Recode Decode with Kara Swisher

I've known Ilan for decades actually so I think we have a much more of a rapport I've done a lot of interviews with him so I think that's why he's more comfortable but I wanted to talk about these things and to see if he's moved beyond what was happening to him I don't happen to smoke pot so I didn't have any so I just wanted to have a serious discussion about his products what had happened to him this year and where he's going and I thought he did a good job I thought it was a great interview and he was funny parts I think he was obstreperous it parts and it parts he was really informative about where the the roadmap for Tesla and and SpaceX and the boring company and Elon Musk is going and finally he showed some regret I mean it was only up until recently

where he he tweeted that he would do it all over again and people were thinking Oh hasn't he learned his lesson maybe something has finally sunk in yeah I think I was gonna get me and I email quite a bit night we talked about those things but I think I think I wanted him to think about it be reflective about what happened and he obviously calls you know shareholder things that weren't great for shareholders and what's what I think is interesting about Elon Musk is look he's not making a photo app he's he's not making like some software this is hard stuff that he's doing he's doing cars he's doing rockets he's doing all kinds of vehicles he's doing a big giant tunnel digger so this is really substantive stuff that's really difficult to do and I want to

show that part of him which is very inventive and very forward future looking and at the same time talk about his responsibility as a leader and as a CEO and so I think he roasts the occasion it was glad he apologized and showed regrets I don't know if it'll stick I hope it does he was obviously exhausted over the last year working on the the model 3 which got great reviews and also they've done rather well from a financial point it was a more contrite in the interview and and before we leave I want you to tell us where we can find the podcast but but he was more contrite with respect to journalists but he still does seem to have a chip on his shoulder yeah on that but one of the fascinating areas I thought is where you questioned him about Saudi Arabia

because the Saudis were supposedly this is going to be the suppliers of money into his go private effort and you asked him some very pointed questions about how he feels about the leadership there the nation there and the and the money that flows from there into Silicon Valley talk to me well he you know I'm having some trouble with a lot of the Silicon Valley people taking money from people who government and murdered a journalist and and and did so rather blatantly and so I you know this money that's coming into Silicon Valley it's billions and billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and so you know they had bought into Tesla publicly and they may or may not still own it he didn't know actually but he was looking at money but for them like a lot of people

that's not unusual and I wanted him to reflect on it I want all of Silicon Valley leadership to reflect on it and think really hard about where their investment money is coming from and so he did and he was very fair and what I liked about Elon is in a lot of the answers including with the journalists he apologized but not completely in the same thing here he said he wouldn't take their money but at the same time the Saudi people shouldn't be attacked necessarily for what their leaders did and so I like that it was honest I think he was honest about what he thought and he didn't give a pat answer just to please and so I kind of I appreciate that in a person if they're being honest and so he was you can see him sort of working it through and I like I like

that part of the I agree I agree with it yeah getting back to how hard it's been for Tesla and ramping up the model three Kerry you had asked him that you know how do you look at when you when you're going with the model three and others and he said that he thinks Tesla's doing pretty well right now it's not staring death in the face which seems to imply that at one point it had been on the brink is that the impression that you've got what he said he said he's he's he's almost religious about it he's like Tesla cannot die it the future of the world a climate change and thinks he's very passionate about that he thinks that he has moved forward and I agree with him that the development of electric cars by a factor of twenty years and and you know all the

others are in it because of him and so that's a really interesting you know he's not being an egomaniac saying that and so I think a lot of the things he's doing is including space exploration including tunnels with traffic and things like that he really believes he's he's he's actually changing the world and even though Silicon Valley people say that I kind of think he is in that he's in the zone where you could change the world but he also it was funny throughout this interview the whole thing our whole exchange about scooters you know I love them I think I look fantastic he said I looked undignified he didn't want to make a scooter he wanted to make a pickup truck that's really cool that nobody wants to buy made of titanium it was it was a lot of fun

there was a lot of fun parts in it you