Musk is a crazy person, but also an interesting person. In the face of a complicated and interesting world, what is the opinion of the Silicon Valley Iron Man? What does he think of himself?
A few days ago, Axel Springer, the largest digital publishing house in Europe, conducted an in-depth interview with Musk and talked about many topics such as autonomous driving and the Mars City plan.
In this interview, Musk opened his heart, not only boldly talked about his views and next steps, but also revealed many unknown details.
Talking about the epidemic: mRNA is the future of medicine
Q: Everyone will die, but dignity is something that should be defended. During the time you were infected, did your views on the new crown pneumonia virus change?
Musk: To be honest, no.
Q: What is your outlook for next summer? Do you think vaccination will work?
Musk: We are about to have a lot of vaccines, so many that we don't know how to deal with them. We may have too many vaccines.
Q: But this has a positive effect on the treatment of cancer.
Musk: If you ask about the hope of vaccine production, it is that vaccine technology has developed rapidly in the past, that's for sure. There is great interest in accelerating vaccine development. Especially the mRNA vaccine, it is very interesting, because it can become a potential method for the treatment of cancer. I think that the work of BioNTech, CureVac, and Moderna is like this-mRNA represents the future of medicine. Basically, you can use mRNA to treat everything. mRNA is like a computer program, it is basically a synthetic virus. You can program it to make it perform any operation you want. For example, maybe you can actually become a butterfly.
Q: So, this will be a huge driving force for economic development.
Musk: There will be a lot of money invested in vaccines (R&D). We have also done a better job in testing. Testing technology has made great progress.
Talking about strategy: Active M&A is not what Tesla wants
Q: In 2014, in Berlin, you won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Golden Steering Wheel Award. When the awards were presented, I was sitting next to the well-known CEO of a large German car company. After you took the stage, I asked him, "Are you worried about this guy?" He told me at the time, "No, no, I am not worried, not worried at all. He (referring to Musk) may have some crazy ideas about electric cars, But electric cars are not suitable for the mass market. Apart from this, these guys don't know how to build a good car. They lack engineering knowledge."
Musk: This is very interesting. We did need to make progress in the past.
Q: At that time, the CEO was absolutely serious. He thought "This will never work." And now Tesla, the market value has reached 536 billion U.S. dollars, which is 2.5 times the combined market value of Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW. . Herbert Diess (CEO of Volkswagen Group) once said half-jokingly that Tesla can buy Volkswagen. Does this appeal to you?
Musk: Maybe we will still operate independently. But we can license our technology to companies like BMW. We respect our goal of accelerating the advent of the era of sustainable energy, and we are as pure as possible in this matter. So, this is not a story about building a moat. We are opening up our electric car overcharging network to other companies; we are providing Autopilot authorization. There will be people who want to use our autonomous driving technology. At the same time, we may do some work on the battery (opening). As you know, we are happy to do technology licensing and help other companies do the right thing in this way.
Q: M&A in the traditional sense is not a way Tesla will consider?
Musk: It is not easy to accomplish this kind of concurrency, each company will have their own culture. If a company says to us, "Please, we are interested in merging with Tesla," then it can be considered. But we don't want to initiate a hostile takeover.
Q: Six years ago, did you feel complacent from the head of the auto industry at that time?
Musk: They were pretty arrogant at the time. What they said at the time was not friendly.
Q: Did this cause damage to Tesla? In other words, it inspired you and your team to help Tesla?
Musk: We didn't care too much about it. Generally speaking, when there are some new technologies in an industry, the reaction of the defenders is like this. This is normal. For us, these will eventually become a great motivation. At some point, we did try to establish some kind of joint venture with Daimler and Toyota. However, we found that our partners were not enthusiastic enough. Therefore, we ended these partnerships and insisted on building our own cars.
Q: Do traditional car companies still have a chance to get a role in this highly competitive ecological environment? Or is it too late for them?
Musk: It's definitely not too late. We have seen a major move towards electrification from the public. At the same time, many Chinese companies are acting very, very, very fast. I guess Tesla’s most competitive opponent may be a company from China. Competition in the Chinese market is fierce. There are some very good companies in China, and they work very hard at the same time. But in this regard, all mainstream car companies, 80% or 90%, have already stated that they are rapidly electrifying.
Talk about autonomous driving: safer than human driving
Q: So, you are confident about electrification, and still very confident. Regarding autonomous driving, has your opinion changed?
Musk: I want to clarify. I am definitely not trying to take people's steering wheel from their hands. I just said something that is most likely to happen, that is, autonomous driving will be safer than human drivers. I am convinced of this. The safety of autonomous driving may reach 10 times that of a human driver. And this means that the standards for allowing someone to drive their own car may also become higher.
Currently, having a driver's license is relatively easy, because people need a car to meet their travel needs. But usually, people’s cars are crashed for various reasons, such as because they are drunk or distracted while driving, or because they send a lot of text messages while driving. Therefore, when autonomous driving is 10 times safer than human driving, the standards that allow humans to drive cars may become stricter. This is the most likely result.
Q: What is the time node? When will L5 autonomous driving be available? Do you believe that L4 autonomous driving can be implemented? If it is achieved, there may be a mixture of man and machine, which may be more dangerous than having only machines (self-driving cars) on the road.
Musk: There is a dangerous transition zone here. In a place where autonomous driving is in good condition, there will occasionally be problems, because people may feel too comfortable and inattentive. In 99.9% of the time, the performance of autonomous driving is good. In 1000 times, 1 time did not perform well. And you really need better performance, just as the reliability has reached the level of 6 99.9999.
Q: When will this become the new normal? Do you have any forecasts for the timetable?
Musk: I am very confident that Tesla will reach L5 next year . I am very confident about it, 100% (confidence).
Q: In theory, Tesla can do this next year?
Musk: Of course. I used the Alpha version of the latest FSD fully autonomous driving software on the Tesla I drove. Many times I can pass a series of very complicated intersections and narrow roads without having to take over by myself. I just drove to work like this, and then I drove home.
Talking about personal wealth: holding shares is to save money for the construction of Mars City
Q: You said a word recently, you said that personal property will only make you feel heavy. You have sold part of your property. Is this a metaphor or are you really selling your own property?
Musk: I sold my first house.
Q: Is it the one in Los Angeles?
Musk: This house was sold two months ago. I also sold my house across the road, which once belonged to Gene Wilder. This house has his personal style, and I finally sold it at a low price to Gene Wild’s nephew, where he grew up. And now we are selling other properties. I think I will rent a house somewhere.
Q: Why do you want to do this?
Musk: In fact, apart from owning stocks in the company, I basically have no other assets with monetary value. If I am busy at work, I would prefer to sleep directly in the factory or office. If my children are there, then obviously I still need a place to live. Therefore, I tend to rent a place. At the same time, I am the only person in many cases, so I really don't need a big house.
Q: So, there are no art collections, no cars, no real estate, and no other things that are usually associated with the rich. Do you believe that after getting rid of these, you can become a free person?
Musk: Essentially, yes, I think so. I want to accumulate wealth, and the reasons for holding shares in Tesla and SpaceX are roughly the same. The only listed stock I own is Tesla stock. That's it. If Tesla and SpaceX go bankrupt, then I will also go bankrupt. One hundred percent will go bankrupt.
But I also think about why I have to work hard to hold stocks. Why should I master these things? Going back to what I said earlier, I think it is important for human beings to become a space-civilized species and a multi-planet species. Building a city on Mars requires a lot of resources. I hope to share as much as possible to build a Martian city. And this means (needs) a lot of money.
Q: Do you want to focus on this matter?
Musk: Yes, and I also want to show that I am serious about it. This has nothing to do with personal consumption, because people will attack me and say things like he has so many properties and so many houses. Then okay, now I am gone.
A cherry-red Tesla roadster sent into space by a heavy Falcon rocket sits on a dummy in a black and white space suit. He is called the "Starman".
Talking about growth: the most helpful thing is reading
Q: You will be bullied in school. Is this true?
Musk: I had a very unfortunate childhood. I have been sad for many years.
Q: In school, your peers realized that you were a different kind of person and bullied you. Is that true, or do you have other explanations?
Musk: First of all, it is important to know that South Africa is a very, very violent place. Violence is normal there. This is not uncommon, so I'm not just talking about it.
Q: In your opinion, does this motivate you to play a key role in improving the world? Or to some extent, just as the trauma of our childhood often becomes the driving force for us to pursue excellence and achievement in life?
Musk: I am a very motivated child. Even when I was very young, so I think this might really give me some motivation. But the most helpful thing is that I read a lot of books. I can read every book I have, especially science fiction.
When I was a kid, I played Dungeons and Dragons. I was a nerd at the time and kept reading the Monster Guide. I think that if you have a difficult childhood, you can take two approaches. One of the methods is like, we start from reality, I will be mean to whoever is mean to me, which is obviously not very good. I used another method.
Q: In your opinion, what is the important moment or the key reason? Do you still feel a source of love? Do you have any explanation for this?
Musk: Because I read a lot of books.
Q: Which writers are most important to you?
Musk: When I read Nietzsche, I was a little frustrated. And Schopenhauer. It is indeed not recommended for 13-year-old children to read.
Q: In addition, there are actually a small number of people who understand the content of their book.
Musk: They can be more optimistic. But then I read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This book looks like a stupid comedy, but it is indeed a philosophy book. The point of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that the universe has answers, and the difficult part is asking questions. What is the correct question about the universe? My conclusion is that the more we can expand the scope and scale of our consciousness, the better we can ask questions. I think this is the correct approach. This is a way to help us understand what is going on.
Why are we here? I mean, take a step back and think, what is the meaning of life? These are not even the right questions. How did we get here? Where are you going? You know, all these kinds of things. Therefore, I hope to expand the scope and scale of consciousness so that we can try to figure out how to answer these questions and what questions should be asked.
