Can we all just set aside our differences for one day and agree that Elon Musk DID NOT invent the electric car?

Please, for sanity's sake!

Right, next you're going to tell us that Al Gore didn't invent the Internet.

@fruitfcker that was Abraham Lincoln, how do you not know that.

What are they teaching you kids these days 😑

But Nikolai Tesla built an electric remote controlled submarine. I believe he used bird feces and spit for the acid in the batteries...

@jespersh he didn't even invent the car known as Tesla.

So no, not even the first widely adopted customer successful electric car.

GM had electric cars mass-produced in the 90's, but then (probably due to pressure of oil tycoons?) decided to wipe them out.

Elon Musk was the first guy to make EVs a reality though.

By reality did you mean without loss?

@respex Uh?

Sure he did not invent it, does it matter? Ancient Greeks invented steam engine then it took 2000 years for some entrepreneur to come up with how to make real use of it.

also didn't invent vacuum train.
also didn't have much contribution to the success of paypal.

also this is about the 6th consecutive year that he failed to deliver on basically all of his promises.

he's a successful conman.

@Midnight-shcode

Eh... He's a flawed man, but I wouldn't call him a con man.

Hyperloop is retarded and will never work. Many aspects of Tesla (especially Semi, Autopilot) are overhyped and problematic.

The Tesla model S & 3 are pretty great cars. Personally, I think something like a VW e-up or Peugot e208 whatever is a more sensible electric vehicle, but there's no denying that those wouldn't have existed if Tesla hadn't been successful.

And as an ex-aerospace guy, I think everyone in aerospace would call the Falcon 9 an incredible success.

Also "inventions" are kind of always cons... It's about tiny, incremental steps forward.

Musk does a lot of questionable things, among which overhyping and behaving like a manchild on Twitter.

But the total impact of his companies is not a con.

@bittersweet
"total impact of his companies is not a con"

tesla is valued about twice as much as all the other US car manufacturers combined, which is obvious bullshit.

spacex is about to go bankrupt from not being able to deliver on its plans and promises. it would already have been bankrupt for some years if it weren't subsidized by government.

nothing else from his promises materialized in any way.

i stand by what i said.

@Midnight-shcode

Tesla's share price is a bubble, but that doesn't mean the company is worthless. It's also not Musk's fault that the share price is so high... Blame the investor fanboys I guess.

SpaceX is currently the main launch provider with a majority market share, launching more than all others combined. Sure, Spaceship is still an unproven rocket, but Falcon 9 has an incredible track record. I don't believe in Earth point-to-point, and have doubts about Mars colonization, but SpaceX is doing very well as a launch company.

I worked for Arianespace on the Ariane 5... At a time when Ariane 6 had a "hard deadline for early 2020". Undelivered promises and delays are so common in aerospace that no one even raises an eyebrow when something takes twice as long.