Elon Musk Tells Joe Rogan He's Working on a Hover Car
If there's a better, more compelling conversation than Elon Musk's semi-regular visits to Joe Rogan's podcast, I can't imagine what it could possibly be. He was on yesterday, and you can find it here.
Musk is either an incredible visionary, an insane madman, or just an amazing self-promoter. And my guess is he's a blend of all three. Because those traits are not mutually exclusive. And because you could apply that formula to some of the most influential, transformative people who've ever lived, from Socrates to Alexander, Constantine to Charlemagne, Newton to Einstein to Hasselhoff.
And while it might be easy to dismiss some of his prediction or his timelines, like the one about starting a colony on Mars in the next few years when don't even have our shit together enough to get people vaccinated or train monkeys to be our butlers, betting against him has been a losing proposition. Self-driving cars with iPad controls sounded looney tunes. And not only has that concept made him the richest man in the world, the smartest businessman I know is putting his venture capital into the technology.
Anyway, the interview is as engrossing as his past appearances have been. Part science. Part science fiction. Part metaphysics. With this gem being the highlight:
Source - The Tesla Roadster, the electric car that SpaceX sent into space alongside the ‘Starman’ mannequin in 2018, has been developing for some years with possible deliveries of the second generation version expected in 2022. ...
“We’re going to throw some rocket technology at that car,” Mr Musk said.
“I want it to hover. I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing hover, without, you know, killing people. I thought, maybe we could make it hover, but not too high. So maybe it could hover, like, a meter above the ground, or something. So, if you plummet, you blow out the suspension, but you’re not going to die. Maybe, I don’t know, six feet. If we put a height limit on it, it will probably be fine,” he continued.
Mr Musk said the car could go “pretty fast” but it would be limited by time; there could be a high pressure “air bottle” of perhaps 10,000psi at the back of the car, where the rear seats would be. The license plate would then drop down “James Bond style”, providing three tonnes of thrust for acceleration.
So science fiction it is. In the way Jules Verne predicted the submarine long before it became feasible. The exact thing they used to predict in movies we watched in school about what our future would be like or in the most boring rides in EPCOT pre-1990 are about to become reality. Not flying cars in the sense of Doc Brown's Delorean, because that would mass suicide, but more like the one Iron Man's dad invented during WWII:
Perfect for driving above hazardous road conditions or cruising to Toche Station to pick up some power converters and get your droid's memory wiped.
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If you think Musk is full of shit and this will never happen, do so at your own peril because he's got a track record. He launched a car into orbit, I have to think hover cars that shoot rocket thrusters out of the license plate is kind of small potaters.
That said, I'm not even sure that his floating 007 car is the most surreal move-inspired idea he mentioned. Just the most impressive and game-changing. The weirdest was this revelation that he got the design for his rocket from Sasha Baron Cohen:
Source - Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and said he made the Starship rocket nose 'more pointy' because of The Dictator movie. …
"You literally told them to make the Starship more pointy because of the movie The Dictator?" said, Rogan.
"Yep, and they know it too, it's not like they are unaware of it. Everyone would thought it would be funny if they made the rocket more pointy, so we did." said Musk.
To review: The spacecraft that's going to lead humankind into the outer reaches of the solar system to colonize other worlds got its design from a throwaway line in one of Sasha Baron Cohen's lesser known comedies in a scene with Rafi from "The League." Got it.
Like I said, madman. But a madman who understands what NASA failed to for the better part of 50 years: How to relate these technological marvels to regular people. Not test pilots or engineers or literal rocket scientists. But to the general public. We're Tesla and SpaceX's target audience. And we've been raised on ridiculous pop culture references. That's how you become the world's richest man. That's how you do the impossible. And that's how you lead us off this godforsaken rock we've ruined and out into space. You have to love this man.