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| Tesla Motors CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk and Y Combinator President Sam Altman speak onstage during 'What Will They Think of Next? Talking About Innovation' at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 6, 2015 in San Francisco, California. |
SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking a lot lately. After unveiling theTesla Model X and clarifying his plan to terraform Mars last week, he closed out the first day ofVanity Fair's New Establishment Summit Tuesday.
During the conversation with Y Combinator president Sam Altman and New York Timescolumnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Musk covered his thoughts on human longevity, nuclear fission, life on Mars, artificial intelligence and why he sometimes deletes tweets.
Here are five things we learned about Musk during the event, including his thoughts on a certain Republican presidential candidate.
1. He's not interested in living forever
While extending the human lifespan is increasingly a topic among tech companies and entrepreneurs, Musk said he's not interested in living forever, even if it means living to see humans colonize Mars. "I'm not actually a huge proponent of longevity. I think having a good life for longer is better. I definitely don't want to live forever."
When pressed on how long he would want to live, the 44-year-old Tesla CEO said he thought 100 "good" years "would probably be fine."
He would, however, maybe like to live on Mars. "It looks like a great adventure to me."
2. Running two companies is difficult
Musk famously splits his time between SpaceX and Tesla, which are based in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, respectively. When asked Tuesday about balancing the two, he noted how difficult it can be. "I wouldn't recommend running two companies, it decreases your freedom quite a lot," he said.
Are you listening, Jack Dorsey?
3. He's not a fan of Donald Trump
Despite saying he gets involved in politics "as little as possible," Musk did say he really doesn't want Trump to get the Republican nomination. "I don't really have strong feelings except that hopefully Trump doesn't get the nomination of the Republican party."
When asked about government corruption though, he said he didn't think there was as much as some people think, at least at higher levels of government. "On balance I guess it's not that corrupt because if it was corrupt than SpaceX wouldn't have a chance," he said.
"The greater the level of visibility, the less corruption there is... basically, how much attention people are paying, that defines how much corruption there is."
4. About those tweets he deleted...
Musk has more than 2.7 million followers on Twitter so, naturally, a few of them are going to notice when he starts deleting tweets. That's what happened last week when he mysteriouslydeleted several tweets, one of which mentioned Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y.
"I think it just said something like 'there will be a model 3 and the Model Y, one of them will have the Falcon Wing doors,' which is pretty obviously the Model Y," he said of the deleted tweet (which you can see here.)
"I deleted that and a dozen other tweets because I had a rambling Twitter history. But it has no significance. I don't think deleting tweets makes it go away from the Internet."
5. Fully autonomous cars are closer than we may think
Both Altman, who is an investor in Tesla, and Musk said they think autonomous cars are just a few years off. Altman predicted the technology was maybe three to four years away; Musk was less conservative.
Echoing comments he has made before, Musk said that the technology for fully autonomous vehicles will likely be ready within two to three years, but regulatory approval will take much longer.
He also said that Tesla's next software update, which will be version 7, will be ready soon. That update will include some autonomous driving abilities, called autopilot. There are currently 600 to 700 Tesla owners testing the update, he said Tuesday.
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