I wonder what he plans to use the money to do next. Build AR?
I’m not a believer in current gen electric cars being the final solution. Sure it’ll improve but look where we are today. Reduction of energy to force consumers to use less. So how do you charge your damn car if you end up limited in energy consumption?
The EU new cars now come with a box installed for carbon footprint measurement. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what you do if you want people to buy and use cars.
Elon should put his money into finding real decentralized energy generation sources. Would be nice if each home can have it's own mini powerplant, disconnected from a service provider grid. Tornado destroys power in a neighborhood? No problem, roll in mini power stations and the homes have power again. I'd like to have a little power station box hooked up to my electrical panel and not have to worry about paying electrical bills.
They are working on fusion reactors. Fusion is what happens in the sun where hydrogen is fused into helium because of the tremendous gravity / heat. Current nuclear reactors employ fission or the splitting of atoms. Fusion reactors would not have a radiation risk like fission reactors or a potential runaway reaction issue. The problem to date with fusion reactors is that the power output was less than input. However they have been making progress and researchers in various nations claim they have been able to produce fusion reactors that actually generate more power than consumed. Fusion reactors can be more compact than fission reactors.
Another thing Elon could do is really try to improve battery technology even more or find a better way to store electrical power. Current battery technology lose it over time. Lithium batteries are better than lead acid batteries in that regard. But they still lose power eventually if they just sit for a while. It would be nice to have a battery that can sit for 100-1000 years and not go flat.
Musk could also try and find ways to capture more of the sun's energy and overcome the drawback of solar panels that only work when it is sunny outside. Perhaps a solar power plant in space that always receives sunshine and stores the electricity so it can be shipped or beamed back to earth.
Musk could try and develop tidal power stations, however the cost of those are currently prohibitive even for him.
Elon's electric cars only really work if electricity is plentiful, cheap and non-polluting.
