it charge it out of a regular 110 volt socket seriously Lally plug it in like a like it's a hair dryer for overnight in terms of your range your range is going to lower though well um
Speaker A
volt Supply will will generate will recharge about 5 or 6 mil hour uhhuh um so if you're say driving 30 m a day and you charge it for just for 6 hours you've you've topped it up essentially um so that's certainly possible unplug
Speaker A
the toaster and plug in the car okay so it's it is workable and we actually have many roads to customers that operate their car on that basis um that's fantastic yeah and and um and that that comes along with the base
Speaker A
price and then if you want to do a uh faster charge right then the next step up would be a 240 volt 40 amp circuit which is comparable to a dryer so it's like a dryer plug wow uh so it doesn't
Speaker A
cost very that cost a couple hundred bucks to install a dryer Outlet in your garage and again that that just operates off the onboard charger and the car so you just plug plug it in um like like it's a dryer or or a range or something
Speaker A
like that and um and that'll charge a lot faster that'll charge your the car in seven or eight hours full charge full charge yeah and the quick charge will be only available at these charging stations yeah the Quick Charge is is is
Speaker A
you know we're talking about something which is um it's a lot of power I mean you know 45 minutes uh you're talking about something which is on the order of a 60 kilowatt uh power source um there's very few houses that you you'd break the
Speaker A
master circuit on most houses it's a bad idea yeah and it's it's Overkill and unnecessary for for a house but I do think a lot of businesses may choose to install that for their employ ways um and that uh where this will really come
Speaker A
in handy is when you're going between cities so there there's three ways that we've addressed the the range issue on the model S um one is by offering a range of up to 300 miles right and and like I said we're also hoping to be able
Speaker A
to say offer allow people to buy the 160 mile range car and then um and then rent the 300 mile range pack as needed you'll give them a map or where these charging stations are along the Route so if they
Speaker A
want to drive across country you let them know where yeah in fact the well you mentioned that this the touch screen the car will be 3G connected to yes 3G wireless connected all the time so you won't need a map you can just ask the
Speaker A
car take me to the next charge next charging station and it'll give you a selection of locations um if you could if there's any way you could put in a phrasing that just at some point the car says stop
Speaker A
busting my balls I just I just want to put that out there let's go to uh actually the we are we are going to offer you know what asking you show receive okay um we are going to offer
Speaker A
themes so you can actually theme your because it's all just a a big screen you have a 17inch standard console screen and you've got a smaller sort of display screen on the front um you can you can theme your car so if you you know just
Speaker A
like you sort of theme your uh your desktop your or your cell phone um give it a little cynicism give it a little yeah you can you can yeah absolutely they'll be you know and there'll be people that probably want to write
Speaker A
applications um that you know do various things um and and this your center console is a full-fledged computer um run running Linux uh so it's it's something where it'll have a browser you if you want to browse and search the web
Speaker A
to your you know do your email while not driving um while not driving while charging if you want to go sit down you it could do things like read out your email for you you know yeah no did we
Speaker A
did you show any pictures of this um monitor when we ran through okay if you want to throw them back up now that we're talking about it if you have that one isolated because it is pretty astounding that that whole part of it
Speaker A
and people go to the website Tesla Motors they can uh do a little more research in terms of what you're offering in that monitor because it is wildly extensive if there's anything else in it that you do want to address
Speaker A
um well we we are taking advantage of economies of scale from the the the computer business which is a lot bigger than the car business in unit volume you know you've got clear hundreds of millions of uh of of computer shipping
Speaker A
every year whereas you've got a a much smaller number of cars shipping every year um so now l than ever right absolutely um so uh by by putting in and you know 17-inch monitors in the computer business these days are they
Speaker A
cheap um and and so it's it's really not that expensive for us to do this right well what it is is Cutting Edge and that's what one of the things that makes the car so unbelievably desirable um what about they're asking
Speaker A
uh here um twitter.com um for the next generation of Road vehicles um what would they be when the electric car have become obsolete wow people are going on to the the Next Generation beyond the electric car I'm not sure that's for this discussion um
Speaker A
electric car is a long-term solution yeah you know there's as you were pointing out in terms of how to power the electricity that's where we can diversify be it water be it solar power be it wind yeah I'm not sure wind is the
Speaker A
correct word there may be I mean the only thing I could see as being as potentially being a change um is is and this is this is speculative is a switch from from batteries to um high density capacitors in fact I originally came I
Speaker A
originally came out to California uh to do uh PhD at Stanford in the Material Science and physics of high St capacitors for use in electric cars that's what initially brought me to Silicon Valley and then ended up putting
Speaker A
that on hold start a couple internet companies um but it was uh so I think that that's a possibility I'm not sure whether success is one of the possible outcomes um but but it's a possibility any chance for a flux
Speaker A
capacitor Mar well Mar where's the flux capacitor uh sorry I did that on a dare um I suppose you could call it a flux Capac flux just means sort of flow right of of anything you know you could flux
Speaker A
energy flux anything so um ask Elon how we can help uh Tesla Motors get the Federal Loan and also where the factory be the factory be here in Los Angeles I don't know if you want to get specifics about
Speaker A
where in Los Angeles is it that the SpaceX where you have the yeah the Tesla design studio is inside the SpaceX rocket Factory right um and the design center is in in Southern California because the the world's best automotive
Speaker A
design Talent is actually right here in Southern California you're welcome it's true yeah um and uh and fr's uh h house designer head design is was was based here when he worked at maasta uh before joining us and um and there just really
Speaker A
big townpool so um and rather than then go you know go rent a whole separate space um it it was just easier to allocate some space in in the the SpaceX rocket Factory uh for the Tes design also made it OB very convenient for me
Speaker A
to work with with France um who's a great guy to work with we're very much on the same wavelength it's great actually so um as far as helping on the doe front um I I actually think we're okay I I definitely any any voice of
Speaker A
support is is great um you know mentioning it to your uh Congressman or Senator that does help right yeah absolutely absolutely if they feel a ground swell if they feel that the public there's a public demand yeah I
Speaker A
think it's it's helpful to um to let your Congressman Senator know that you think uh companies like Tesla should get a portion of the atvm program and I should mention what we're asking for is really a tiny we're only asking for
Speaker A
about 1 and a half% of the atvm program the vast majority of it will will go to GM Ford Chrysler you they they'll get 98% one and a half% you're asking for yeah you were asking for one and a half%
Speaker A
I think it's not not not a big ask um and and I I think can we get Barack on the phone people Tyler crude what are you laughing about um yeah it doesn't seem uh unreasonable at all to be asking for the 1 and a
Speaker A
half% um I think we can probably put better use than gym yes well you know what I would love to have uh them in this room and and and watch that debate quite frankly um SpaceX came first and yeah it is a uh a a thriving
Speaker A
uh industry that only recently actually stepped up its game or so it seems from what I'm reading you want to share some of the latest news uh well SpaceX we got to orbit uh last year which is a fairly big deal um our
Speaker A
rocket is arguably the first uh completely privately developed rocket to to reach orbit although there's some dispute on that front um but it's unequivocally uh the the first uh liquid fuel um privately developed rocket to reach orbit um and and that's a tough
Speaker A
thing most countries can't do that so it's it's a and how many years did that take uh that was six years yeah from yeah from St to reaching over yeah yeah and so when the money is just evaporating as you're pouring all the
Speaker A
time and energy in your life into this Vision uh how often people want to hear about the struggle how often does the thought enter your mind I you know it's just it's too much there's other things I want to do with my life because I I
Speaker A
have to assume this is all consuming for you um well there's I mean I spend a lot of time with my kids I mean there's really just th I guess four things that I do um there's a uh SpaceX and Tesla
Speaker A
which take about roughly half of my business time each um then there's my kids and then I sleep I mean that's like four things I do right and and and often sleep doesn't doesn't I don't get a lot
Speaker A
of sleep that becomes the commodity doesn't it yeah it was definitely difficult um the fourth quarter of of last year was was very difficult um and uh yeah it was well it was very for for everyone yeah for everyone until we
Speaker A
found out of course that Britney Spears is back and then it all sort of lightened our load a little bit absolutely um this this there was a glimmer of hope right well put that's what I would have called it as well a
Speaker A
glimmer um so six years yeah from uh from from the design and from the vision and then last year your first complete orbit yeah absolutely we came close on on our second and third flights uh we did reach uh
Speaker A
um but we did not reach orbital velocity in our second third flights and and then our fourth flight we reached orbital velocity and then we've got we've got another flight coming up um at about towards the end of this month um and
Speaker A
that's going to uh deliver a satellite form Malaysia um you have to take on some commercial cargo yeah yeah absolutely uh we have a wide variety of customers actually NASA is our biggest customer right by far um and uh but we
Speaker A
have many other customers as well um Sweden is a customer Malaysia as I mentioned uh Canada um and uh and then we also have some uh purely commercial uh customers will be launching a satellite for um Avanti which is a um a
Speaker A
European uh broadcast satellite company um and uh yeah so expound a little bit if you can with your relationship with NASA because I I think this is pretty fascinating quite frankly yeah um well I love NASA I want to say that NASA is
Speaker A
awesome well they believe in you so I tend to like people I tend to agree with people who agree with me so I understand where you're coming from yeah um NASA's actually been um really supportive um and uh T SpaceX would not have gotten as
Speaker A
far as it did without NASA's help so I want to acknowledge that um and in December of of last year NASA actually gave us the the contract uh to uh uh be the the replacement for the space shuttle as far as cargo is concerned um
Speaker A
so the space shuttle retires at the end of next year and um and then NASA does have a long-term plan for developing a launch vehicle um and a spacecraft um called the are Orion Project and that but that's intended to go back to the
Speaker A
moon so and that's you're that's only going to see flight probably around the 20 16 time frame wow um so there's there's kind of a gap of five or six years um and and so but we still have a
Speaker A
space station up there that we've got to service right so what do we do during that Gap and um and and that's why NASA took the um unprecedented step of saying okay well let's see what the private sector can do um and let's uh you
Speaker A
stepped up yeah yeah we did um and and so nasos felt confident enough to award uh they so they award they actually did a competition and and they there were 20 missions and we got 12 of the 20 um
Speaker A
eight of them were awarded to another company orbital sciences and then there was there was a third uh competitor which was a joint venture of Boeing locked and align Tech align Tech Systems which actually did not get any of the
Speaker A
missions so that was a big upset um a huge upset yeah yeah yeah I I mean I wouldn't blame any of your engineers when that moment happened if they sort of rallied together and said suck it to those people right um and so it it was
Speaker A
uh see I got I think we said S I knew I could break it uh bu lucky to fine companies oh of course please they're doing just fine without my little cynicism yeah no um so so you're you're well established now with
Speaker A
your relationship with NASA they're clearly depending on you you've won this competition they really are depending on us and so it's actually quite a big responsibility um which we take very seriously and uh so we're working very hard to make sure we don't let them down
Speaker A
yeah and you just you were just in Washington just before the model S announcement right about um the um well tell us what what you were actually you were well I'm in Washington quite a lot there's a lot of
Speaker A
interests there both for for SpaceX and Tesla there was a bit of an announcement right before the March 26th you were there I was reading something where you had to address a group um oh maybe was the S like there's a big
Speaker A
satellite conference in in DC every year yeah so yeah I I gave a a key keynote there right um yeah and it was just basically giving people an update on on where uh SpaceX is and what progress we're making and that's what I was
Speaker A
reading about yeah yeah yeah um so uh yeah just basically telling people um where we are and and and um we're expecting to to launch our big rocket the Falcon 9 UM and with it the dragon spacecraft later this year right I think
Speaker A
you were discussing the Falcon 9 right the vehicles we've launched to dat are the Falcon 1 which is a much smaller vehicle yes so Falcon 9 is a is is is quite is very big vehicle in fact it's
Speaker A
going to be the most powerful single core vehicle in the US Fleet by single core I mean without using side boosters um and then then the falcon9 heavy which is uh the falcon9 with side boosters uh will actually be the most uh
Speaker A
highest pad capable vehicle in the world um and uh and when did you share that piece of news was that something that was that's actually it's been on our website for a while though I'm not sure people believed we'd actually do it yeah
Speaker A
um I'm sure there were people waiting for that announcement and also now waiting for the failure you must have a lot of the surrounding people I mean people who are competitive with you I speak of who uh part of them want you to
Speaker A
succeed because it opens up opportunities for them but at the same time if it's anything at all like the business of show there's such competition that even those who succeed feel the sense of there isn't enough to go around and if you succeed it means I
Speaker A
won't is there more of a camaraderie from your standpoint well it sort it depends on who um who you talking about so that there's some uh companies where we are a great enabler um because we're we're fundamentally space xors in in the
Speaker A
transportation business um and uh if Transportation improves then those who who use Transportation will find that their businesses improved you know just as um when they finished the Transcontinental Railway in the you know in the early days of early history of
Speaker A
the United States it was a huge Boon to uh businesses in the east coast businesses in you know people could travel back and forth Goods could could transfer a lot easier so it it was really helpful to everyone except
Speaker A
probably the stage coach companies um so right they didn't like it that much they didn't um so if you know but so I think I think there's probably there's more of the space business that that uh wants us
Speaker A
to succeed then then doesn't want us to succeed you yeah uh and so you are you feeling more scrutiny about the the modess in terms of competitiveness because here's you know just based on the documentary The Killing of the electric cars this is
Speaker A
happened before the name itself Tesla comes from someone who was obviously squashed by the bigger uh electric companies yeah you know Nicola Tesla did did pretty well for most of his life although he went kind of Bonkers at the
Speaker A
end hopefully that doesn't happen to me um yes we're all pulling for um but I mean in terms of who got credit for what that seemed to be the uh the struggle in terms of the memory if you ask your average American on the
Speaker A
street what they know about uh Nikolai says you're not going to get a lot of yeah Edison in I think in the popular um mindset you know Tesla get gets less uh notice than than Edison uh in in science
Speaker A
in the sort of scientific world uh Tesla gets more attention and more credit thaned um and they they both uh I think they're both really great man and and did did amazing things and um you know uh a little bit of rivalry is probably a
Speaker A
good thing it's a great thing so so it's um you know I think they they're both great we thought we' recognize Tesla in in naming the the call company better than naming it the the Elon car company or something like that I'm proud of you
Speaker A
for letting that go sure crossed your mind at some point all right how many people have signed up already officially signed up and are waiting delivery on the model S uh I don't know the exact number today but we're well over 500 over and uh how
Speaker A
do I be the next one oh just go to the website um you can just click the got you right here are there forms that we could fill out right now literally you you can um how easy is this so you go to
Speaker A
the website and you follow the simple instructions clicking yes me I want one as as someone who who did PayPal um you can imagine that i' I have a big focus on making things really easy um online thanks um SP so we spent a lot of time
Speaker A
at PayPal trying to make things super easy um and and actually if somebody goes to the Tesla motos just go just go to teslamotors.com click on the Buy tab you should be able to uh put down a reservation for a Model S in under 5
Speaker A
minutes I like that a lot yeah it's a $5,000 reservation which is refundable um and and I'm you know personally standing behind the the reservation payments so if if anyone is concerned about us going out of business uh the
Speaker A
only thing you should worry about is is if I get hit by a bus and I'm trying to cover that one as well by uh having getting some key man Insurance in place so if I do get hit by a bus just really
Speaker A
there's the bus Factor that's still an opport I was just thinking La fortunately I'm people times $5,000 you should be able to cover that fairly easy yeah it's not going to I don't think it's going to be I don't think people's deposit well the
Speaker A
res we can't call it deposit for legal reasons but people's reservation right uh payment uh is uh I think is is is safe um but I'm glad we were able to uncover the bus Factor this is very important I think to a lot of customers
Speaker A
they need to know not not well I mean there's still I mean there's a tiny bit of risk um your Kryptonite apparently is the bus right well so there there's always a tiny bit of risk and the tiny
Speaker A
bit of risk would be uh if Tesla goes out of business um and I lose all of my assets um and and don't die um and don't die and don't die there's the rub and that's and and and for the rest of my
Speaker A
life I'm never able to repay to build up my assets to the point where people can be repay that would be the circumstance under which people would lose their their money you know what I'm glad you did the math on that because I'm sure a
Speaker A
lot of people have also and uh and well so if the if bus does hit me it it needs to kill me not partially uh paralyze me or something for those of you who currently uh call bus driving
Speaker A
your professional uh do us all a favor and stay the hell away from this man if it all possible uh hit the dog if I may um Mr musky I cannot thank you enough for sharing as as much as you have I I
Speaker A
would love to uh to have you on again in terms of watching the progress of uh SpaceX as well as uh Tesla because I am wildly curious and I know an awful lot of people are as well that are just
Speaker A
starting to discover what's been going on now in your life for the last six years in the case of uh a SpaceX in the last uh Roadster rather and uh and now the last couple years with the model S and uh
Speaker A
waiting with baited breath to see where this company is going and and and praying with you and for you that it succeeds beyond your dreams thanks actually you know what you haven't touched on any personal stuff which is
Speaker A
which is fine but you know I didn't want to but I'm happy to go there what would you like to talk about well there there there is a common misperception which which does sort of drive me crazy a
Speaker A
little bit okay um uh you know I um um I sort of my my wife and I getting or my ex-wife and I are getting getting divorced and and we well been there yeah yeah so sorry um the divorce Bing took
Speaker A
place in in sort of June of June of last year and so takes a while for these things to to get done boy does it yeah um and uh although Mike's wife to a credit made it clear in her blog that
Speaker A
that the marriage was over for reasons that had nothing to do with anyone else um uh in fact she wanted to get divorced at least as as much as I did if not more um that takes a little stress and and
Speaker A
guilt away sure right um there there um there've been a few articles which have have have said that I left my wife and five kids for for someone else I'm glad you brought this up I wasn't about to go
Speaker A
there but for God's sakes let's clear a little air here I think yeah you know that would be very frustrating to me as well if that was the if that was in uh press releases and articles written about me when I was trying to change the
Speaker A
face of the automobile business but yeah let's talk about it well it's whatever You' like to share if I read that about someone I would think what a dick all right um and and and that would be true
Speaker A
I mean if it were true but but actually it it's not because I would never leave my kids um in fact I see them five days a week they they keep you from sleeping we talked about that before yeah yeah so
Speaker A
uh what what are the age range of these five children of yours uh well the the twins are are turning five and that the triplets are turning are two and a half wow Twins and triplets yeah that makes
Speaker A
the F wow wow uh well this so anyway it's it's a point of clarification um there was an article I think um you know there been a few articles where where that's sort of been mentioned as an offhand comment in
Speaker A
fact they weren't even there were positive articles they just mentioned it sort of off the cuff um but it and they were corrected in the online version um but but you know it's difficult sometimes correct these perceptions on
Speaker A
the surface of it may seem that that that that's you know that I left my wife for someone else but I did I didn't and um well this is the problem that comes with the Limelight you see you've gone
Speaker A
beyond your profession and your expertise and your business life and you're now being scrutinized for your personal life and I do know a great deal about that uh from of course the business that I chose many years ago and
Speaker A
it's never fair it's never uh balanced and it's always about selling an article or a paper or a magazine and whatever it takes to throw you under that bus if we may go back to that unfortunate spot they will do it and um
Speaker A
I am more than happy to offer you this form to clear any air in regards to this at any time uh because a lot of times quite frankly people in Show Business they they're sort of taught to stay away
Speaker A
from it you know what don't just leave it they're going to write whatever they want to write and I think that it's pretty damn courageous to sit here and say you know what this is what's being said about me and I don't appreciate it
Speaker A
so I commend you for that well I think it's just to correct I mean it's not I'm certainly you know not someone who who is I mean I I'm no saint but but I'll say well I didn't say
Speaker A
um but but I generally try to do the right thing and and uh you know so um and it's not like like I said if people actually were to say go look at my ex-wife's blog or something it's that
Speaker A
that know okay that the marriage came to an end because do a little research grew apart and and just wasn't working and we're making each other unhappy so but there people don't always know to do that and and so anyway yeah well thank
Speaker A
you thank you very much for sharing all of that I really genuinely appreciate it and I think the people uh watching appreciate it as much the whole idea of the show was to not just be an infomercial about uh a film or a project
Speaker A
or the design of an electric car it was really about getting to know the people behind uh their work and their lives and what what it takes in some cases to make history and so on on that level I thank
Speaker A
you very much all right well thanks for having me yeah thank you Mr Elon Musk and uh I uh I want to not only thank him but my first guest uh Jason an tune this has been um a uh a a a remarkable uh uh
Speaker A
day and evening for me and for this show on many levels and um I want to take the opportunity this time unlike the previous times of thanking my crew because for some reason we're wrapping up all the equipment
Speaker A
after the show and I the first thing that crosses my mind is I didn't thank everyone so Jason calanis thanks for nothing let's start there uh then we go over to Tyler and crude and Jamie and H Jason
Speaker A
McIntyre and Kate shorter um and uh Professor Chen I like to call him and where's Jacob is he out there in around somewhere you're not getting any credit I'm not thanking you um and uh and Gypsy caner from across the uh country lines
Speaker A
into Canada and Josh who he sent here today to help out and um I want to thank all of you who are insisted on watching us live and contributed um I did not put you on the spot to play the Larry King game I'm not
Speaker A
sure I should let you slide did you contemplate that at all I'm not I'm not harson sure how one plays that larane game okay well I'll tell you what um I'm going to insist that you come back with a Larry King game prepared I'm
Speaker A
going to let you off the hook on this one because uh I feel like um I've I've more than pressed my luck with your appearance here and I thank you for your time I sincerely do all right you're
Speaker A
welcome um okay so thanks to everyone involved and thank you for watching and um please join us again my guest next week on Easter Sunday uh he's called yid vicious the Pitbull of standup comedy Bobby Slayton I got myself a Funny Jew
Speaker A
for Easter that's what I did I also got the star uh of an amazing documentary called super highe a great great Talent Mr Doug Benson we just uh lined up a few other new guests I'm very excited if you're a
Speaker A
fan of the uh Runway hit uh Madmen the Golden Globe winning uh star of that show John Ham has agreed to join us it l be the 19th or the 26th but on the 19th for certain the academy award-winning
Speaker A
writer of The Usual Suspects not a bad film so I've been told uh Felicia Day the beginning of May those of you who enjoy the Guild Online and everything that it's becoming there Beyond um lot of great other people who
Speaker A
have said yes and I'll be making more announcements thank you for all your involvement and help uh don't forget our contest we skipped Three Degrees of Kevin Pollock we'll get back to that next week and uh don't forget your
Speaker A
suggestions for the Larry King game and thank you for all your questions I'm sorry we didn't get to them um and I'll see you next week okay n [Music]
Topics:Elon MuskTeslaelectric carsRoadsterSpaceXKevin Pollak Chat Showsustainable energyelectric vehicle historyinnovation challengesenvironmental impact
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