A Glorious Adventure
'A bunch of?people will?probably?die'?going to Mars, but it?will?be 'a glorious adventure'
Elon Musk: April 26, 2021
That wouldn't be interesting if it hadn't been said by a person who is likely to have a large part in sending a bunch of people to Mars. It would barely be interesting if it hadn't been said by an automaker that sold 500,000 self driving cars in 2020. But it was, and it says so much about the paths to innovation that modern society rewards.
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Volvo on the other hand, back in 2015, said that they will "take responsibility if it's self-driving cars crash". They did this to move as much litigation out of the way of progress. Then they did something even more astonishing. A few years later they said "Our vision is that by?2020 no?one should be?killed?or seriously injured in a new?Volvo?car."
Tesla will tell you that fewer Teslas catch on fire than gas burning cars, statistically. Statistics are the difference between treating your customers like an insignificant number, until enough numbers pile up and treating them as individuals. That is a big difference in the culture of how you innovate. Saying you will take responsibility when you screw up means that you have to try not to screw up in the first place. Saying that screw ups are inevitable makes them okay. It's the difference between how children and adults operate but on a much larger, much more fatal scale.
Nicholas Thompson recently posted a take on this in his series of "the most interesting thing in tech" and I agree so much with what he's saying. Check it out and see for yourself, but please keep in mind that there are different ways to approach innovation and there are better examples of them in most industries than what Elon Musk is doing.
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3 年Hey Chad....I agree with your sentiment that Elon Musk's comments this way could be seen as disregarding human life - the pursuit of huge achievements is more important. It was irresponsible. Volvo's core product is safety. Everything about them; their brand, their mission, and their values all align to safety. Tesla's core product is very different (and they're not selling safety!) - Musk has focused on big moonshots to propel his innovative/rebellious/outsider brand. If anything, perhaps his throwaway don't-give-a-damn statements were calculated in support of this.