Paul Waldman checks in on Elon and it’s excellent:
- Musk is engaged in an ongoing feud with acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy over delays in SpaceX’s work for future NASA missions, which naturally Musk has made as personal and angry as possible.
- Tesla’s profits dropped 37% in the third quarter of the year despite a bump in vehicle sales as consumers rushed to beat the expiration of EV tax credits.
- In response to the end of the credits, Tesla unveiled slightly cheaper and slightly crappier versions of its Model Y and Model 3. Other than the spectacular failure of the Cybertruck, it hasn’t released a new model in years, which doesn’t exactly position it as a company on the bleeding edge of innovation.
- Tesla’s robotaxi rollout in Austin has been underwhelming; only about 30 of the taxis are in operation, and they still have drivers in the front seat for safety. Musk says that by year’s end they will be fully autonomous, but his predictions have a way of not coming true. In any case, Tesla is way behind Waymo in this sector, suggesting that the robotaxi project will never amount to anything like what Musk has said it would.
- Tesla recently rolled out “Mad Max” mode in its self-driving features, which will engage in rapid acceleration and swerving between lanes. Sounds like a great idea that couldn’t possibly have any negative consequences! Naturally, safety regulators are concerned.
- Musk is trying to get Tesla shareholders to approve what would be a $1 trillion pay package, though it is highly unlikely that it will ever amount to that much, since it depends on outlandish production and sales targets.
And he’s still the biggest freak on the planet:
Elon Musk thinks that Grimes, the mother of two of his children, is a “simulation” he has created in his mind, according to journalist Devin Gordon.
The writer, who interviewed Grimes at her house earlier this year, appears in the BBC’s new documentary, The Elon Musk Show. While being interviewed for the series, he said that the Tesla billionaire believed that the musician was his “perfect companion” but not “real”.
Waldman writes:
Perhaps Musk will mount a dramatic comeback and surprise us all. Perhaps his AI company, xAI, will emerge as the dominant force in that sector (assuming there’s a universal demand for a chatbot that is being shaped according to Musk’s anti-woke ideology and at one point started calling itself MechaHitler). And he is still the richest man in the world (current estimated net worth: $428 billion), though it is mostly based on the insane price of Tesla shares. Nevertheless, it isn’t hard to imagine that Musk has begun what could be a dramatic fall.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.