Elon Musk, Building the Roads of Tomorrow
In what ways has Elon Musk Completely changed the game in transportation technology? For the past number of decades, not a lot has changed about the way people travel. Everyone has cars, trains, and planes that are powered by fuel. While they have slowly become more efficient, these cars are still producing a huge carbon footprint both in production and when in use. To get away from this pollution, society has started to consider renewable sources of energy for fuel, such as electricity. There are a few red flags to consider right now. One is mainly the cost. Despite the fact that car companies are trying to innovate with cars that take advantage of electric motors instead of gas-powered motors. Just changing these cars will not solve the issue of pollution though. That problem requires much more action from many more industries. Another problem modern people have is with public transportation. While this mainly applies in cities, it is an important issue. Populations are growing faster and faster in America and subways and trains cannot keep up with the needs that so many people have. Overcrowding and slow travel times make people want reconsider what their mode of transportation is. Another mode of transportation that people are getting sick of are planes. The long flights in cramped spaces are enough for someone to reconsider how to get to their destination. This is soon going to change though. A certain billionaire, but the name of Elon Musk is trying to change everything in the transportation industry, creating a new standard.
From cars to trains to spaceships. Elon Musk has many plans for road, air, and space transportation. Elon Musk has revolutionized modern transportation technology for faster and more efficient travel, which continues to advance society as a while. Elon Musk has done a lot throughout his life to advance his career. He has had plenty of success in business and in life prior to his current ventures. He grew up in South Africa and started his interest in computers and technology at only 12 years old. He taught himself basic programming and sold a game that he made for 500 dollars. He did not see a future for himself in South Africa, so he moved to Canada at 17 to become a part of Queen’s university in Ontario. He then transferred to UPenn and then to Stanford. He then dropped out after two short days to become an entrepreneur. This led him to the first of many successful businesses. He created Zip2 with his brother and sold it for 370 million dollars. With that money, Elon started a new online payment company that we know today as PayPal. This was then sold to eBay for 1.5 billion dollars. With the 165 million Elon Got from this, he founded SpaceX in early summer of 2002. Even though Elon dealt with some drawbacks. SpaceX and his other company, Tesla, have been doing well despite the drawbacks and short funds. These companies have no sign of slowing down or failing any time soon. Many wonders how a single person could accomplish this much in a single lifetime.
As for what Elon is doing now, Tesla has been a huge step in new transportation. Elon Musk truly revolutionized what cars should be on the road, and the standard of the capabilities of an electric motor. Not only is Tesla cleaner for the environment, but he forced other car companies to completely change their priorities to create a competing electric car at an affordable price. With other car manufactures phasing out gasoline powered vehicles from their production line, Elon Musk created the push the industry needed to prevent further pollution. On top of normal civilian cars, Elon Musk and Tesla are trying to reinvent the semi-truck for a cleaner, safer, and more efficient backbone of product transportation. With Semis that drive automatically, the highway would be much safer in the future by eliminating human errors. Along with passenger cars, electric semis would greatly reduce emissions of pollutants on the road. On top of personal and product transportation, Elon Musk wants to chance the public transportation industry with The Boring Company. Changing how people travel in large cities.
The Boring Companies goal is to make public transportation much faster and cheaper with underground vacuum sealed tunnels. Their first project was in LA in 2016. This is a good start as LA is known for intense traffic and widely used public transportation. Maryland’s Department of Transportation also approved for Elon Musk to build a tunnel, proving that Elon’s concept could and should be widely implemented into large cities. The adoption of this type of public transportation would make current issues a thing of the past. For example, a ride through the boring tunnel from NYC to D.C. would only take 29 minutes compared to the current 4–5 hours it usually takes. This statistic makes it worth the cost to build. Also, with the tunnel being vacuum sealed, no fossil fuels would be needed, making a ticket cheaper than personal transportation. But personal and public transportation is not only where Elon wants to stop.
Private space travel is becoming more of a normal term because of Elon. His Company, SpaceX, has been launching satellites into orbit and even probes to explore further space. The goal for SpaceX is far different to that though. Elon Musk plans to make space travel cheaper with reusable rockets. The ultimate goal of SpaceX, which has been its goal since its creation, is for a mars mission. Imagine Normal Citizens being able to go to Mars. This would open a number of opportunities and possibilities of moving humanity further away from earth, becoming a multi-planetary species. But since humans are still stuck on Earth, Elon has a plan for rockets to be used on Earth. Public earthly transportation is more of a short-term goal for Elon, by using the same rockets that could go into space. While more expensive, you could get from one place on earth to another in less than an hour. Society is fed up with the problems that go along with planes and are ready for a new transportation revolution. Elon Musk is completely changing the way people travel, which will continue to help society and the environment with cheaper and more efficient options. He built his career from nothing and is pioneering a new movement of electric vehicles, public transportation, and standardized rockets. At the current pace of innovation, it is hard to imagine where society will be, both literally and figuratively in the future.
