Musk had just been named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, but was selected by the Financial Times.
Over the years, Musk has not only fought bankruptcies, but also fought a vicious battle with short sellers on Wall Street, and then began to argue with regulators. He had a certain victory, but not thoroughly enough.
Persistent Mr. Electric Car
According to the Financial Times, Musk said: "For a long time, other people in the automotive industry basically called Tesla and me a fool and a fraudster. "They say electric cars don't work and can't achieve range and performance." Even if you do that, no one will buy it. ”
However, Tesla's market capitalization exceeded the $1 trillion mark this year, and Musk became the world's richest man — even though Tesla shipped less than 2% of the world's shipments.
Obviously, this is a huge achievement. The Financial Times named Elon Musk The Man of the Year for triggering a historic shift in the world's automotive industry to electric vehicles.
"They (Mercedes-Benz BMWs) aren't taking electric cars seriously, and it's clear that they just want to produce the minimum number of electric vehicles to meet regulatory requirements," Musk said.
Musk believes that there is one of the most important reasons why traditional automakers end up switching to electric vehicles: "They didn't react until we started taking market share from them in a meaningful way." ”
"We did Tesla basically out of desperation, not because we thought it would be profitable, but to show that it could do it," he added.
Not just electric cars
In an era often defined by new technologies, Musk claims to be the most truly innovative entrepreneur of his generation.
Musk's unusual adventures and breakthrough actions are not limited to cars.
SpaceX recycled the Falcon 9 rocket last year for the first time since the Space Shuttle.
Its Starlink network is about to launch the world's first commercial satellite broadband service, while a giant rocket, known as the Starship Starship, is waiting for its first test launch.
"I just want people to get to Mars, freedom of communication through Starlink, and getting people out of the drudgery of driving through Tesla," he said.
"I believe we don't need new physics," Musk said of Starship. "But it's just an extremely difficult technical problem." I sometimes wonder, is this really within the reach of humans? I know it can be done, but it still has yet to be done. ”
Speaking about SpaceX, Musk added, "Bankruptcy is not impossible, so we should not be complacent or complacent." ”
The mission is not finished
Although Musk has previously tweeted that he may resign as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, it is clear that he still has a lot of work to do.
Among them, some extremely difficult technical challenges seem to make Musk doubt himself at times.
For example, how to build a fully reusable Starship, and musk for years claimed that self-driving technology is coming.
These two events, he said, accounted for "the most cognitive burden" in his life.
Musk says he spends 7 days a week and 80-90 hours back and forth between Tesla and SpaceX's most critical projects.
Meanwhile, on the challenge of autonomous driving, he almost admitted that some of his earlier confidences were wrong. "I don't think we have to address an important part of AI to make it work." But he added that he now "believes that fully autonomous driving will succeed, it's only a matter of time."
Naughty side
Musk is obviously an extremely crazy genius, but he is also a naughty opponent at times.
Musk's own explanation of Tesla's success stems from his passion for engineering. "People who don't work with me don't understand that I'm an engineer first and foremost," he said. "Why can't other companies succeed when they have so many more resources and capital than I do?" The key problem is that they can't hire me. ”
He also bristled at criticism that his predictions were sometimes overly optimistic. "The predictions I made came true, or Ahead of schedule, and didn't get a lot of attention, and the delayed predictions I made got a lot of attention," he complains.
"I'm very good at technology and engineering," he says. Everyone has their own talents, and that's one of my talents. I can't sing or dance, but I can. ”
Speaking of rival Bezos, "he does take himself too seriously," Musk added, "In some ways, I'm trying to encourage him to spend more time on Blue Origin so that they can make more progress." As a friend of mine said, he should stay more at Blue Origin and take fewer hot baths. ”