Elon Musk Tesla, SpaceX, And The Quest For A Fantastic Future

* Tesla got its start using the same lithium ion batteries that go into consumer electronics like laptops. During the early days of the Roadster, this proved a risky but calculated choice. Tesla wanted to tap into Asia’s mature battery suppliers and get access to cheap products that would keep improving over time. The press played up Tesla’s use of these types of batteries, and consumers were fascinated by the idea that a car could be powered by the same energy source sitting inside of their gizmos. There’s a major misconception that Tesla still depends on these types of batteries. Yes, the batteries inside the Model S look like those found in a laptop. Tesla, however, started developing its own battery chemistry in conjunction with partners like Panasonic dating back to late models of the Roadster. Tesla can still use the same manufacturing equipment as consumer electronics companies while ending up with a battery that’s safer and better tuned to the intense charging demands of its cars. Along with the secret formula for the battery cells themselves, Tesla has improved the performance of its batteries by developing its own techniques for linking the cells together and cooling them. The battery cells have been designed to vent heat in a very particular way, and there’s coolant running throughout the entire battery pack. The battery packs are assembled at the Tesla factory in an area hidden from visitors. The chemistry, the batteries, the battery pack design—these are all elements of a large, continuous system that Tesla has built from the ground up to allow its cars to charge at record speed. To control the heat produced during the charging process, Tesla has designed an interlinked system of radiators and chillers to cool both the batteries and the chargers. “You’ve got all that hardware plus the software management system and other controllers,” said J. B. Straubel. “All of these things are running at maximum rate.” A Model S can recharge 150 miles of range in 20 minutes at one of Tesla’s charging stations with DC power pumping straight into the batteries. By comparison, a Nissan Leaf that maxes out at 80 miles of range can take 8 hours to recharge.

* Google’s attorneys had asked to make a presentation to Tesla’s board. Before he would permit this, Musk asked for the right to call on Google for a loan in case Tesla encountered cash flow issues after acquisition talks became public, as there would otherwise be no way for Tesla to raise money. Google hesitated on this for a few weeks, by which time Tesla ended up in the clear.

* Following the demonstration, Tesla struggled to deliver on the battery swap technology. Musk had promised that the first few stations would arrive in late 2013. A year after the event, though, Tesla had yet to open a single station. According to Musk, the company ended up needing to deal with more pressing issues. “We’re going to do it because we said we’d do it,” Musk said. “It may not be on the schedule that we’d like but we always come through in the end.”

* As for the origins of the Model S name, Musk said, “Well, I like calling things what they are. We had the Roadster, but there was no good word for a sedan. You can’t call it the Tesla Sedan. That’s boring as hell. In the U.K., they say ‘saloon,’ but then it’s sort of like, ‘What are you? A cowboy or something?’ We went through a bunch of iterations, and the Model S sounded the best. And it was like a vague nod to Ford being the Model T in that electric cars preceded the Model T, and in a way we’re coming full circle and the thing that proceeded the Model T is now going into production in the twenty-first century, hence the Model S. But that’s sort of more like reversing the logic.”

* A handful of lawsuits have been filed against Tesla with auto dealers arguing that the company should not be able to sell its cars directly. But even in those states that have banned Tesla’s stores, prospective customers can usually request a test drive, and someone from Tesla will show up with a vehicle. “Sometimes you have to put something out there for people to attack,” Musk said. “In the long run, the stores won’t be important. The way things will really grow is by word of mouth. The stores are like a viral seed to get things going.”

* Or as Straubel put it, “Watching people drive the Model S across the country is phenomenal. There is no way you can do that in anything else. It’s not about putting a charging station in the desert as a stunt. It’s about realizing where this is going to go. We will end up launching the third-generation car into a world where this charging network is free and ubiquitous. It bugs me when people compare us to a car company. The cars are absolutely our main product, but we are also an energy company and a technology company. We are going down to the dirt and having discussions with mining companies about the materials for our batteries and going up to commercialize all the pieces that make up an electronic vehicle and all the pieces that make an awesome product.”

* No, really. Both Lyndon and his wife play underwater hockey and used these skills to secure green cards, meeting the criteria for the “exceptional abilities” the United States desires. They ultimately played for the U.S. national teams.

* Thirteen thousand people showed up in 2013.

* If you assume an average selling price of $40,000 per car for 300,000 cars sold in a year, that’s $12 billion in annual revenue, or $1 billion per month.

* For the space buffs, here’s Musk talking more about the physics and chemistry of the spaceship: “The final piece of the puzzle for figuring out the Mars architecture is a methane engine. You need to be able to generate the propellant on the surface. Most of the fuel used in rockets today is a form of kerosene, and creating kerosene is quite complex. It’s a series of long-chain hydrocarbons. It’s much easier to create either methane or hydrogen. The problem with hydrogen is it’s a deep cryogen. It’s only a liquid very close to absolute zero. And because it’s a small molecule you have these issues where hydrogen will seep its way through a metal matrix and embrittle or destroy metal in weird ways. Hydrogen’s density is also very porous, so the tanks are enormous and it’s expensive to create and store hydrogen. It’s not a good choice as a fuel. “Methane, on the other hand, is much easier to handle. It’s liquid at around the same temperature as liquid oxygen so you can do a rocket stage with a common bulkhead and not worry about freezing one or the other solid. Methane is also the lowest-cost fossil fuel on Earth. And there needs to be a lot of energy to go to Mars. “And then on Mars, because the atmosphere is carbon dioxide and there’s a lot of water or ice in the soil, the carbon dioxide gets you CO2, the water gives you H2O. With that you create CH4 and O2, which gives you combustion. So it’s all sort of nicely worked out. “And then one of the key questions is can you get to the surface of Mars and back to Earth on a single stage. The answer is yes, if you reduce the return payload to approximately one-quarter of the outbound payload, which I thought made sense because you are going to want to transport a lot more to Mars than you’d want to transfer from Mars to Earth. For the spacecraft, the heat shield, the life support system, and the legs will have to be very, very light.”

* Musk and Riley were divorced for less than year. “I refused to speak with him for as long it took for the divorce to be finalized,” Riley said. “And then, once it was finalized, we immediately got back together.” As for what caused the breakup, Riley said, “I just wasn’t happy. I thought maybe I had made the wrong decision for my life.” And, about what brought her back to Musk, Riley said, “One reason was the lack of viable alternatives. I looked around, and there was no one else nice to be with. Number two is that Elon doesn’t have to listen to anyone in life. No one. He doesn’t have to listen to anything that doesn’t fit into his worldview. But he proved he would take shit from me. He said, ‘Let me listen to her and figure these things out.’ He proved that he valued my opinion on things in life and was willing to listen. I thought it was quite a telling thing for the man—that he made the effort. And then, I loved him and missed him.”

* As Musk recalled, “I told her, ‘Look, I think you’re very valuable. Maybe that compensation is right. You need to take two weeks’ vacation, and I’m going to assess whether that’s true our not.’ Before this came up, I had offered her multiple all-expenses-paid vacations. I really wanted her to take a vacation. When she got back, my conclusion was just that the relationship was not going to work anymore. Twelve years is a good run for any job. She’ll do a great job for someone.” According to Musk, he offered Brown another position at the company. She declined the offer by never showing up at the office again. Musk gave her twelve months’ severance and has not spoken to her since.

* According to Riley, “Elon is kind of cheeky and funny. He is very loving. He is devoted to his children. He is funny—really, really, really funny. He’s quite mercurial. He’s genuinely the oddest person I have ever met. He has moments of self-awareness and lucidity, which for me always bring him back around. He’ll say something cheeky or funny and have this grin. He’s smart in all sorts of areas. He’s very well read and has this incredible wit. He loves movies. We went to see the new Lego Movie and afterwards he insisted on being referred to as Lord Business. He tries to come home early for family dinners with me and the kids and maybe play some computer games with the boys. They will tell us about their day, and we’ll put them to bed. Then we’ll chat and watch something together on the laptop like The Colbert Report. On the weekends, we’re traveling. The kids are good travelers. There were bajillions of nannies before. There was even a nanny manager. Things are a bit more normal now. We try and do stuff just as a family when we can. We have the kids four days a week. I like to say that I am the disciplinarian. I want them to have the sense of an ordinary life, but they live a very odd life. They were just on a trip with Justin Bieber. They go to the rocket factory and are like, ‘Oh no, not again.’ It’s not cool if your dad does it. They’re used to it. “People don’t realize that Elon has this incredible naiveté. There are certain times when he is incapable of anything other than pure joy. And then other times pure anger. When he feels something, he feels it so completely and purely. Nothing else can impose on it. There are so few people who can do that. If he sees something funny, he will laugh so loudly. He won’t realize we are in a crowded theater and that other people are there. He is like a child. It’s sweet and amazing. He says this random stuff like, ‘I am a complicated man with very simple but specific needs’ or ‘No man is an island unless he is large and buoyant.’ We make these lists of things we want to do. His latest contributions were to walk on a beach at sunset and whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ear and to take more horseback rides. He likes reading, playing video games, and being with friends.”

* Jurvetson elaborated by saying, “Elon has that engineering prowess of Gates, but he’s more interpersonal. You have to be out there on the spectrum with Gates. Elon has more interpersonal charms. He’s like Jobs in that neither of them suffer fools. But with Jobs there was more of a hero-shit roller coaster where employees went from in favor to out of favor. I also think Elon has accomplished more.”