Axel Springer Award 2020

[Music] ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking welcome aboard our vessel to mars boarding is completed as all systems are set and we're sure that we don't take the coronavirus to outer space thanks for your cooperation by the way we are ready to launch first rule don't panic cabin crew prepare for takeoff [Music] 20 seconds to lift off even 15 seconds nine is configured nine eight seven six five four three two one two ignitions this is your captain with an update from the cockpit we arrived in earth's orbit safe and sound let me please especially welcome one very special passenger an extraordinary visionary a multi-talented engineer a super smart entrepreneur and not at least the man who made this mission to mars possible please give a very warm welcome to mr elon musk please take a look at a wonderful planet isn't it gorgeous as curious as i am to see mars i'm really looking forward to come back to our old homestead [Music] south africa in the 70s a boy from pretoria facing childhood problems he reads 10 hours a day star wars and science fiction but this one's got talent for machines and for money at the age of 12 he programmed his first computer game on the good old commodore young elon sold blastar for 500 develop stuff let it grow sell it soon this is how he made his fortune and his opportunity to go even further this is the way one sentence he never wanted to hear you're in the army now so he got himself a passport moved to canada leaving the south african apartheid regime behind he was 16 years old after some time in kingston he left canada went to pennsylvania got his bachelor and then moved south ah stanford university palo alto where all the silicon dreams were about to come true elon was one of those who founded the legend of the valley with two thousand dollars a car and a computer and nothing more he and his brother kimball founded zip2 a company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers four years later he sold it to compaq for 307 million dollars quite a story but just the start a typical story of those times develop and invest find allies merge disrupt the rise of paypal his first vision of making things easier for people using the digitization elon musk helped to change the financial industry forever paypal was sold for 1.5 billion dollars to ebay elon held 11.7 of the shares a big winner in the big game money that he uses to make the world a better place he attacks on the world's best settled market the automotive industry we created tesla to make a difference in the world tesla disruption at its best not everything worked out perfect but his long breath proved him right he is pushing all his competitors forward he is expanding he leads technology he leads infrastructure and logistics and if necessary he works and sleeps at the factory and he is i'm beer leaner soon very soon we've decided to put the tesla gigafactory europe uh in the berlin area and tesla is just on the cutting edge of an idea autonomous driving is born so for us being a little startup we had to start it for the car that was in in low production and necessarily expensive their idea of an electric car is something that doesn't look good isn't fast it doesn't have high performance we wanted to break them all of all of that that's what we sought to achieve saving time for important things saving time for stuff that is fun well it is fun to drive a tesla but on an endless motorway even riding gets tiring it's human we're bored very soon let the car dry and get some food for the brain while it does the work and last but not least fuel it with energy that is not harmful to the planet elon embraces his responsibility but this is never enough much more is needed elon can't stop thinking about the future of making things work better more efficient a visionary a man who never gives up although there would have been a few moments when giving up would have been a more than plausible option he reaches out for the stars the real ones the stars shining bright at night in the sky do you see him both light up he is a superstar and still the kid who loves sci-fi spacex is not only a business it's not a hobby it's a passion elon is ceo and its first spaceship designer it is all rocket science really many laughed at him nasa with its billions the russians with their ruthless and dead serious ambitions the whole goal of spacex was improved space exploration technology and that's uh helping make humanity a space spring civilization he transported americans to the iss three is more effective and sustainable than state economy crew dragon is a gentle slap in the face for over-the-top institutional rocketeers the russians took it personal elon musk must not be quoted by them too successful russia some things never change can one man change the world yeah sure elon musk did it and he doesn't stop there and i think that's one of the things that you know makes people excited about the future and we want the things that are in science fiction novels and movies not to be science fiction forever we want to be real one day what if one could help handicapped people by connecting the body with machines to reconnect neural disorders hey presto neuralink what if we could get rid of traffic on our city streets dig a deep long tunnel beneath them and shoot the cars from one side of the town to the other hey presto the boring company the name by the way is one of the best puns ever and stop if we can do that with cars why shouldn't we do it with goods and people in full speed 600 kilometers in 35 minutes just do it hey presto hyperloop [Applause] but all that's earthbound reach for the stars and planets we're already on our way to [Music] mars [Music] this is your captain speaking well rather gasping what a trip that was and it's not over yet let's hear it from the man himself i'd kindly ask you now elon to come on stage and join axel springer ceo matthias definitely for a little chat well that was fun yeah i'm glad that you enjoyed it yeah it's like a ride i mean i think you could charge money for this this is great i mean yeah this really makes a difference to have this two screens and the angle change it's like that felt great like disney right you know apart from this special trip to mars this evening uh when do you think realistically human beings will land on mars for the first time um i think it i feel fairly confident about uh six years from now so every the the mars uh earth mod synchronization occurs roughly every 26 months so we had one this year this summer and uh so that means in roughly like about two years there will be another one um and then two years after that so i think i'd say if you say six years from now i think highly confident uh if we get lucky maybe four years and then we want to try to send a an uh uncrewed vehicle there in two years when will your first trip to orbit will take place i don't know possibly in two or three years um i'm mostly concerned with developing the technology that can enable a lot of people to go to mars and make life multi-planetary have a base on the moon a city on mars uh and i think it's important that we strive to have a self-sustaining city on mars as soon as possible um i mean i'm optimistic about the future on earth but uh it's important to have life insurance for life as a whole is it going to be a business kind of tourism in in in orbit or is it uh more kind of plan b if things on earth do not develop as well it's not exactly a plan b um it's it's more that i think i think there's two two aspects to this one is that we want to have a future that is inspiring and exciting and what are the things that you find inspiring and exciting about the future i think one a future where we are a space faring civilization and out there among the stars i think that's every kid gets excited about that you don't even need to teach them they just get it's like instinctive and so we it's very important for us to have reasons to like reasons to be excited about life like when you wake up in the morning it can't just be about problems it's okay i know everyone in this room deals with a lot of tough problems but you know it's got to be more than that so you know i think a future where you can say hey even if it's not you there's going to be people out there they're going to we can have a base on the moon we're going to have a you know a city on mars maybe go further the moons of jupiter and everything i think that's a very exciting future and and then and i think most people do um and you seriously want to be buried on mars just not on impact [Laughter] uh yeah i mean if you're gonna at least we're all gonna die someday um so if you're gonna die someday i'm like okay you're gonna be buried on mars i'm like mars sounds cool born on earth die on mars that's uh you know if you've got the choice two years ago i had a conversation with jack ma and we spoke about jeff bezos plans with regard to orbit and he said well let's jeff bezos take care for the orbit i take care for the earth you seem to take care for both yeah basically tesla is about trying to make sure things are good for the future on earth and then spacex is about a good future beyond earth basically um and so obviously we have to have sustainable energy uh both consumption and production of energy uh so like tesla does solar panels and batteries i think that's one of the key uh ways to have sustainable energy generation and also the batteries are useful for wind power so that and then that elect then you need to consume it by you consume electricity so electric vehicles and you know i think you look at these things like say okay if you look back from the future and say what's the fundamental good of tesla i would say it's probably should be assessed as by how many by how many years did tesla accelerate the advent of sustainable energy like that's like i would measure the goodness of tesla in that in that way and then for spacex it's like okay to what degree did we improve the probability of humanity being a space-bearing civilization i remember very well the year 2014 when we were hosting the gold steering wheel here at oxford springer and you got the award for lifetime achievement and i was sitting in the first row with the then very successful and famous uh ceo of a very big german car company and i asked him while you were on stage isn't this guy dangerous for you i mean this looks really serious oh no don't worry first of all the whole idea of electric driving it's never going to be a mass market these guys these guys in silicon valley they have no clue about engineering about building really beautiful and great cars so we don't have to worry by then tesla's market cap was 23 billion uh today it's 536 billion us dollars the market cap of vw then was 86 and today it's 77. and you could uh you you are with tesla two and a half times bigger than bmw vw and daimler i even have ever too high i mean what am i supposed to do you know like have you ever considered to be stock is too high a long time like when it was like a hundred eight hundred dollars pre pre-split and then don't listen to me but you know i'll tell you and the sec complain again i mean like you know [Laughter] is it a serious option to buy one of the incumbents one of the big car companies for you well i i think we're definitely not going to launch a hostile takeover so i suppose if there was someone but a friendly one if somebody said hey we think it would be a good idea to merge with tesla we certainly have that conversation um but you know we don't want to you know be a hostile takeover sort of situation did you feel a lot of complacency these days that the incumbents then let you feel that you are i mean the kind of hopeless disruptor but they know how to do it or where they're very polite and nice with you do you mean back then or not then oh no no today everybody's super nice i would not say they were super no it were difficult to characterize their responses super nice they used a lot of adjectives i don't think that any of them were positive so we tried we really tried hard to convince a lot of companies honestly i was in so many panels but they're generally worth yeah generally the sediment that was expressed that you mentioned earlier that was pretty much universal um especially uh if back in say 2008 or 2007 like when we first unveiled the roadster in 2007 um yeah i mean it was just basically they just said well you're basically a bunch of fools well i mean generally they're say like well who starting a car company is crazy you're going to lose all your money i was like i think i probably will lose all my money i agree it wasn't like i thought it would be successful i thought we had maybe a 10 chance of success so then people would say you're it's going to fail and you're going to lose lose everything it's like yeah probably true yeah what else is new a couple of years ago we we we saw each other in in america and the guy asks you on a panel uh when autonomous driving will be approved and you said i do not care so much when it's going to be approved i care more when uh human beings in cars will be forbidden and then the guy said well that's really unrealistic it's never going to happen in in cars people wanted to do something actively and then you said well a hundred years ago uh nobody could imagine uh elevator without a lift boy today nobody could imagine a lift with a lift boy yeah so when is autonomous driving really really going to happen and when when are you able uh to do it and when is it going to be approved okay just between us yeah it's a very discreet circle here yeah um so well first of all i'm not i'm not against people driving to be clear uh so i think people will drive cars basically as far into the future as i can imagine um it's just that it's gonna be increasingly unusual to to drive your own car um and while it's fun to drive uh you know a well-handling car on a winding road in beautiful terrain of course that's that's fun um but it's not fun to drive a car in uh terrible gridlock traffic like you know going through extreme traffic that's no fun driving a car so i think people are unlikely to most of the time want to commute with with their uh and drive themselves and you know people are typically spending hour and a half a day maybe two hours uh on average driving um especially say like california or something like that it's very common um and some people will actually commute like three hours a day sometimes it's pretty crazy so uh so i so i think i think if you say fast forward to like 10 years from now i think 10 years from now almost all cars will be will have full autonomy capability uh that new all new cars produced so there's there's about two billion cars and trucks in the in the existing fleet and the new vehicle production is about five percent of the fleet size it's about 100 million uh so even the point which all cars are autonomous it'll still take you know 20 years to replace all the cars assuming that the number of cars and trucks in the fleet stays constant but like i say 10 years from now i'd say vast majority of cars electric like maybe 70 80 percent or more and almost all cause autonomous electric autonomy is absolutely the future no question it's just a question of when um but then like i said sometimes people think that that means the the global fleet gets replaced instantly and it's like nope you have to go 20 years beyond that point before uh it 20 years from the point at which all cars are new cars are electric then the fleet will be replaced um this is just an important it's not like some people are used to like mobile phones and that kind of thing is like two year or three year replacement rate but cars are a much more expensive asset to longer life anyway to actually answer your question um i'm i'm extremely confident of achieving full autonomy and releasing it to the tesla customer base uh next year now the that there's a uncertain period of time for when regulatory approval will be will take how long will it take but i think if you are able to accumulate billions of kilometers of autonomous driving then it's difficult to argue and look at the accident rate uh when the car is autonomous versus non-autonomous and in fact our statistics already show a massive difference when the car is on autopilot or not on autopilot the safety is much greater even with the current order pilot software and we are discussing level five autonomy so really full autonomy will europe lag behind or will it be approved here at the same time like in america or china it's hard to say uh exactly when it will be approved um i i mean just to and our customers already know this but the the the eu regulators are the most conservative um and uh i don't know if people want that to be the case or not our customers are sort of unhappy about it but um yeah they only meet every six months maybe meet more often i don't know um so yeah but i think at least some jurisdictions will allow full self-driving uh next year okay exactly a year ago you were announcing in this very building uh that you're planning to build a new uh site uh near berlin yeah um and uh a couple of months later in june you started you want to finish it by july next year we did a little tour this morning it's impressive how advanced it is and uh it's almost unbelievable germany and picture particularly berlin is not world famous for finishing construction sites in time and in budget so you have created a kind of anti-berlin airport project why berlin why did you go to germany and to berlin to get that big project done sure um well first of all i'm actually a big fan of germany i i love germany it's great i work you know i have a lot of friends during friends and i think berlin is a very fun city um and uh i think it's there's there's also it's from a location standpoint uh people like say young people can live in apartments at a reasonable price in the city of berlin uh but if somebody's got a family they can still have an affordable house so it's a good location offering um you know good living for people of all ages and uh it comes and and uh said uh is poor but sexy is that what attracted you um my balloon's not that poor but but it's definitely sexy [Laughter] could you imagine just i mean so we're gonna have like when we open the uh you're all invited by the way uh when we have the opening for giga berlin we're going to have uh just a big party um you know we're going to have like start off from the day have more sort of family music and and then gradually get more hardcore and then go you know midnight techno till dawn [Laughter] do you plan to spend more time in berlin yourself you want to partly live here effect yes i will be spending a lot of time here where do you sleep tonight in the in the tonight's in the factory in a in the factory well technically a conference room in the factory but yeah you sleep in a conference room in the not finished factory tonight yeah it gives me a good feel for what's going on alone or yeah i assume so it's an invitation yeah okay elon you have so many projects it's not only tesla or spacex it's neural link uh it's the boring company uh uh so many things and when we discussed last time i asked you what is the most important project or the most important topic for you to deal with in the foreseeable future and you said that is truly the role that a.i is going to play in our society could you explain why and why that is a big opportunity but also seems to worry you uh yeah i think well i mean humans have been the smartest creature on earth for a long time and that is going to change with what's typically called artificial general intelligence uh so this is say an ai that is uh smarter than a human in every way it could even simulate a human uh so you know this is something we should be concerned about i think there should be uh government oversight of uh ai developments um especially super advanced ai it's just this is anything that is a potential danger to the public we generally agree that this should have uh government oversight to ensure that the public safety is taken care of because you feel that one day the mankind could serve the machines and not the other way around honestly when i see people on their phones that i think we're already surveying the machine yeah it's like everyone's answering the questions you know every time you do a search or added information you're sort of building this the the digital group mind um but yeah the advent of artificial general intelligence is called the singularity for a reason because just like a black hole which is a singular singularity it's difficult to predict what will happen so it's not as though the advent of agi is necessarily bad but it's bad as one of the possible outcomes and when is singularity in the in the definition of rayquaza going to happen um well i think you're saying he he's predicting 2025 i think that's reasonably accurate and how can it be avoided that is then uh more a threat for humanity than an opportunity is it a question of governance so that there's not too much power in one or in few hands or how would you how would you make sure that it goes into the right direction i think we should have a a government oversight just like we do we have government oversight and regulation of cars and aircraft and food and pharmaceuticals these are all uh you know there's like regulators that oversee these developments to ensure public safety and i think digital super intelligence would also be potentially a public safety risk and so it should be it's i think it's very important to for uh regulators to keep an eye on that who should own the data data by then i think everyone should own their own data like individuals who own their data um and they certainly shouldn't be tricked by some terms and conditions of a website and suddenly you don't own your data that's crazy who reads those terms and conditions anyway so uh but i think it's just you know like we wouldn't let people develop a nuclear bomb in the backyard just for the hell of it you know that that seems crazy so digital super intelligence i think has the potential to be more dangerous than a nuclear bomb so yeah we should uh just somebody should be keeping an eye so we can't have the inmates running the asylum here which is a global issue because if we do well but china has other rules and uh a different regulatory framework uh that is another uh yeah i don't think yeah i generally like that this is one of the rebuttals i get from those developing ai and tesla is also developing a form of ai for self-driving but it's a very narrow form of ai just like um it's like the car is not going to wake up sunday one day and take over the world so so it's a but the rebuttal i get is like whoa you know china is going to have unfettered ai development and so if if we have regulations and that slows us down then china will have it and i'm like look i from my conversations with government officials in china they are they they they're quite concerned about ai as well and they uh in fact they're probably more likely to have a good oversight than i think other countries what is the biggest challenge ahead of us in general not only with regard to ai what is the biggest problem that needs to be solved what's the biggest threat to humanity's future or something [Music] well ai is certainly a one of the biggest risks it could be the biggest risk um i think we need to watch out about uh population collapse this is uh somewhat counterintuitive to most people uh they think that well there's so many humans maybe too many humans uh but that's just because they live in a city uh if you're an aircraft and you look down they say if you dropped a a cannonball how often would you hit a person basically never in fact there's stuff pulling in from space all the time natural meteorites old rocket stages all the time um but nobody worries about it because the the actual in fact it um there's a good a cool website called wait but y and scott tim urban like he actually just did the math and and uh all humans on earth uh could fit in the city of new york on one floor don't even need the upper floors so that's actually the cross section of of humans as seen from earth is extremely tiny basically vanishingly small almost nothing so we need to watch out about population collapse slow low birth rate i think is a big risk um and it's also not exactly top secret you can go and look at the wikipedia you know birth rate so and and this this is actually this this is this is definitely the civilization ends with the with a whimper not a bang because it would be a sad ending where the the average age becomes very high and really the youth are effectively de facto enslaved to take care of the old people this is not a good way to end do you have any new projects dealing with these topics that you've just addressed um well i'm trying to set a good example on the kid front six kits yes for now [Laughter] um how much time do you spend with them i spend about as much time as they want to spend with me so yeah yeah i mean they're not uh well one's just a baby and now there's a 14 and 16 and uh teenagers um don't usually want to hang out with their parents that much you know you know we just had thanksgiving weekend so all the kids were over um so you know i've spent if they want to spend more time with me i said like oh you should i actually asked them i'm sure you don't want to hang out more like no i think it's probably the right amount then since they that's about the they don't want to hang out more so i think we really should take this seriously the population collapse artificial intelligence obviously sustainable energy is important the faster we transition to sustainable energy the less of a gamble we're taking with climate and i think there's going to be a lot of breakthroughs on the medical front uh particularly around the synthetic mrna you can basically do anything with the synthetic rna dna um it's really it's like a computer program so i mean i think with enough with with that with effort that's not too crazy you could probably stop aging reverse it if you want um these are you can basically do it you can turn someone into a freaking butterfly if you want with the right dna sequence so i mean caterpillars do it so but your project neuralink is in a way empowering human intelligence versus artificial intelligence that's the purpose of it is that correct yeah so neural link in the short to medium term neurolink is really just going to um help cure brain injuries and rain and spine injuries so it's like if if somebody is a in fact our first uh implant of devices in humans will be for quadriplegic tetraplegics allowing them to control a computer or a phone just using their might so like you can imagine like if stephen hawking could just talk uh and at normal speed or even faster than normal speed looking back for the last thousands of years what is the most important invention of mankind so far in the past thousand years i i guess it's millions or millions well i think language being able to talk and express concepts and um this this is a probably the biggest invention of humanity's language it's an answer that we like very much in the publishing yeah absolutely you know writing is exactly just incredible right writing really made a big difference good that guy gutenberg you really know what he's doing you have one thing in common with nicolas tesla that's a photographic memory is that only a gift or sometimes a burden because you memorize too much i have a photographic memory in some respect um sensor for technical stuff i have a very good memory so for a human yeah you know computers are much better at memory computers are really good memory why is music so important for you techno music in particular well it's pretty fun i think it's uh you know you want to i don't know feel maximum human you know and uh so i think when people have like sort of a rave and good music it can be like hey maximum human you know you want to really feel uh you know it's like like what where really gets you to feel you know and i think that uh you know having fun with friends and you know just crazy crazy dancing is fun perhaps you know techno music is the secret reason why you uh are building big projects in berlin honestly that's a that's a significant factor okay elon last question you you celebrated your 30th birthday with a masked ball in venice for your 40th birthday i was told you had a fight with a samurai uh sword fighter what is your plan for your 50th birthday next year um well so my my 40th birthday was the was in venice uh it was it was technically a post-apocalyptic masked wall uh because you know after the apocalypse how much clothing do you really have you know [Laughter] it's probably going to be a little ragged a little burnt you know so no plans for the 50th yeah the half century party um i have to think of something usually go with some kind of crazy theme the the the the party where i ended up uh wrestling with the world champion tumor wrestler which by the way also caused me to burst a disc in my neck so you're five minutes of glory for five years of pain um does that really hurt um uh so that party was um victorian japanese steampunk so that was cool uh i have to think of something for the half-century party you have a little time to think being on earth for a half century that's like hey i'm so alive wow cool okay one very last question when i asked you what is the meaning of life during a dinner 42 you said after a while after a while well probably this wonderful french cheese could you please explain well i was just saying that you know you want to take a moment to appreciate things in life and the sensations um food's incredible and like there's just so many good things that you can experience some of them cost nothing really um you know have a walk in nature or just a nice meal and it's like wow that's pretty great you know and uh we should take a moment to appreciate these these uh little things the big things um the things that move your heart i think that's probably the meaning of life as close definitions as i can think thank you very much elon all right [Applause] this is your captain speaking again thank you elon and thank you matthias it's a pleasure having you on board and learning so much about our future before i come back with some information about our flight i'm now honored to welcome secretary jenspahn and ask him on stage and share his thoughts about elon musk's achievements and responsibilities the vessels floor is yours mr secretary [Applause] so wonderful evening to all of you in evening between the struggles on earth and the vision towards mars and regarding earth we are meeting here today in a very special time we are experiencing the worst pandemics since the spanish flu for roughly 10 months now governments but above all citizens worldwide have been combating the virus and its consequences people are experiencing a great deal of suffering hardship and sacrifice yet today at the beginning of december we also have a reason for optimism we can be very optimistic that we will have an effective vaccine against the new virus faster than ever before in human history with a vaccine we can finally hope to have a tool that will help us beat the virus it is true that some people have misgivings about vaccination to the point of rejecting it at all costs this is an attitude i find very difficult to understand it was only vaccination that first made it possible for humankind to liberate itself from many of the fatal diseases that had plagued our ancestors for centuries plagues that had led to fear and superstition and very obstacle to progress vaccination is progress and today that word progress is for many synonymous with one name that of ellen musk mr mask i'm pleased to have the honor of paying tribute to you in these very special times you are without doubt a visionary the name musk stands for ideas that were often far ahead of their time paying online with paypal electromobility and sustainable energy with tesla and not seldom does the name musk also represent ideas that at first glance might seem a little crazy the hyperloop project is one of those the vision that persons and goods can be accelerated in the double tube to speeds of up to 1 200 kilometers per hours this also includes connecting the human brain to a computer the subject of neural links just discussed erlang's research since 2016 and of course private space travel with spacex is also an integral part of the mission thanks to elon musk seemingly crazy ideas become reality elon musk has realized the most powerful thing we as human beings possess is our ideas tesla's ability to rise to become the world's most valuable car manufacturer was not primarily the result of its sales figures tesla's worse is a reflection of an idea a vision an idea that allows many people to have faith in progress in a better future it is supported of course by business expertise elon musk is building his newest giga factory in bronberg on mark land many germans associate brunburg with the poet theodore fontana who once walked the sense of the mark fontana wrote between arrogance and humility lies a third trait that is part of life and that simply put is courage should you not yet know fontana by the way for your douglas adam non-digital bookshelf i hope there is one fontana should you not yet know him mr mask i think that fits you quite well because courage you most certainly have as at the same time your choice of germany as the location for your factory is hardly only a question of courage but just as much the result of keen calculation germany is a country of automobile automobile pioneers carl and berta benz rudolf diesel gottlieb daimler ferdinand porsche the list of achievements by germans or made in germany is long mr musk you know that germany still possesses great innovative strength today many well-trained creative people and a solid infrastructure great conditions for courageous entrepreneurship for tomorrow's innovators and pioneers in the meantime you probably also recognize the word burukatti in german indeed indeed constructing a factory from scratch in only a few months that is a new experience even for our country at least an experience we seem to have forgotten we need a bit more of the mass courage on our side to reduce bureaucratic obstacles and thereby promote innovation because also it is true that innovation needs a reliable framework it also needs freedom to flourish in the 70 years since the creation of the federal republic of germany we have often succeeded in striking this balance germany is an economically strong country cosmopolitan and free an anchor of stability and energy in europe it is something we can be proud of today however at the start of the 20th of the 21st century there are a number of questions we also ask ourselves what do we the twenties what do we want the twenties to look like how can we find the right answers and complicate the times what legacy do we want to leave to our children how can we maintain the german success model sustain and expand our prosperity as well as the freedom and security associated with it in times where it is under threats from many sides so we need a strong state that encourage economic activity because german freedoms can't some because german firms suffer some clear disadvantages when competing with monopolies from the us and with a state economy like china's in return our state should invest massively in education infrastructure and research and should launch support programs not for individual companies but for entire branches of the economy in the 20s we want to remain export champion a master of innovation push forward digitalization promote research and strengthen entrepreneurial culture only progress will ensure that the next generation will have it even better it's all about making space for ideas to flourish from all that we've heard elon musk knows this and tries to implement it in his businesses being a visionary does not necessarily mean always being right nor does it mean being free of contradiction it was only recently that ellen musk and i got to meet each other personally and we're also able to talk about the pandemic situation tesla is through the subsidiary roman automata automation a partner of the german dutch biotech company kurwek which is doing research on the coronavirus vaccine queueback is using rna by reactors developed by elon musk companies i'm very pleased to see this commitment however i have read that elon musk himself does not intend to get vaccinated like me but still i also know that lms takes a critical view of many of the measures that we as governments are taking to control the pandemic and to protect our citizens one of his statements struck me especially that anyone who is at risk should be encouraging until the storm passes in connection with the observation you just made again tonight that everyone has to die sometime yes health protection does not take precedence over all else in the pandemic it all it is always about balance no matter how we act or do not act harm will occur we must therefore strike a balance as minister of health i think it is only right for us to weight the health protection very highly i for one would have great difficult difficulty doing otherwise at the same time it is legitimate to demand a different rating such debates are an indispensable part of our free societies and it is important that we are not implacable in these discussions but we listen to each other and are willing to assume at least sometimes that the other way the other one might have a point or that their arguments could be valid debates that deteriorate into moralizing seldom reflect reality in all its diversity so it would be highly unfair to imply that elon musk might care too little through his private foundation elon musk funds research into renewable energy space travel child health education in mathematics computer science natural science technology as well as safe ai in his private capacity he is consistently donating large sums of money to charity projects such as for planting one million trees looking at ellen musk means repeatedly encountering a seemingly insatiable zest for action and discovery the many articles about the supposedly declining innovative power of our western world and societies then just seems to be worlds away in such instances elon musk stands in the limelight he is the spare head of an entire generation of courageous entrepreneurs and bold scientists people who believe in the power of ideas and that progress is possible in spite of resistance and setbacks this gives us courage despite the great challenges that we as humans are currently facing we are living in a time of great opportunity an economically successful environmentally responsible and socially balanced world as possible it is possible through innovation and courage not through individual austerity or through fear experiences and encounters with innovative and creative people such as ellen musk we confirm my basic optimism time after time we do have the power to shape our future elon musk wanted to change the world a little and ended up revolutionizing it this teaches us that everything in our is in our own hands it is up to each and every one of us above all now in this often difficult time we may not lose sight of the future ahead of us with all of its alarming disastrous aspects in many areas the current pandemic strengthens precisely the willingness to shape the future it is leading us faster than ever down some appropriate and necessary path as the old saying goes crisis presents opportunity in this pandemic we are learning more on a daily base together in other words in public we are adapting our strategies we are consistently trying to act in a targeted and proportionate way starting afresh every day based on the largest knowledge this spirit of progress this openness this willingness to learn is something we must sustain in the future i'm convinced that germany has a great deal of this visionary power that drives you mr musk we simply need to more often have the courage to believe in it ourselves in this respect you are a great example to us congratulations on the 2020 axel springer award i wish you the greatest possible success for the future and even more stay healthy all the best since we both had it obviously and can get closer all the best thank you mr spann this is again your captain speaking some information about the flight outside temperature is about 1600 kelvin so i kindly ask you not to open the windows as we leave hyperspace welcome to mars orbit we will reach our final destination mars surface in the scheduled time the temperature will be between zero degrees celsius and minus 100 degrees celsius so first rule don't panic please excuse me i just got the information that we have a special delivery right now right here this is rather unusual but please let me check [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] good evening good evening elon good evening everybody i'm your captain tonight would you please hold my helmet thank you very much wow it feels so comfortable i never felt that comfortable before thank you it's your original spacex overall and i will wear it many times from now on because i never felt so free i can breathe i have oxygen in my head and i've experienced that before standing on the stage it's a bit of a tear you know it doesn't make me slim but it's it's okay it's it's it's okay for me tonight i'm really happy to be here and i'm really thankful to meet you because i'm also thankful for your work and achievement for different reasons because as you might remember we seen it in the movie i held the microphone i was the one it was my hand holding the microphone when you announced that you gonna build tesla here in berlin brandenburg and so thanks to you i made it in every german news show not me but parts of me made it into every german news show which made me really famous my hands are now one of the most famous hands we have in germany and my hands are holding your present now it's a present we were thinking about what can we i mean what can we give you as a present it's really difficult you know it's really difficult we were thinking about a spa weekend in brandenburg not so good a helicopter flight over berlin a fancy set of steak knives you might have it already so we were thinking about what could be nice for you and can you guess what's inside come on stage i tell you come on no it's no cake and it's no book come on stage and as we heard you are a visionaire and you're a businessman but you are also you don't not only like to listen to music but you also do music because yeah it's a record okay you compose music great there is one famous song it didn't make it to the charts but it's really famous it really ranked on soundcloud that's a joke but the song is don't doubt your vibe yes you recognize it yeah don't doubt your vibe because it's true because it's here oh that's good i mean it has that it has so many possibilities to really go right through the ceiling yeah yeah um i mean if you if you do enough auto tune it works yeah yeah yeah yeah we will when did you write it when did you compose it well actually i just woke up one morning and uh i was singing the lyrics uh they're not very complicated um and uh and my girlfriend grimes recorded it on her phone yeah and she said this is great we should make a song out of this yeah and so then uh we called our friend mike uh he's a great producer and and we went to the studio uh to the the muppet studio jim henson studio yeah and uh we we made the song yeah and then um i created a fake record label label called emoji records emoji within a minute yeah yeah like emo gang stuff like that um and uh on soundcloud and then i uploaded it to soundcloud and uh that's how it went perfect yeah on which occasion should it be played i guess if you're doubting your vibe yeah you know or anytime did you ever doubt your vipe yeah really when was it yeah december i don't know 92. can we expect more can we expect no more it's very promising i mean well i do think that it would be kind of fun to do a cover of bobby gill by aqua you know that song barbie girl bible girl yeah viagra i'm a barbie girl in a poppy world world uh i'm out of the plastic it's fantastic you know it break my heart express me everywhere imagine so you know the lyrics yeah i know the lyrics um did you write it no okay um but but i think it would be fun to do a cover of bobby gold but cyber girl i'm a cyber girl yeah in a cyber world perfect yeah okay you you have to invest in it's fantastic in the future there's no plastic you know that kind of thing yeah i doubt that i doubt that so but now hold on to your seat we have the honor to have one of the most famous djs in the world cool he's here and he remixed your song great and we have him here sven fate is here tonight all right ben would you come up on stage he he um he did this original uh it's inside here sven how was it to work with the material how was the material how did you get those stamps i was getting those my and i made out the best with a friend of mine and i hope you like it and but it's not or just about that it's the it's the whole box yeah what is quite interesting please who designed it my son draw the cover and his his name is tiga and he's 10 years old he is by the way a big fan of your work well it's an absolute original when would you play it on your dj set would you play it rather at the beginning so we have what would it be we have unique printed vinyls and turntables in your conference room yeah on there so i i chose essential tech note tracks from the last uh 30 years great graphic wow this is that's great wow only one very thoughtful thank you for you and enjoy i hope you have a turntable and i do there is a qr code inside okay thank you very much all right thank you thank you thank you so we hope to make you happy tonight all right it's a pleasure having you yeah it's it's really uh thank you for doing this this is really fun and wow great production value um this is i feel like i'm on like a cool disney ride or something um so um but i i do want to just say to uh acknowledge the great people at tesla and spacex neurolink boring company um really i accept this award on on your behalf for all the great things that that you've done so um super super appreciated um but i really want to acknowledge very strongly the people at the companies who made it happen thank you very much thank you elon musk at the spring award in 2020. you can sit down now of course because ladies and gentlemen we're about to land please fast your seatbelts again [Music] this [Music] [Music] [Music] well come on mars we just landed after this uh yeah exhausting and exciting and surprising and wonderful journey um looks great doesn't it yes um you can follow now our assistants or or mr duffner he's he's he's the tallest guy here just walk after him and uh we have a little refreshment for you and you don't even have to choose between salty and sweet or ham or cheese you can take both tonight which is just great just have a nice evening and enjoy good night thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Axel Springer SE

Views: 486,759

Rating: 4.9153004 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: AF2HXId2Xhg

Length: 66min 52sec (4012 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/NuggetLord99]

ngl this is pretty cringe so far lmao

[u/Portagoras]

Getting the Axel Springer Award is more an insult than a compliment...

[u/RaphTheSwissDude]

Today December 1st at 19:00 UTC, Elon Musk will talk about transportation to Mars, so we could get some interesting news about the development of Starship at Boca Chica and other stuff !

[u/Drtikol42]

"I am a cyber girl,

in a cyber world,

its fantastic,

in the future there´s no plastic."

Elon Musk 2020

[u/londons_explorer]

I assume that Axel Springer gets a bit of fame from this, and in return they won't write bad things about Musks companies in Europe, where anti-american-megacorp sentiment is growing rapidly....

I feel like Musk was almost blackmailed into attending...

[u/_RudeDude]

(It went live 2 minutes "early")

Weird, fake spacex suits and dragon seats and touch screen fakery... and then listing several sponsors.

[u/loudan32]

Meaning of life and..

42!

[u/thetravelers]

"Can one man change the world"...

Ah fuck, this IS going to be cringey. This biography is like what a future dystopian society would be like. It's straight out of Idiocracy. Zero tact.

[u/Shuber-Fuber]

I still have no idea the significance of this award. It sounds like the TIMES Man of the Year award with different criteria.