WIRED has been writing about Elon Musk—he of the electric cars, space rockets, tunnel-boring machines, implantable brain interfaces, Mars mission, and internet shitposting—for a long time. He’s at all times been unpredictable. And but probably the most stunning a part of his two-hour interview with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, broadcast reside on X earlier this week, may have been what Musk didn’t say.
It occurred across the 50-minute mark, throughout a really Trumpian dialogue of fuel and electrical energy costs. They have been up nationally, Trump stated, however “when that comes down and [sic] we’re going to drill, child, drill.”
The siren track of the oil and fuel trade! Actually: Drill, child, drill! And Musk, he of the—I’m going to say it once more—electrical vehicles and “saving the world” schtick, didn’t pipe up till a full two minutes later, when he suggested that Trump arrange a “authorities effectivity fee” to curb authorities spending. Later, he and Trump did have a short alternate on the science of local weather change. However Musk took pains to emphasise that the oil and fuel trade isn’t the issue. “I’m pro-environment, however … I don’t assume we should always vilify the oil and fuel trade, as a result of they’re holding civilization going proper now,” he stated.
This felt like a departure. Musk has spent a big chunk of his profession casting himself as an environmental champion, generally going as far as to color himself because the one man standing between the world and catastrophe. He has instructed the story of Tesla, particularly, as a hero’s journey to avoid wasting the world via a transition to a sustainable energy economy. “I believe I’m objectively one of many world’s main environmentalists when it comes to doing issues,” he stated at an Italian political event final December.
In 2017, Musk told Rolling Stone concerning the clear existential menace of local weather change with a aptitude that also feels acquainted. “Local weather change is the most important menace that humanity faces this century, apart from AI,” he stated. “I maintain telling individuals this. I hate to be Cassandra right here, but it surely’s all enjoyable and video games till someone loses a fucking eye. This view [of climate change] is shared by virtually everybody who’s not loopy within the scientific group.” Musk has additionally regularly accused critics of carrying water for “fossil gasoline corporations.”
Oh, and keep in mind that time (June 2017) that Musk quit three of Trump’s presidential councils after the US pulled out of the Paris local weather accords? “Local weather change is actual,” he tweeted on the time. “Leaving Paris isn’t good for America or the world.”
Musk’s newer and wishy-washy method to local weather additionally displays not solely his very vocal embrace of far-right politics but additionally a brand new story he’s telling about Tesla. For the previous few years, and particularly because the chatter round synthetic intelligence has hit a fever pitch, Musk has positioned his electric-auto maker as a path-breaker in robotic intelligence, too. In 2019, Musk introduced that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the highway by the end of the year. (It didn’t). Extra lately, Tesla reportedly shifted sources from constructing a extra inexpensive electrical automobile, the legendary Mannequin 2, to releasing a purpose-built robotaxi, although the corporate has but to disclose any true self-driving expertise. (An unveiling occasion is scheduled for October.) Musk has stated repeatedly that Tesla is an AI and robotics firm and ought to be valued by traders as such. If Musk is backing off his endorsement of local weather change science, it’s affordable to ask if that pertains to his advertising pivot for probably the most beneficial automobile firm on the planet.
