4 ms·

I have long suspected that if he knows one thing, elon knows to keep his nose out of spaceX and just throw cash at it.

simondotau 6y ago
Elon spends nearly as much time at SpaceX as he does Tesla. There's no question that Elon mucks in at the lowest levels of engineering at SpaceX. If you want evidence from a reasonably neutral observer, take Sandy Munro (himself an engineer who has worked on everything from cars to aeroplanes). He recently interviewed Elon, ostensibly about Tesla but the interview was in a meeting room at SpaceX. After the interview he was invited to a two hour design review meeting and was "blown away" at Elon's depth of involvement. https://youtu.be/S1nc_chrNQk?t=370 https://youtu.be/S1nc_chrNQk?t=370 (6:10 to 8:45)
- mcot2 6y ago
  Yes, I saw that interview and the follow up. He can talk very in-depth about the engineering of the cars as well but he is _Chief Engineer_ at SpaceX. I don’t think people quite understand this when they call him a businessman, promoter or marketing guru.
  - SuchAnonMuchWow 6y ago
    He is also _Techno-king_ at Tesla... I have no ideas about the depth of his technical knowledge at both companies, but the titles themselves don't hold much value when he gave them himself.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      It does hold a lot of value when it comes to the legal liability if/when things go wrong.
- clouddrover 6y ago
  Tesla's own engineers say Musk is disconnected from reality when it comes to the engineering side: https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424592/tesla-elon-musk-autopilot-dmv-fsd-exaggeration https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424592/tesla-elon-musk-a...
  - simondotau 5y ago
    I have no doubt that Elon brings zero expertise to the table with regards to machine learning and automation. That's certainly not his domain of expertise—which is more in the realm of science and physics. In this respect I'd imagine he's more akin to an overly excited tech geek who loves to obsess over the progress made by Andrej Karpathy and his team, but is otherwise leaving them alone to do their thing.
tailspin2019 6y ago
This is demonstrably not true https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden...
reasonabl_human 6y ago
A friend of mine working down at Boca Chica on the starship says elon is there multiple times a week, and heavily involved. It’s well documented that he has been heavily involved at the engineering level in the past so I don’t see why he’d step back now.
nickik 6y ago
That people still make this asinine argument shows that it has nothing to do with evidence and everything to do with people not liking the person and not wanting to give him credit because they don't like him.
inawarminister 6y ago
That... Sounds more like Bezos and Blue Origin to me, from what I've heard. [0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-bezos-idUSKBN1772ZQ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-bezos-idUSKBN1772ZQ

Elon spends nearly as much time at SpaceX as he does Tesla. There's no question that Elon mucks in at the lowest levels of engineering at SpaceX. If you want evidence from a reasonably neutral observer, take Sandy Munro (himself an engineer who has worked on everything from cars to aeroplanes). He recently interviewed Elon, ostensibly about Tesla but the interview was in a meeting room at SpaceX. After the interview he was invited to a two hour design review meeting and was "blown away" at Elon's depth of involvement. https://youtu.be/S1nc_chrNQk?t=370 https://youtu.be/S1nc_chrNQk?t=370 (6:10 to 8:45)

mcot2 6y ago
Yes, I saw that interview and the follow up. He can talk very in-depth about the engineering of the cars as well but he is _Chief Engineer_ at SpaceX. I don’t think people quite understand this when they call him a businessman, promoter or marketing guru.
- SuchAnonMuchWow 6y ago
  He is also _Techno-king_ at Tesla... I have no ideas about the depth of his technical knowledge at both companies, but the titles themselves don't hold much value when he gave them himself.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    It does hold a lot of value when it comes to the legal liability if/when things go wrong.
clouddrover 6y ago
Tesla's own engineers say Musk is disconnected from reality when it comes to the engineering side: https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424592/tesla-elon-musk-autopilot-dmv-fsd-exaggeration https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424592/tesla-elon-musk-a...
- simondotau 5y ago
  I have no doubt that Elon brings zero expertise to the table with regards to machine learning and automation. That's certainly not his domain of expertise—which is more in the realm of science and physics. In this respect I'd imagine he's more akin to an overly excited tech geek who loves to obsess over the progress made by Andrej Karpathy and his team, but is otherwise leaving them alone to do their thing.

tailspin2019 6y ago

This is demonstrably not true https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/evidence_that_musk_is_the_chief_engineer_of_spacex/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/k1e0ta/eviden...

reasonabl_human 6y ago

A friend of mine working down at Boca Chica on the starship says elon is there multiple times a week, and heavily involved. It’s well documented that he has been heavily involved at the engineering level in the past so I don’t see why he’d step back now.

nickik 6y ago

That people still make this asinine argument shows that it has nothing to do with evidence and everything to do with people not liking the person and not wanting to give him credit because they don't like him.

inawarminister 6y ago

That... Sounds more like Bezos and Blue Origin to me, from what I've heard. [0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-bezos-idUSKBN1772ZQ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-bezos-idUSKBN1772ZQ