Innovator Spotlight: Elon Musk

How is Elon Musk set to change the world again?
When you think of the leading game changers in the space of innovation, invention, exploration and tech, a varied list of names come to mind. Near the top of most people’s list, however, you’d be very likely to find South African-born, American-Canadian magnate Elon Musk. The founder of American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, Musk’s name is synonymous with a number of projects, including the uber luxury electric car Tesla. However, most impressive is the brand he’s built around the idea of achieving things that most people consider to be impossible.
Musk is known for saying things like “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” Though his net worth is higher than most people can even fathom, he claims not be compelled by the promise of making more money, but by a desire to push the world forward to a future where people have more opportunity.
That may be easy for a man with as much money as Musk to say; after all, he amassed his fortune in part by co-founding PayPal, and is currently considered the 39th wealthiest person in the United States, according to his Wikipedia page. But when you look at the various projects in which Musk has invested his time into developing, you can see that he is certainly not one to get behind “sure bets”. Some of his projects sound outright ridiculous when you consider the numbers of hurdles and barriers that stand in the way. Even if you don’t entirely believe his insistence that he’s not driven by money, you can’t help but marvel at his tenacity, confidence and bold willingness to innovate across sectors when many others would simply sit back and enjoy their hard-earned wealth.
Here is a look at some of Musk’s most high profile and gutsy projects of late:
Hyperloop: When you hear what the idea of the Hyperloop is—a super high speed transportation system that would carry passengers at more than 700 mph via sealed tubes—it sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. But Musk means business, and recently made headlines for announcing that SpaceX had chosen a winner in its Hyperloop design contest, bringing the day where you can travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour closer than you might think.
Self-driving car: The self-driving car has long been a dream and obsession for those fixated on what the future will look like. But Google isn’t the only one developing automated automobiles. Musk has long been at work developing a self-driving Tesla car, and even publicly challenged super-hacker George Hotz to do it before him. In an interview with Fortune magazine late last year, Musk revealed that he expected SpaceX to have developed “full automation” of their self-driving vehicles in two years time. However, he conceded that regulators will probably lag far behind his cars actually being ready to be on the road.
Artificial Intelligence: Musk has previously been quoted as saying that he views Artificial Intelligence has a major “existential” threat to humankind. That’s perhaps why he provided $1billion of funding to an AI non-profit known as OpenAI. The company and Musk say the research is meant to study and develop AI in a way that will make it the most beneficial to humanity.
Life on Mars: Musk is adamant that human beings won’t always be content to hang out on earth, awaiting mass extinction. That’s why he’s devoted many of SpaceX’s resources into figuring out a viable option for colonising the Red Planet. Chief among his aims is to develop a rocket that can be reused, thereby greatly reducing the cost of sending humans from Earth to Mars and back again.
Musk regularly updates his Twitter profile with news on what he’s up to in the tech world. You can follow him here, and while you’re there why not give @VPSNET a follow too!