Los Angeles World Affairs Council

[Music] thank you for doing this I know today was a busy day at the office yeah I guess every day is a busy day at the office when you're running to big companies some are more intense than others this is on the more intense side um let's let's talk about Tesla and if one were to believe everything one reads in the Press which I don't as a former journalist the recent fires in the Tesla cars sound like the Hindenberg disaster in 1937 right the humanity um reality is somewhat different tell us tell us what really happened there uh yeah um so I mean I think first of all that it's fair for uh a new technology to uh receive more scrutiny than than than older Technologies because it should be held to a higher standard but there's some reasonable limit to to

what that uh increased standard should be and I mean since since the model S went into production about a year and a half ago there've been about a quarter million gasoline carf fires in the us um about 400 deaths 1,200 serious injuries um our Three Fires which caused no injury um received more headline news than the other quarter million combined that seems like an unreasonable ratio and I believe all three owners of those cars who crashed wanted to get another one yes right exactly it's like don't take my word for it like they they that that was like I said well how how soon can they get a loaner car until the insurance thing gets figured out and you so it was we gave him one right away but um yeah I mean that's the asset test like do does the guy that

was that experienced the fire does he want to have that same car again you feel safe in um stock price down again today 10% do you care about that I mean it's it kind of sucks running a public company um yeah yeah I mean the stock goes through these huge gations um and uh yeah for for like seemingly arbitrary reasons uh and then I'm asked to explain why it changed I'm like I have no idea which should be pointed out it's up 300% on the year yeah right I mean on balance that's still still good um but I mean when the stock price is way higher and people ask me what I think think of valuation I said well I think it's probably more than we have a right to deserve we'll try to get there in the long term and I think we will and probably exceed it but uh I would

not try to justify that a company with a little over $2 billion Revenue should be worth $22 billion in market cap that does seem pretty high to me you know it's so yeah and it's fair to say you wouldn't be there without government subsidy well I think it would have taken longer so the Ian there's a slight misperception about the history of Tesla which is that that the the government funding was pivotal it was an accelerant but it was not pivotal the the really pivotal thing uh point was an investment from Daimler in 2009 early 2009 when there was I I I basically spent all the money I had and we had one company that was willing to in invest or one entity that was willing to invest period and that was dla and if they hadn't come in with that investment

we would definitely be dead um fortunately bankrupt finished yeah gone um and uh fortunately they they did and we've done a number of vehicle programs that Dio there the uh Mercedes bclass which is uh not currently produced in the US but it's very popular in Europe and other parts of the world will be coming to the US and that'll have a Tesla battery pack and power train it'll be the largest electric vehicle program in down the history uh so that uh you know so got a great relationship they they've been a great great supporter um how about self-drive version of Tesla um I do think that's an important technology although uh the the difficulty increases exponentially to get to fully self-driving um to cover all the corner cases um so I think we can get

to maybe 90% of miles driven being autopilot as we call it because using the sort of aircraft analogy um I think we'll get there pretty soon maybe in a few years but uh then covering that last 10% is really difficult and and so getting from 90% to 99 then to 99.

9 and then I mean ultimately to be truly self-driving like you can fall asleep and the car arrives at your destination uh which would be really great some people do already by the way yeah exactly um they die yeah um that that that's that just it just I think you probably need like 69 Z liability um like the standard would be actually way higher than a than the safety of of a person probably by a factor of 10 or 100 you in order for people to be comfortable uh or otherwise well like this fire thing you know just like a car is basically the safest car you could possibly drive if you care about fires um and and that that's not the impression one would have reading the headlines you would have sort of the opposite impression and so for self self-driving

or autopilot um yeah hopefully the media doesn't do do the same thing same like Mega disproportionate response but uh but I do think that it should be held to a standard that's maybe like 10 times better than a person and I know Google is working on this too 10 years more or less yeah um I I mean I think that the the right path is probably a little different from what Google is pursuing um and uh Larry Page is a all friend of mine I've known him this before he got Venture funing for Google um and I think he's a really brilliant guy but uh I mean it's it's not Google is isn't focusing on on on autonomous cars whereas it it's going to be a pretty significant Focus for Tesla and from our standpoint it it only matters if the autopilot capability is does not

result in in a substantial cost increase to the car and the the way the Google sensor Suite is set up it's like it like 60 Grand you know I mean that's like a lot I want to ask you about risk-taking um because there's a theory that entrepreneurs who hit it out of the park one time make that Billion Dollar Plus company work right they reluctant to do it again not because they're afraid of losing their money but because they feel if they were to to fail a second time round then in their own minds maybe they would think well the first time it was just luck it wasn't really my own skill or my own sense of how to run a business but not only did you well you Rose PayPal came up to 1.

5 billion you got out of that not only did you invest again you invest again twice not only that but you chose probably two of the most risky Capital intensive Industries to go with rocket technology which is basically a bomb right directed up yeah and then cars which are you know we know what's happening Detroit yeah um so what is it that that motivates there to do that to go through The Crucible again two times again yeah I'm not sure it was the right decision but um so far so good yeah um it's it's it's much less fun than it than it may appear uh but um I mean the case of what I thought of I would do was start and run SpaceX then and then create a electric car company with with a few other people work just but just like apply 20% of my time and work

on the product design um because I'm like my main thing is is engineering and design so um that yeah that was um an illusion uh so uh yeah and um and then I I don't really have any choice but just to to apply a ton of time to Tesla or the company would be you know definitely dead so um but the other way to do it you could have stayed in Silicon Valley started another few internet companies made oh yeah billion dollars and then you could have bought krysler and probably bought NASA too and you wouldn't have to start from scratch that seems too easy yeah um all right we'll move on I don't I don't really want to it's not point is not to sort of own a car company it but rather to accelerate the Advent of sustainable transport and um it seemed like it would

be difficult let's talk about SpaceX SpaceX you have said you started with the specific intention of getting to Mars uh yeah it well the Argin of SpaceX uh was was actually not or it my interest in Spa my inial thought in space was that uh it wasn't possible to create a company um and I mistakenly thought that uh the reason that we had not sent people to Ms was because we' lost the will to explore or something or like May that and I thought well maybe that needs to be reignited and so came with this idea to do a basically a philanthropic mission to M with with a 100% probability of losing all the money um in order to reignite interest in that goal um but after after a while I realized that's that was actually that was a mistake I mean United States is

is a nation of explorers you know came here from other parts of the world um I think more than any other country is a distillation of the human Spirit of exploration there there's no lack of will the but people need to believe that there's a way uh that that a way that's feasible and and that it's not going to bankrupt the country and their living standard will be won't be materially affected you know if and then I think they're super super keen on on that that goal now as you look out whatever we're talking 10 15 20 years to get to Mars it's not just rocket technology and and you've talked about reusable rocket technology it's also how you Shield people from radiation it's a 10 12 month trip what you do when they arrive you know how are they going to

live there are you is that something that you want to work on too or will you partner with other companies how do you how do you see that playing out over the next decade well I actually think the the the technology required to live on M is not not particularly difficult um but but but getting there is is really difficult uh uh I mean it's like hundreds of millions of miles um to get to Death Valley yeah exactly to get to a place that kind of looks like Arizona you know uh like a cold version of Arizona with not quite as much water um so um I mean at least that that's that's my best my my guess is I I think if we can if we can get there the technology required to live there will is is not a not a not a really big challenge I mean U Mars has some advantages

it's got a it's it's quite sort of earthlike in in some ways it's got a rotational period of 24 and 1 half hours by far the closest of any other planet um the atmosphere is carbon dioxide uh now it's it's not it's at a low pressure but if you were to have a transparent Dome uh you you all you'd need is a is a pump uh and some and some fertilizer and you could grow plants on Ms the plants would convert the CO2 to oxygen um the other thing that's been big in the news recently is the hyperloop um which you have sketched out you estimate from LA to San Francisco in 35 minutes yeah you could push that a little bit but well I'd be happy if I could get from Santa Monica to downtown I know I know you have your personal issues with the 405 the 405 is like this

is like the most brutal construction project I've ever personally witnessed I mean it's like mindboggling um but I I also know that so you sketch this out but I know that your your your plans for the hyperloop have been put into some pretty sophisticated simulation technology yeah and it looks like it actually might work am I right yeah um and and we did run simulations at SpaceX and Tesla uh so you know we you know we thought it would work but I mean I actually don't think it's particularly like I mean I I think I think it's like the the engineering of it that that it would work is is actually pretty pretty obvious honestly but I mean it's so I think the larger issues are political you know getting the political support to do something like that and

uh and then uh you know making sure the economics pan out um and uh yeah I hope someone does it because I think it would be cool I mean it' be great to to have something like that it's just like it doesn't seem like our mass transportation is getting better it seems to be kind of getting worse so that's that's not a good future you said something you hope somebody else would do it I'm curious what makes you really so unique is not only your ability to dream big but to execute there are lots of utopian thinkers out there but they cannot execute um but there are some other people who can do good things and I'm wondering what seems to motivate you you see things that frustrate you or you think are are not as good as you like and then you try and fix them

you've worked on on solar power you've worked on electric cars and and on interplanetary space travel um I'm wondering what are the things about America and about the world for that matter would you like to see fixed either by a company you might do yourself or by some of a smart entrepreneur what what what else out there is feasible you know we all want to get rid of world poverty and and get rid of childhood diseases but but what what problems out there can feasibly be fix say in our lifetimes well I mean I think first of all um the world's actually pretty great right now uh I mean arguably better than any point in history um and this this is sometimes uh lost if you read the newspapers they're they're like a a ification of all the world's problemes

like I mean newspapers seem to be attempting to answer the question what was the worst thing that happened on Earth today yeah and it's right if it bleeds it leads yeah and and it's like okay I mean and I think there's there is kind of a evolutionary reason for that because it makes more sense to like you want to prioritize danger over reward or or or because it's you if you get eaten by the lion it's game over but you know if you if you forget where you left some snack that's that's okay I mean you you know so so there's a it's it's it's not quite the same in terms of the risk reward balance but we didn't evolve with newspapers uh and and and Global media so like our brains sort of having a fear response to a lot a bunch of dangers that are extremely

unlikely to ever affect us on but yeah just yeah you have uh I believe about 3,000 people at Tesla we have six 6,000 yeah 6,000 I'm my I'm well informed and SpaceX is uh is 3500 so that's a massive a glomeration of engineering Talent huge yeah if if if if I could take the metaphor of a ship how much time do you have to go down into the engine room roll up your sleeves get your hands dirty and fix stuff as an engineer and how much time do you spend on the bridge steering and looking at the at the distant Horizon well not a lot on that last Point uh I mean it's uh I mean there there's a constant flurry of executional challenges um and so I try to triage my time according to what would be best for the companies uh and and still you know have some time to

see my kids you know because I want to miss them growing up so you know it can vary from big issues to things that seem small but actually could have a really big impact um so I mean it's it's all the way from design Aesthetics to uh the details of of say the vehicle functionality or in the case of the rocket uh the you know the avionics propulsion system and uh airframe I mean the rocket is kind of a has has more more of a concentrated pucker Factor um because of you got it's you got these launches and and um least of the car you can do a recoil or like do a software update that's not going to happen with the rocket so it's like passing grade is 100% uh which is induces anxiety you know how do you handle launch anxiety when you're actually waiting the

countdown we we saw one here well the the these ones actually I mean they're this this I have quite a lot of anxiety uh because always think oh there must be something that we did wrong and is there anything I could have done to prevent this hypothetical thing from from Bad Thing from occurring um I mean the last um roughly 10 launchers have have have worked uh but the but the the three launchers we started off with did not so the the by far the worst uh emotional stress was the the fourth launch of Falcon 1 because the first three launchers did not make it to orbit they got they got to sort of space on launches two and three but they didn't get to full overal velocity and uh and I I when I started out I figured I would have enough money for three three

launches oops Yeah oops so I was it was we squeaked by on the fourth fourth one um we sent out a link today I don't know if how many of you saw it but it's of you using a your hands uh as 3D molding sort of tools for stuff you're doing on a computer screen and it's a rocket engine that you're able to manipulate with your hands um and I know that you have told John favro who produced or directed Iron Man that that was the inspiration because we see Tony Stark doing this the movie absolutely um and I know also you know I've read a bit Isaac azimoff's Foundation series you've also said it's been inspiration so I'm wondering fan of azimov actually when when you're on The Cutting Edge of technology today in the fields that you're in do you feel you've almost

got one foot in science fiction is that is do you do you have to be that far ahead well well you have to um imagine and outcome in order to head in that direction um and science fiction explores a lot of different ideas so um it can be you know helpful as a source of inspiration um and and you know like books TV shows movies I they're all uh I think sources of inspiration um I mean most of the movies and TV shows that space are totally wrong uh but uh but they have interesting ideas like the Star Trek Communicator um was uh an inspiration for the cell phone yeah with the flip right right yeah exactly um I'm GNA in fact the weird thing is like like the like the phones we have in our pocket vastly exceed what was on stock Trek we're going to go to ask some

of our students um some questions but first one more um I saw I'm a big James Bond fan he just bought the Lotus s spre that they used in um the spy who love me which goes underwater yeah and you're going to make that work so it's it's definitely a backround of project okay but my question is when do we get to see a functioning version of the Millennium Falcon that's a tricky one because it's it's not actually the right shape um uh oh it's I mean not to George Lucas yeah I mean the Falcon 9 our Falcon roer was uh named after the Millennium Falcon even though it looks nothing like it um and uh yeah I mean yeah you that's not the shape you'd want for Miss B ship really okay so if we can swing the camera to our student tables we get a couple of questions

from there and then I'll go to the written questions from the rest of the audience so here we go good evening sir my name's Ariel Haus I'm from vonck century referring to Merlin 9 does basx have a working prototype and when will it be ready to launch uh well Merin is the the name of our our engine um so and falcon9 is the name of the rocket um and we uh we've done um several launches of of falcon9 um and an important Milestone happened a few months ago which was the the launch of the next generation Falcon line which is designed to be able to return uh and land at the Launchpad um and um came we came close on the initial Mission but not didn't quite get there uh we need to make a few few corrections but I think we we've got a good chance of getting there

next year okay let's go for another one there hi I'm Kennedy Green from Harvard weslake so I've seen you speak at a TED Talk and I remember you spoke pretty emphatically about the success of your Innovations and how you kind of take a physics approach where you take the idea and boil it down to its Basics and from there start to build up so can you talk about an example where you use that process um well I think you know an important thing in in uh Innovation or trying to create new things is is is to try really hard to to do that um which may sound incredibly obvious but uh that's what I find is is most often what people don't do they actually didn't didn't try super hard to come up with something new um and and it is helpful to have cross-pollination

of Industries um I mean it's been quite difficult to run SpaceX and Tesla but there has been good ideas you know if since I got both in my mind space this this good ideaas is going back and forth the um for example on the car with respect to the car the model S is the only all aluminum body en Chanty car made in North America and very few cars are are all aluminum in the airspace industry it's that that's the default um so it seemed like like obviously the right move in order to minimize the the non battery packed mass of the car so in order in order to offset you know a fairly heavy battery pack we had to make the rest of the car light but but still achieve uh a festar safety rating um I don't think it would have been possible to do that if we had used

steel which is the traditional method um and and what's helped SpaceX has been that the car industry is really good at making complicated objects at a low cost I mean it's actually quite incredible that like one can buy a decent car for $20,000 I mean all the stuff that's in that car is I mean it's nutty how much stuff is in a car um so uh that at SpaceX uh I hired a bunch of people from the order industry to uh run manufacturing which has worked out reasonably well let's take two more student questions please and then we'll come to the other written ones hello um I'm Natalie Watson from marbor school and we have a sort of two-part question that builds so um why do you think Tesla succeeded whereas other companies um car companies have failed in their

methods um of electric cars and is the location in Silicon Valley an important part of this yeah I think I think being in Silicon Valley is is pretty important uh because what's really Critical with electric cars is electrical engineering software and electronics uh and Silicon Valley has the best concentration of talent in those areas in the world um and yeah sorry what was the first father the question why did you succeed oh why do we succeed oh yeah right suc I'm sorry what was your question oh the first part okay um why do you think Tesla succeeded whereas other car companies failed in their methods of electric of electric cars like why do you think Tesla is the leader in this idea well um there haven't been that many car company startups uh Ian there

was sort of Fisker uh and Kota um and and then a few smaller ones um and and then the rest has sort of been some some fairly small scale efforts by the big companies um uh I I I I think if if we say what was the difference between say Fisker and Tesla that's maybe the bit most direct comparison uh Tesla is a hardcore engineering company and visker is kind of a was based on kind of on styling you know it's like styling is good important but it's that's not the reason we don't have electric cars so it's not you know but for styling we we would have electric cars that's not the reason um so in the case of fisa they made a car that uh a lot of people think looked really good but didn't work properly so then people don't want to buy the car um that's like

a pretty reasonable thing I think um and yeah um yeah I mean if you think like like what what what's the point of a company existing the the point is that it's it's a group of people that have gathered together to create a product if the product is good the company should exist and if it is not good the company should not exist um that seems like fundamental to the nature of companies so the I mean clearly then one should focus on making the absolute best product you can otherwise you reduce the probability of success but a lot of companies focus on things that aren't really to do with the product um as though a company has any basis for existing apart from doing useful things that's kind of strange take one more student question please uh good evening

sir my name is Eric pelo from uh Von Next Century and regarding the Mars uh the proposed Mars Expedition um what how exactly do you plan on making it coste efficient sure um well now that is that is indeed a tricky problem um I mean I feel reasonably possible that um that success is at least one of the possible outcomes um like this is a I mean this is pretty important when you're trying to do something it's like well can can that be one of the outcomes I wasn't actually confident about that until a few years ago um now I'm not saying we will get there but I I I I I'm confident that it is at least possible um and the key to that is having a fully reusable MOS transportation system so that all you're all you are placing between flights maybe apart from

minor maintenance is the propellant um I mean this is this like reusability is so fundamental to uh to having a a a a a a major change in space flight it's would be difficult to overstate its importance um but I mean with analogy to other modes of Transport you can imag imagine that if airplanes could only be used once um they would very few people would fly um because it would be super crazy expensive um you know guess like a 747 costs a quarter billion dollars You' need two of them just for a round trip but people are not paying half a billion dollars to fly back and forth to London um and that's because you can use 747 like 20,000 times um and for a rocket you a falcon9 rocket costs about $60 million to build and so if you can be used once obviously

that's a $60 million Capital cost but if you can be used a thousand times then it's only a $60,000 Capital cost um and I mean that is you it's it is it is the fundamental difference so you have to have fully useable then you have to make sure that the propellant used is as low cost as possible so our next Generation Rockets will be using methane as a fuel which methane is the is the lowest cost Source fuel on the planet um by by a good margin so uh and so I think if if if your propellent cost is low and the system is fully reusable then I think it I think it should be possible to to move to Mars for less than half a million dollars which I think is is an important threshold because if people can sell all this stuff on Earth and move to Mars well uh and

there's enough people who who can do that um combined with those who actually want to do that uh then that then that that's that's the the fundamental thing needed to uh have a a growing Colony on Mars I mean kind of like the way that the US was like the early English colonies of America um you when it became affordable for people to sell all their stuff in England and um move to America it grew really fast um in the absence of that it's it would just require humongous amounts of government support and and I think probably wouldn't be wouldn't result in a self-sustaining civilization so the economics of it are extremely fundamental no thanks yeah okay um I'm going to go through some questions that we got from the floor um and the first one I want to ask

is um what is what do you think is the next Battery Technology after lithium ion I guess lithium ion has sort of reached its ceiling more or less or no no I think there's I think there are substantial improvements uh that will occur with lithiumion batteries um without any no Miracles required um the the thing uh with lithion technology in terms of the costant energy density uh is that the the sort of average Improvement per year is about 8% which isn't that noticeable on a one-ear basis but but your compound interest is a very powerful force uh and so after say four or five years the cost is cut in half assuming there's a forcing function for a strong forcing function for improvement which I think electric cars provide so you know I feel pretty good

about achieving um a substantial reduction of the cost of the battery pack uh say in in kind of the the three or four year time Horizon it's still way behind M's law for micro dou nothing nothing I mean M the only thing that uh operates at M's LW speed is M's law um you know semiconductors just had this incredible advantage that as you made them tinier they got way more efficient um for something with like that's that's a large like a macro structure like a battery pack you just don't have or really almost anything essentially I say in fact anything except microprocessors and memory um that that does does not improve at that pace um yeah um another question here um it's about medical technology is there a medical application or technology that you you

would like to change or see somebody else change work on Well Medical Technology um well I think the thing that would s most profoundly affect people uh would be uh to to be able to recode genetics which is obviously a dodgy situation um uh but that that's the thing like we're we're close to saturation on on lifespan I mean it's sort of pretty much leveled out um and uh and so even if you solve say any one particular disease you maybe slightly improve life expectancy but but not a lot um you know it's just like you you kind of have a genetic programming any given species for a certain lifespan like the like you cannot make a fruit fly live for 10 years no matter what you do I mean no amount of Healthy Living vitamins or anything um it's just like you

know can so while fruit flies live for 20 years that would be that would be a a truly astounding achievement um but yeah so I mean it's a really tricky subject uh you know it's Frau with with all sorts of moral issues but um that's the thing that would most affect people's lives but it's I mean it certainly is double-edged sword so here's another question um from a Tesla owner why is there no coat hook in the back yeah he says he or she says you can design a rocket but you forgot the coat hooks well I didn't actually forget it I just I intentionally didn't like it so I didn't put it there um like the Aesthetics of it really bothered me but um I know you know obviously some people disagree with that decision um but I think I think we might have um a retroactive

fix for that if somebody has the panoramic roof uh which is to to basically have hook on the the bow section in the middle of the roof um and then the then the your code could hang down in the second row passenger footwall which is actually slightly better than having a coat hook uh that's stuck on the side of the car um so I think we'll probably do that um yeah wherever that question came from hold on this not the first time I've heard that question I'm sure I'm sure is there a future in hydrogen fueled engines uh yeah actually I'll mention one little anecdote which is oh yeah uh in in in the beginning of mod production I also didn't have um reading lights in the second row uh CU like well people I thought people were really going towards uh your ebooks

um the Kindle and iPad and that kind of thing it's like so they have like their own light they don't need like an actual light in the back um uh and uh then I was driving with one of my kids and he and he was trying to read his book Daddy yeah I he he said uh this is a stest car in the world like all right we'll put the light back in um hydrogen fuel engines they have a future I I you know I don't think so uh hydrogen is a very difficult uh energy storage mechanism I mean essentially it's a means of storing energy chemically uh but there are way better if you want to do that there are way better materials than than hydrogen like I go with methane or propane way before hydrogen um in fact the way that they make the hydrogen is by taking methane and and

chopping the the carbon atom off so of like well that seems like a waste um or they'll do electrolysis which is even worse uh so so it's a really energy intensive it's either like either taking either still mining hydrocarbons on a large scale or um you're you're applying massive amounts of electricity to separate uh H2O um and then some will say oh well hydrogen is the most common element in the universe yes but not on Earth which is important consideration um you know it's it's yeah it's one of those things that sort of always sounds like it's like it's one of those things like it's the future and it always will be like and then there's the Hindenburg issue yeah I mean in in the case of Hindenberg my understanding is that that the main issue was the

the paint on the outer surface uh as opposed to the hydrogen itself but but hydrogen does combust extremely well um like it hyren has a has a there's a good AR argument for hydrogen is a fuel in the upper stage of a rocket um say curn 5 in the second and third stages had hydrogen um and particularly for the upstage of a rocket where you're not volumetrically constrained um uh or or rather you you're Mass constrained rather than volumetrically constrained uh hydrogen is good if you care about mass and terrible if you care about volume uh and and it's also harble from uh a handling standpoint because it's a really tiny molecule and it goes all over the place um you look at Apple after Steve Jobs and Microsoft after Bill Gates struggle to keep up the momentum

I wonder have you thought about the future of your companies Tesla and SpaceX um I know you've you've talked about giving away a lot of your money um but then I know you've had some other thoughts about that and you looked at Ford and wondered if you want to give I mean what's where where you at on that succession issue now well I I I don't know if like I'm not sure about the whole sort of family dasty from a wealth standpoint thing I mean that seems to work you know often work out worse than if if if if the kid wasn't given a huge sum of money um I mean unless unless they've actually demonstrated a high ability to be a good Steward of capital then um it you know it's not not going to work out I think to give them a huge sum of money um now that said

I mean that I'm wavering a little bit on that cuz if you look at the example of Ford and GM like GM went bankrupt Ford did not Ford had the Ford family as a stabilizing influence so there could be some Merit to to having a family stabilizing influence but but maybe not necessarily complete control um we're going to end with two questions on the hyperloop which is clearly aroused a lot of emotion in Los Angeles and one is from UCLA Anderson I know that Gene block is here who runs UCLA um but they want to know how do you envision the hyperloop as an open-source project to be run in traditional Enterprise fashion which would make profits does that make sense uh yeah I guess it the I mean I think it's going be quite difficult for for someone to execute uh

the hyperloop and the thing that will really matter is how good is that company at executing as opposed to the basic sort of ideas of of the system um so I wouldn't I don't think a company has to worry too much about um creating value if they're really good at execution um and uh I like probably the best example of Open Source is Linux um and there's lots of companies that that um quite valuable even though Linux is open source and the followup to that is from somebody else who wants to know when will the hyper hyperloop potentially be ready and can we get to Australia that would be I would not recommend it uh for for going to Australia because Australia is really far um so like where where something like the hyp loop would work best is for distances

that are maybe five about 500 miles but probably not more than a thousand um and that's because if um if you compare to say an alternative being supersonic Air transport um in order to go really fast on the plane you have to climb pretty pretty high because the atmosphere just looks like molasses when you're going fast uh so you for distances certainly under 500 miles you spend all your time just ascending and descending and you don't really get an opportunity to spend time at Cruise uh so something like a hyperloop can complete really well in that Arena because uh you you instantly or very almost instantly enter a low pressure environment and so the tube contains a low low pressure environment that's you know like the cruising altitude of well it's it's

like very high altitude atmosphere basically uh and and so you don't have to spend any time ascending uh or descending um so so there's no way for it would be well extremely difficult for for for a plane to uh be faster than hyp Loop for distances under 500 Miles um because of that sent descent thing um however once you get to long distances then the cost of the tube starts to become a big factor and and uh and so then I'd say it's probably the right mve is to go to Super Sonic transport because then you're spending a a large percentage of your time at Cruise and and you you could probably get there faster with a super sonic aircraft interesting so no kangaroos in the hyber loop um I know you have an insane schedule I know that you have to go from here

back to your office tonight yeah I apologize for not being at my best this is has been I was like working most last night so um we are deeply grateful you came you gave us some time thank you so much thank you so much for [Music] on