This mostly reads as a piece that derides Musk and the things he's trying to do. For example, complaining that the first tunnel "conveniently from his place of work to his home" doesn't really add much, in my opinion. Look at the startups that are based in the Valley and _only_ support the Valley to begin with. Why is that? Maybe because it fills their need better?<p>The article also repeatedly makes statements about getting less Americans on the road, out of their cars, and on to public transport, using quotes like "He valorizes individual transportation because he doesn’t want to be around other people — even seems to fear them, based on his comments — but sticking everyone in their own vehicle simply doesn’t work in the increasingly dense, urbanized world in which we live." I hate to break it to some folks outside the US: many people in the US despise public transport, specifically because it means they have to be near other people. Anecdotally, I've heard stories from 10-15 different friends who won't even call a store to find out if some item is in stock _because they don't want to deal with people_.<p>The U.S. (in general, from my perspective) wants less traffic, less pollution, etc. But we're not going to give up our cars to get it. I realize the Catch-22 nature of this.<p>That's why automated cars are the future, at least for the United States. Do those cars have the ability to drive in the rain and snow? Not yet. That hasn't been a focus for the companies training these models. Let the system learn on the "easy" stuff first, and then tackle the harder things later.
Musk on public transit: "there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer"<p>This "other people are weird and gross" idea strikes me as <i>exactly</i> the wrong kind of sentiment needed to help humanity pull itself together. And I'm the sort of person who believes that motivation is a good predictor of outcomes. So I agree, this is not the kind of visionary I want to follow.
Well part of is the corporate need to have all the people at a site to do work. A lot of job could be reevaluated to be 'work at home' thus eliminating the need to travel somewhere to do it. This alone would free up traffic, make it 'safer', reduce fuel consumption, and insurance rates. However; business would have to put more trust in the individual, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.