Well he should be, AIs are going to turn his baby obsolete. I'm talking about Tesla of course. Musk is more of a romantic, believing in the empowerment of humans through technology. And don't get me wrong, Tesla cars are great. But the writing is on the wall: self-driving cars is the only future the car industry has.
Tesla may have a technological edge over the dinosaurs of the auto industry, but compared to Google's self-driving toy cars, they are vintage. What's even worse, the transition is going to cause a reduction of circulating vehicles by at least an order of magnitude.
As self-driving cars start becoming more mainstream, it will be just a matter of time till Uber, or someone else, starts offering your personal vehicle, delivered to you wherever you are by just a few taps on your smartphone. Owning a car that sits around parked 90% of the day will make no sense. Parking spaces will become a curiosity of the past too. It is going to be a bloodbath at Detroit.
And to add insult to injury, dreams of Hyperloop and other futuristic mass transit systems will soon be forgotten. Why use mass transit, when you can have your private self-driving car at one tenth of a taxi ride?
What about speed then? Cars may offer convenience and privacy, but can they ever beat the Shinkansen? Of course they can. As we move to a point where most of the cars are driverless, their speed will start increasing dramatically. The only dangerous aspect of a speeding car is the unreliable human driver. Lanes can also become thinner, no need to waste space. Give the extra space back to cyclists and pedestrians, why not?
Musk is right to be afraid, Tesla’s clock is ticking. But at least he will still have SpaceX.
