Punctual at 11:45 am, Elon Musk connected live from Texas with the Ogrs of Turin, where the second day of Italian Tech Week is underway. It is the most awaited event of a full program of big names. He talked about Space, the future and new projects in a conversation with Stellantis president John Elkann, moderated by the director of Repubblica, Maurizio Molinari.
It began with a personal note: Musk and Elkann met in Sicily, years ago, and to unite them – reveals the American billionaire – was the common passion for football.
“What’s after Mars?” Molinari asked Musk. “It is difficult to create civilizations on Mars, a safe place, if we can base there we could go to explore the solar system and other solar systems, maybe find other civilizations and this will inevitably redesign our role in space. I don’t know we will be able to go further. our galaxy, but already in ours maybe we will meet an alien civilization “. And speaking of alien technologies, Elkann observed: “If we could invent teleportation it could make space exploration more efficient and effective and faster.”
But what is Musk’s recipe for creating new businesses?
“It’s hard to do it and do it successfully,” he jokes. “I don’t recommend doing it if you don’t really know what you’re doing, if you’re not sure you can do it. The first piece of advice: don’t create a new company. But if you really want to, then here are the basics: having a product that someone really wants, that can attract many people. And then devote a lot of time to the company: it is like a person, an animal, it has its own life cycle, it starts with a few cells, then becomes a newborn, a child, an adolescent, an adult. The size of a company depends on from where it is in the life cycle, it may be necessary to reconfigure it, redo it from scratch, change it completely as it grows. “
Elkann’s position is different: “I started dealing with old industries, created in the 1900s, such as publishing and the car. The challenge is to transform them into 21st Century companies. I have faced more than three crises, but to be an entrepreneur this is, taking risks. We are on a roller coaster, the important thing is not to get depressed when you go down and not get too excited when you go up “.
The crises, already: “Tesla has risked bankruptcy at least 6 times in its history,” says Musk. “The worst moment was between 2008 and 2009, we were very young, nobody believed and invested, we were alone, I asked friends for money to pay the rent of the house, I had finished what I had earned by selling PayPal. So we made one last attempt: it went well, the loan was closed on Christmas Eve 2008: if we didn’t make it, we would be finished. Another bad moment was between 2018 and 2019, with the launch of the Model 3: we had to make it a “mass” car, it had to start production in large volumes, but it had to be done well and generate profits, and it was very difficult. At that time I remember talking a lot with John, I he was close, he was a friend. ” More: Tesla has chosen the Italian robot from Comau for its cars.
But the next challenge, Molinari points out, will be how to obtain electricity to move the cars of the future. Will sun and wind be enough? “We have to go back to seeing nuclear energy as a positive thing. If we don’t want to open new plants, at least we don’t close the ones we have, they are safe, and certainly much less dangerous than coal-fired ones,” Musk replies. “I find that solar energy is underestimated, but if there were no Sun, the Earth would be a lifeless rock, with nothing: the Earth runs on solar energy, 1 Gigawatt per square meter gets there, just take a part, too small, to have energy for everyone. Do you think that a solar factory of 200 km x 200 km could give energy to the whole of Europe. It is not so much, is it? It would be enough to take a piece of land and dedicate it to this purpose. For you on the Mediterranean it’s easy, you have a lot of sun “.
For John Elkann, energy production essentially entails two challenges: the cost of energy is rising, especially for coal, gas and uranium. And then we have to find a way to produce it without generating CO2, without polluting, indeed perhaps by cleaning up the atmosphere “.
Molinari then moves on to another of Musk’s technological adventures, Neuralink, which explores new forms of interface between humans and computers. “We have phones, computers, technology that uses artificial intelligence” – he replies – “but in an inefficient way. Neuralink can help our relationship with technology, make it more immediate. Then there is what Neuralink can do for quadriplegics. or quadriplegics, who can interact with computers using the brain, without the need for the body. And let’s not forget the possibility of extending Neuralink’s work to animals: we know very little about them, they want food, water, go outside, cuddle ; but maybe there is more, a secret life of dogs that we do not know, and that Neuralink will let us know “.
A cyborg way awaits us? For Elkann “we will see smartphones evolve, there are glasses, Neuralink is another evolution, maybe we can really communicate with our dog (Musk laughs), with a tree in the garden, or the dog with us”.
“I am optimistic”, continues Elkann encouraged by Molinari to talk about his experience as a father. “Children and families have resisted the pandemic in an incredible way, overcoming many problems”. Musk echoes: “Better to be optimistic and be wrong than pessimistic and be right. The best way to predict the future is to build it. Be optimistic, get busy, take control of your future, your destiny.”
It’s time for questions from the audience. How do you always learn new things? Elkann: “The secret to succeeding is asking the right questions and accepting the answers that come”. Musk: “Read books, talk to interesting people, learn as much as you can, remember Socarate’s saying” if there is one thing I know, it is that I don’t know anything. “You have to accept that there are other people who can teach you things. . When you think you have learned everything, you become stupid. “
If you were 20, where would you start? Musk laughs: “I’m thirty (actually I’m just 50, ed). I would start with Rna, mrna, vaccines, synthetic RNAs, recreated in the laboratory: the great opportunities are now in medicine and health. artificial intelligence, and then we need tunnels to break down the traffic on the surface; and more transport, even in the air and on the water. In short, we have very stimulating times ahead of us “.
“Will we ever see a self-driving Ferrari?” They ask John Elkann. “It would be sad, the purpose of a Ferrari is to be driven. In a world that is moving towards autonomous cars, the possibility of driving again will have an increasing value, a bit like riding a horse today.” Musk retorts: “On the other hand, the horse is in the logo”.
After the questions from the audience, a surprise: Musk introduces the head of research of Space X, and he is an Italian, born in a small town in the Ossola Valley, in Piedmont. “I have been working here for hundreds of years (laughs), I studied at the University of Milan, then CalTech, California, then Nasa. All too slow, instead at SpaceX I develop rockets, I deal with the return of carriers from Space, I do research on materials . And there is a lot to study: from the black hexagonal tiles, which owe a lot to the experience of Sassuolo masters, but we work on the use of bizarre materials for another purpose, even condensed milk bought in Croatia “(Musk asks for clarification and smiles).
John Elkann concludes: “I hope you can come to Turin soon, it is the capital of space Italy, capital of cars, capital of chocolate. Here is our Space Chocolate for you, I know you love chocolate”, he says while unveiling a pack of Peyrano fondant in an aluminum case.
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