A respected investigative journalist has recently penned a rather worrying piece about Tesla Motors’ progress with its high-stakes Model 3 vehicle. Things are far from going according to plan. What is even more disturbing for me are some of the recent shock & awe declarations of CEO Elon Musk. For example his unrealistic plans for colonizing Mars^ or sending people around the world aboard rockets (see this awesome fact-checking^ video), both of which would be a complete waste of critical resources and a mockery of the critical situation in other parts of the planet. The following Seeking Alpha article pours some cold water on all the Musk hype:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4112109-model-3-may-mess-short-tesla-yet
Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Musk. He’s done great with Tesla Motors. In fact, he’s done so great that now Big Motor is out to get him. It’s amazing how much competition he managed to ignite and thus has done the world a great favor. He’s done even better with Space X given how much the enterprise has helped our extra-terrestrial research and development. But some of his statements are scientifically unsound and that devalues him in the eyes of those that matter a lot for his ventures’ future. I have no problem with idealism, but I do have a problem with cheap PR tactics.
But I digress. The reason I am writing this is to remind you about some of the great things we have because of Tesla Motors. And what better way to share facts than together with a laugh? Here’s an awesome oldie but goldie comic from The Oatmeal, work of cartoonist Matthew Inman:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s
And since I mentioned Tesla and The Oatmeal, let me end on a positive note by sharing Matthew’s awesome post-mortem kudos to scientist Nicola Tesla. I think the cartoonist is right and few scientists were as unfairly treated by history as Tesla. But I also think that few scientists have been “avenged” as well as Tesla, thanks to Matthew’s work:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
The cartoonist actually managed to get help from his fans and Elon Musk himself to save Nicola Tesla’s lab. There are plans to turn it into a museum. In fact, The Oatmeal comic did so well that it drew out a critical response from a columnist over at Forbes. Below, you can find both the article from Forbes and Matthew’s amusing and wonderful reply:
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