my next guess I'm going to give you a little bit of a heads up in terms of who this next gentleman is and also admit that I am coming to in this interview I think with the freshest eyes that he's probably faced in a while and that is to say I was an instant fan when I found out about what this man has done but I I wanted to have him on so that I could ask the the real straightforward simple questions which is one of the reasons I want to do this show which is to not only meet people that I admired as well as have people on that I've worked with but when I meet people and they know me from movies that would have you they all want to know really the hardships and how you got from there to here and then they want to hear about your projects so I think that's where we're going to start today and I'm going to now welcome the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors as well as SpaceX I hope I pronounced those correctly yes absolutely and Elon Musk is also yeah okay good yeah so thank you very much first of all you're welcome for for joining us here and I also have to thank you profusely for not bolting out the door after watching the last four minutes of my show it was difficult you must have been yeah yeah because it is very different world and I'm sure that there was a moment at least a moment one in your mind that said oh my god what am I doing here what have I got myself into well here's the thing these these interviews have you been on Charlie Rose yet I know but I will be I think later this month early next yeah yeah well actually watch the show yeah as a viewer you understand that one of the wonderful things about his show that I'm trying so desperately to emulate blatantly is actual conversations yeah throughout my career I've been fortunate enough to do almost every talk show that's existed for the last 20 years starting with Johnny Carson and Larry King and all of them and they're all about little soundbites and they're all about little quick anecdotes with my case with punchlines and characters rarely these are an opportunity to have an actual conversation and to find out more details about what it is that drives you to do what you do so and going to the place that you're at today so thank you very much for for everything you're about to share we've got Twitter comm asking questions live we've got folks actually very excited to ask questions I'm going to start pretty much with you know reading a lot about you in preparation all that stuff is you know Wikipedia and in various sites to find out one's history how old reaso hit-or-miss I know it's I find it to be that way yeah how old were you if I may let's just start here when the first vision popped into your head about working and bringing an electric car to the consumer well I've been interested in electric cars for a long time actually I used to think about it quite a bit in college so it's been probably 17 17 18 years that I've been thinking about the area in fact I used to talk to my dates in college about the importance of electric cars and how did that work out for you not well it's not a great date conversation no no in fact I ran into someone who I briefly dated in college and she brought this up and she's she's a writer for Scientific American these days and it come to do an interview with me and actually mentioned that it was a memorable date not necessarily a good way right one she would never forget yeah absolutely but I'm kind of a you know science and engineering guy so for me it's been obvious for a while that the future we have to figure out a way to get off oil and that the solution is electric cars right the advantage of an electric car is that you can generate that electricity by renewable means right and so if you consume the electricity if you're running cars and then you're generating a power solar wind right geothermal which is increasing dramatically by the way sure it and if you're doing that then you have a sustainable solution for the future yeah and obviously if you're if you're burning oil that's that's something that's going to end sooner or later and and so it's better to do it sooner and avoid the environmental damage than later and have the environmental damage plus a massive wealth transfer from the United States to to other countries yeah well that's a big part of it too is how do we take back control of our destiny quite frankly right and so what this idea came to you 1718 years ago I think it was around that time that for the most part those who were starting to hear rumblings of an electric car myself included we're thinking whoever puts out a gorgeous as well as functional electric car wins so in terms of exciting first a few and then the masses eventually with as the prices become more affordable to all consumers initially what people are are praising and also damning you know there's both sides of it initially you started with the Roadster right the Tesla Roadster which huge success it has been very successful you how just walk us soo if you wouldn't mind the chronological pieces of business here because I this really is fascinating to a great many of us from conception to rolling out that first model just in terms of a brief history of the I can't imagine the hardships that took place in trying to get this thing to come to fruition yeah it's certainly been technically quite difficult right from a business standpoint quite difficult and then it's been overlaid with with a bit of a sort of soap opera from a personnel standpoint so please feel free to share all of that yeah whatever you're comfortable sharing we'd love it whatever whatever you can legally share yeah absolutely well I'll kind of actually for up folks on on the non-personnel elegance fair enough and because I think that that's more for the future so in terms of you know where do we come from where we headed and that kind of thing so right in starting a car company it's obviously a high capital endeavor yeah and and particularly when you're talking about something which is a brand new technology and and no one had really gotten all the pieces to work together quite right for you know to create a compelling product as far as electric car is concerned it's a couple people who tried and yeah that's what the companies that came and went well in some of those companies are sort of still here today like you know General Motors had the the ev1 right and actually if they'd continued and produced the ev2 ev3 and continued that that development they probably wouldn't have been a need for Tesla mm-hmm but they didn't unfortunately that they took those cars away from people of forcibly and and crushed them and it literally crushed them yeah and if people have seen Chris Payne's movie who killed the electric car which which I recommend yeah if you can see some of that you know it's it's it's amazing that the people who Jim gave those eveyone's to held a candlelight vigil for the cause getting crushed I mean yeah you imagine anyone holding a candlelit vigil for a young car I really can or any product or any product is is the point I know why would you just why would you discontinue a product line with that level of customer interest yeah that's that's pretty amazing yeah so pretty well documented in that film okay so but I'll give you the chronology and the reasoning why why did we start with the car that we started with because and you get asked the question what why do you why are you making this expensive sports car you know it implying that we somehow think there's a shortage of sports cars in the world or or rich people really need a break or something like that yeah I mean it's absurd if you think of it but nonetheless people feel confused like why can't you make an affordable car I wanted to give you the opportunity to explain yeah absolutely so a little bit and they're two reasons one is that when you have a brand new technology it tends to be expensive and it's almost always an expensive in fact because the first thing you're trying to do is to make it work yeah and and if you just try to make it work you don't have an opportunity to optimize the cost okay and if you think about any anything new when cell phones first came out there were very expensive personal computers were very expensive even even gasoline engine cars in the beginning we're very very expensive can only be afforded by a few people absolutely so doesn't remember the $1400 VCR right absolutely part of our in fact you can point at almost any anything near innovation it starts off expensive him because the first thing you're trying to do is make it work yeah and cell phones the size of a shoebox lutely $1,800 remember Wall Street with the guy walking around with that shoebox phone basically so it's so a new technology is expensive right and then and the other factor is economies of scale so in order to make something inexpensive you have to make a lot of it but to make too particular a factory that can make hundreds of thousands of cars costs you know a billion dollars or more so and who's going to take a chance right and the thing is it would still be silly to try to do that economies of scale thing on the first iteration of the technology because still going to be expensive yeah and this is a problem that GM is starting to to see with with the Volt right as they're having trouble bringing the cost that car below $40,000 and that's that's as problematic when you're talking about a car that is essentially intended to compete against gasoline cars that are in the twenty five to thirty thousand dollar range right it's very important that electric car be of comparable price to to call other cause of its type so the Tesla Roadster is actually about the same price as a Porsche so it's many cases less yeah in fact less than a Porsche server right so anyway so that's basically the reason it was a the first generation of technology and and we were necessarily at low volume because we didn't have the capital to go to a high-volume manufacturing and you weren't making a inexpensive sports car you were making a brand-new state-of-the-art sports car that was some of the negativity that I didn't understand because it didn't seem to come from naive people it seemed to come from people who seemed very scholar din their particular areas of expertise who completely missed the obvious justification in terms of what kind of vehicle you are actually making from the ground up and it being the first of its kind yeah I'm astounded by well a common misperception is that because we've for the road so we worked with Lotus right and we did initially intend to use a modified Lotus II at least chassis for our car people think oh it's just it's just a modified Lotus but actually we have to redesign almost every part of the car sure and our initial thought of what we can just use a Lotus Elise chassis turned out not to be true because the weight distribution is all different glow points will different a car ended up being thirty percent heavier wear to redesign almost everything in fact there's only seven percent parts commonality between our corn and Elise seven percent seven percent but in fact look at the letters first of all as five letters and Lotus so that's that's a bit of the seven percent right there then we'll this note Lotus actually outside there's something any Lotus logos like but question uh um but nonetheless it is it is each so seven percent parts commonality is actually that that means if when somebody like general Ford announces an all-new car that on your car has more than seven percent commonality with prior cars excellent so in other words this is a newer new car than most new cars yeah almost all new cars and it yeah so it it's was tricky to bring it in for for the for the price that we did bring in in fact there was some some pretty big mistakes made initially on on the estimates of cost and that forced us to raise the price later in order not to be shipping product at a loss what's the timeframe from the first sort of breaking ground on the space where you're going to manufacture this car obviously a prototype to the sedan or the other of the rotors in production right but you know how long did it take yeah but I mean they're on the road now yes yes in fact we've delivered over three hundred cars and so approaching 400 cars and when was the first one delivered the road the will the first production car was delivered in February of last year and that was that was my carpet it was I mean the initial production rate was about one every three three or four weeks Wow and then it's it's you know got up to two every three to four weeks by four and then and now we're at the point where we're about 20 to 25 per week okay and Wow and now at one point during the Roadster a building process does the S model begin its drawing board almost immediately well we've been working on the Model S for about two years if you take the sort of early conceptual stuff into account so you really obviously have to focus everything on the Roadster first get it up and running and then but in the back of your mind the master plan is there the Model S yeah the basic plan of action the mass planning is it was and is to produce an expensive car and low volume then a lower cost car and kind of medium cost card medium volume right and then a low cost car and high volume right and that's that's the plan that was my plan from the beginning and that remains the plan today and we've been able to accelerate that the low cost car a little bit by working with Dan let the maker of Mercedes and smart to create an electric smart car oh really yeah that's the third phase after well I think we'll probably still do a third generation platform of our own right but it but as a means of accelerating the low glow cost vehicle access we're working with companies like Daimler to to get there sooner so my understanding is Daimler is planning to to have the beginning of that thousand car test fleet on the roads towards the end of this year so you're already focusing on working with an existing manufacturer in terms of yeah bringing the electric car to a larger consumer base yeah the really the the overarching of point of Tesla is to accelerate the electric car revolution and that's going to be a combination of cars reproduce and cars that we help other companies produce in fact we've been trying to sell our technology to Detroit into other car companies in other parts of the world for a couple years now and it's ceramic that the really the the first company to do that is not an American company but it's it's a German company Daimler but in fact Daimler was the one that invented the internal combustion engine car so you know that they're the oldest company in the world and they're actually being here they are jumping in with the electric car every little force as we move into you're describing the Model S and its conception we have some photos that we can throw up and let people look at while you're talking about it because I got to be honest when I saw the Roadster I was wildly impressed but I was waiting I was waiting for a non sports car more of a sedan right which is what most people weren't yeah and I do feel like the larger audience is already chomping at the bit and when I saw this car I flipped out I just could not believe something like this had been achieved when I wasn't looking because you did an awfully good job keeping it under wraps all these months if not oh how well first prototype was completed yeah well the postponed flight was just completed last month when we and that's when we did at the unveiling of the both Model S the first drivable prototype we've been working on the Model S in earnest for about a little over a year a little over a year yeah so you're saying only a week or so before you unveiled it March 26 was it Mar 24 2016 1 and ready to be driven uh yes that's fantastic yes is that sort of thing hasn't really no I wasn't yeah you mode not fantastic for you I can't imagine I don't understand how you have any hair left after that sort of a nail-biter in my business that sort of thing happens all the time people rushing to get their film ready for the Sundance Film Festival I've seen big studio that are still polishing and doing last-minute special effects adjustments sort of way after they've announced the release date and rushing it into theaters and oh my goodness I can't even imagine the sort of pressure involved so we've been looking at some pictures yet wonderful we're still looking at them great because this car is so gorgeous ok I'm going to I'm going to get a little selfish here sir and also lean this towards people like myself who want to who have the next series of questions which are when will this car be available to me and what is the process for me to sign up and get one now well well look at the call will be available in two years which is that that's when we'll be finished with all the the crash testing and all the regulatory stuff and have built out the factory because this is a true mass production car in fact the Model S will be the first mass production electric vehicle in order true know that highway capable what numbers are not at all hard type of thing but numbers of mass production we're talking we're doing about 20,000 a year mmm and so when you unveil you want to have 20,000 ready well will still be very good yeah yeah it on the mound it'll take a little bit of time to spoil at the production line but this will be these will be mass manufactured cars worth you know we're robots are doing things as opposed to hand-built cars to the Roadster is really a hand-built car that you rank and you got robots billing their mom a lot of it yeah now I've heard everything from a third quarter of 2010 to the beginning of 2012 what's realistic for the Model S well our aspiration is to have the first production cars available in the third quarter of 2011 mm-hmm so just just over two years from now right and I think it's achievable and I think we've there's a lot there's much less technology risk and uncertainty than there was with the Roadster right so I do feel reasonably confident that we can meet that date of course it is dependent on when the Department of Energy disperses funds for the loan program that they have that there's something called the advanced technology vehicle manufacturing program yes which which was actually put into effect by Congress last year and then that do do is just on the verge of awarding those those loan loan programs its intended to provide a lower cost of capital to companies that are developing energy-efficient cars well it couldn't make more sense to those of us have been waiting for this to happen so right glad that they're going to pitch in there's also going to be a $7,500 rebate there is there is already a $7,500 rebate that was that's as of January 1st right so it's a tax rebate applies to any debt to anyone it regardless your tax situation and the first base price is 49 nine and it goes up from there depending on the size of the battery yes the base price of the Model S is forty nine thousand nine hundred right and that's for the basic version which has one hundred and sixty mile range but you can get a battery pack that goes up to three hundred miles and range right in fact one of the things we think we'll probably do is have the threaded mile packs available for for rent so if you're if you're just you know using your car about tot please do that yeah yeah so please do that because it this car is unbelievably exciting and I think the the instinct is much like other forms of technology there's going to be the I want the everything package and then there's going to be a lot of people who can't really afford the everything package they can barely get into the car as it is but they're dying to get into this car sure so that sure would be fantastic if they could rent that larger battery with if and when they ever needed it because for a lot of people over sixty miles around town as their everyday car is fantastic right it's 160 month your average person drives 30 miles today so 160 miles is five times what the average person drives in a day are all three batteries this quick charge of 45 minutes capability yeah yeah the cold have a standard 45 minute at the all cars will come with the ability to charge in 45 minutes now I should point out that the 45 minutes does require and off-board charger so you won't be able to use the onboard charger to do the 45 minutes charge the onboard charger you have to pull over and will you take the battery out we know you just need you need to just go to a charging station that's that's a kind of an industrial-strength power charging station because that's that's a lot of power more than most houses are capable of delivering but it onboard charge that's built into the car will be capable of recharging the car in about three to four hours so overnight you plug the car in yeah no problem and is it going to be like my computer where I can overcharge it and then it's bad for the computer now I want to leave it in plugged in over there's a lot of intelligence in the battery pack it won't allow itself to be charged incorrectly excellent well I get better service than AT&T that I do with my iPhone is a real question here the computer onboard yeah but before I get to that there's one thing that Wired magazine wrote a very I thought supportive article about the Model S and then there is all sorts of debates going on in the comment section of that article right and a lot of naysayers as always they line up like idiots we seem to Tesla seems to generate a bipolar response well yes I mean if anything it challenges you to rise above all questions and inquiries and be able to answer them all and be able to attribute the the genius and expertise of your you know design people and yourself because I do understand also that you've as an engineer yourself and at the forefront of the design yeah I your certificate the right title bits are probably a good description of your product architect so would we at Tesla we do have a chief technology officer JB Straubel who's been with the company from the beginning and really is the person was responsible for for leading the the technology of Tesla he's not you know a great great guy and all selected credit you know phones for the whole thousand in terms of the design of the Model S right and you know the way I look at it is I sort of work with with them and the other members of the Tesla team to create a great product because I think great companies are built on great products yeah well yes hell yes I forgive me for reading this but I don't want to miss this and I want to I was hoping put this to you to dress the wires the model s still so expensive question a wonderful article in Wired magazine written by um Chuck squat Wrigley on once I'm sure I'm destroying his name I'm sorry very supportive of design not only the carpet the master plan in general of Tesla Motors to roll out the so called more expensive models first with the hundred and nine thousand dollar roadster and then now the forty nine thousand up to fifty four thousand I think it is Model S a tons of comments posted one reader obviously an Eevee driver hit on some wonderful points sure I wanted your feedback on that really sort of drove a point home that I don't think a lot of people are considering and that is wildly ignored I think when you know these people are considering the sticker price only as opposed to the fuel inmates yeah and when you own a car you pay for more than just the initial purchase price you also pay for fuel and maintenance and these two very important unavoidable truths that evey costs a miniscule of what the icy II or internal combustion engine costs the e V motor has only one moving part on the Roadster and presumably the Model S the only regular this is true well it technically there there's some gears but yeah right regular maintenance items really your brakes and tires not even the brakes actually because regenerative braking means that your brake pads see very little wear I love this the Eevee's actual fuel cost they've narrowed it down to two to three cents per mile yes sounds familiar that's alright so if you keep your Model S for the average of 10 year 100,000 mile lifespan you replace your tires brakes which is not the case for say a thousand dollars each time again these numbers it can vary and pay up three thousand dollars for the fuel over this hundred thousand miles your forty nine thousand nine hundred purchase price only increases to around fifty four thousand nine hundred the IRS says driving a IC e internal combustion engine car costs fifty point five cents per mile inclusive of fuel maintenance at that rate or the lifespan the same life span Ford Taurus with a sticker price of $25,000 increases over that lifespan to $75,000 75 and 507 5500 theoretically therefore the IC car with a sticker price of zero would still cost more than the Model S that for those hundred thousand miles I don't think people have done that math and term ROI is the initial investment oh my god it's so much more than a Taurus yeah it will actually I think perhaps the best way to address that question is not even to have people do the math because we will have alcohol for lease and so if you take our lease cost right and and you in the least cost of gasoline car and you're adding that across it ridiculous the cost of fuel fuel and maintenance on the gasoline car and the cost of electricity and maintenance on the electrical electric car then you have the savings from the beginning there's no need to add this up over five seven years or whatever you can simply say how much is transportation costing me every month and you will have the savings from day one but I will shove people out of the way who want to leave so that I can get one well so buying one if you do that in fact we're going to put a calculator on our website hopefully the next week or two so you can plug in and you can say okay what do you think the price of gasoline is going to be you can put in the price of gasoline and what's your electricity cost and the cost electricity and then we'll say what the profits the probable operating cost per month and then and then how does that compare and compare that to two cars of different types and it becomes pretty clear doesn't it yeah and and then it's it's pretty obvious that if you assume that gasoline is going to get back up above $4 a gallon which I think that's a certainty in factoring is going to go way way beyond that and then you put in the cost of electricity particularly if you have time of use meters like in places like California where you can get you know seven cents a kilowatt hour that then our car is is comparable to a Ford Taurus well let's talk about what you need in your home to keep this car charged on a regular basis what sort of setup do you need immediately you really don't need much of anything you can if you are only driving said you know 30 miles a day or something like that you can actually plug it charge it at a regular 110 volt socket series simply plug it in like a like a hair dryer for overnight in terms of your range your range is going to lower though well 110 volts a supply will generate will recharge about five or six miles an hour so if you're say driving 30 miles day and you're charged it for just for six hours you've topped it off essentially so that's certainly possible when we unplug the toaster and plug in the car you know yeah okay so it is working we actually have many roads to customers that operate the car on that basis and that's fantastic yeah and and and that that comes along with the base price and then if you want to do a faster charge right then the next step up would be a 240 volt 40 amp circuit which is comparable to a dryer so it's like a dryer plug Wow it doesn't customer yep it cost a couple hundred bucks to install a dryer outlet in your garage and again that just operates off the onboard charge from the car so you just plug plug it in like like it's a dryer or more a range or something like that and and that will charge a lot faster they'll charge you look at the car in seven or eight hours full charge full charge and the quick charge will be only available at these charging stations yeah the quick charge is is is it you know we're talking about something which is it's a lot of power I mean yes you know it for forty five minutes you talk about something which is on the order of a 60 kilowatt power source there's very few houses that you break the master circuit on most it's a bad idea yeah and it's it's overkill and unnecessary at four for a house but I do think a lot of businesses may choose to install that for their employees and that where this will really come in handy is when you're going between cities mm-hmm so that there's there's three ways that we've addressed the the range issue on one less one is by offering a range up to 300 miles right and like I said we're also hoping to be able to say offer allow people to buy the 160 mile range car and then ran and rent the 300-mile range pack as needed you'll give them a map of where these charging stations are along the route so they want to drive across country a let them know where yeah in fact you know the will you mentioned that the touchscreen the call will be 3G connected to yes three 3G wireless connected all the time so you won't need a map you can just ask the call to take me to the next charge next charging station and I'll give you a selection of locations if you could if there's any way you could put in a phrasing that just at some point the cursor stop busting my balls I just I just want to put that out there let's go to actually the code that we all like we all can off you know what asking you shall receive okay we are going to offer themes so you can actually theme your because because it's all just a big screen right every 17-inch center console screen and you've got a smaller sort of display screen on the front you can you can theme your car so if you you know just like you sort of theme your your desktop you'll remember your cell phone get a little cynicism give it a little sigh yeah you can you can yeah absolutely phone nope you know and the we're people that probably want to write applications like that you know do various things and this your center console is a full-fledged computer running Linux so it's it's something way it'll have a browser if you want to browse and search the way up do you know do your email while not driving well not drive it while charging if you want to go city you know we could do things like read out your email for you you know ya know it did you show any pictures of this monitor when we ran through okay if you want to throw them back up another we're talking about if you have that one isolated because it is pretty astounding that that holds the part of it and people go to the website Tesla Motors they can do a little more research in terms of what you're offering in that monitor because it is wildly extensive if there's anything else in it that you do want to address well we all taking advantage of economies of scale from the computer business which is a lot bigger than the car business and unit volume you know you've got clearly hundreds of millions of computers shipping every year whereas you've got a much more number of cars shipping every year and so now less than ever right absolutely so by putting in a 17 or 17 inch monitors in the computer business these days are dirt cheap and and so it's it's really not that expensive for us to do this right well what it is is cutting-edge and that's one of the things that makes the car so unbelievably desirable what about their asking here twitter.com for the next generation road vehicles what will they be when the electric car have become obsolete wow people are going on to the next generation beyond the electric car I'm not sure that's for this discussion the little car is a long term solution yeah you know those as you were pointing out in terms of how to power the electricity that's what we can diversify be it water be it solar power be it wind yeah I'm not sure wind is the correct word there may be I mean the only thing I could see is being best potentially being a change is is and this is the speculative is a switch from from batteries to high energy density capacitors in fact I originally came originally came out to California to do PhD at Stanford in the material science and physics of high-intensity capacitors for using electric cars that's what initially brought me to Silicon Valley and then ended up putting down on hold start a couple internet companies but it was so I think that that's a possibility I'm not sure where the success is one of the possible outcomes but but it's a possibility any chance for a flux capacitor Oh Madhuri well Madhuri where's the flux capacitor sorry I did that on a dare um I suppose you could call it a flux capacitor flux just means sort of flow right yeah of anything you know you flex it energy flux anything so ask Elon how we can help Tesla Motors get the federal loan and also where the fact would be the factor be here in Los Angeles I don't know if you want to get specifics about where in Los Angeles is it that the SpaceX where you have the yeah the Tesla design studio is inside the SpaceX rocket Factory right the design centers in Southern California because the world's best automotive design challenge is actually right here in Southern California you're welcome it's true yeah and in front in front on house house and a designer hitters on is based here when he worked at master before joining us and and is just a really big town pool so and rather than think you know go rent a whole separate space it was just easier to allocate some space in this the SpaceX rocket factory for details in design also made off super convenient for me to work with with bronze yeah whose great guy to work with we're very much in the same wavelength it's great actually so as far as helping in the da front I actually think we're okay definitely any any voice of support is is great you know mentioning it to your congressman or senator that does help right yeah absolutely absolutely if they feel a groundswell they feel that the public there's a public demand yeah I think it's helpful to to let your congressman senator know that you think companies like Tesla should get a portion of the ATVM program in animation what we're asking for is really a tiny we're only asking for about one and a half percent of the ATVM program that the vast majority of it will go to GM Ford Chrysler you know they'll get 98 percent one and a half percent your yeah you were asking for and a half Center I think it's not not a big ask and and I think we get Barack on the phone people Tyler crude what are you laughing about um yeah it doesn't seem unreasonable at all to be asking for the one and a half percent um I think we can probably put its better use than Jim yes well you know what I would love to have them in this room and and and watch that debate quite frankly SpaceX came first and yeah it is a thriving industry that only recently actually stepped up its game or so it seems from what I'm reading you want to share some of the latest news well SpaceX we got to orbit last year right which is a fairly big deal our rocket is arguably the first completely privately developed rocket to to reach orbit although there's some dispute on that front but it's unequivocally the the first liquid-fueled privately developed rocket to reach orbit and then that's a tough thing in most countries can't do that so it's it's like how many years did that take that that was six years yeah from yeah from start to reaching over yeah yes and so when the money is just evaporating as you're pouring all the time and energy in your life into this vision how often people want to hear about the struggle how often does the thought enter your mind I you know it's just it's too much there's other things I want to do with my life because I have to assume this is all-consuming for you um well this I mean I spend a lot of time with my kids I mean it's really just throw things that I do there's a SpaceX and Tesla which take a bet for roughly half of my business time each then there's my kids and then I sleep I mean there's like four things I do right and up and sleep doesn't this doesn't get a lot of speech becomes the commodity doesn't yeah it was definitely difficult on the fourth quarter of last year was was very difficult and yeah it was well it was very boring for everyone yeah for everyone until we found out of course that Britney Spears is back and then it all sort of lightened our load a little bit absolutely it's this glimmer of hope right well but that's what I would have called it as well a glimmer so six years yeah from from from the design and from the vision and then last year your first complete orbit yeah absolutely we came close on on a second and third fly we did reach space but we do not reach orbital velocity and in our second or third flights and then I fourth flight we reach orbital velocity and then we've gotten up we've got another flight coming up and about towards me of this month and that's going to deliver a satellite for Malaysia you have to take on some commercial cargo yeah yeah absolutely we have a wide variety customers actually NASA is our biggest customer right by far and we have many other customers as well Sweden is a customer Malaysia as I mentioned Canada and and we also have some purely commercial customers we'll be launching a satellite for Avanti which is a European broadcast satellite company and yeah so I sound a little bit if you can with your relationship with NASA because I think this is pretty fascinating quite frankly yeah um well I love NASA I want to say that NASA is awesome ok well they believe in you so I like nothing I tend to agree with people who agree with me so I understand where you're coming from yeah NASA has actually been really supportive and SpaceX would not have gotten as far as it did without NASA's help so I want to acknowledge that and in December of last year NASA actually gave us the the contract to be the replacement for the space shuttle as far as cargo is concerned so the Space Shuttle retires at the end of next year and and the NASA does have a long term plan for developing a launch vehicle and a spacecraft called the Aries Orion project and that but that's intended to go back to the moon so and that's you that's only going to see flight probably around the 2016 timeframe Wow so there's this kind of a gap of five or six years and and so but we still have a space station up there that we've got a service right so what do we do during that gap and and that's why NASA took the unprecedented step of saying okay let's see what the private sector can do and that's you stepped up yeah yeah we did and so Annette nassos felt confident enough to award your they said they would exit a competition and they there are 20 missions and we got twelve to twenty eight of them were awarded to another company overall sciences and then there was there was a third competitor which was a joint venture of Boeing Lockheed and align text align text systems which actually did not get any of the missions so that was a big upset huge upset yeah yeah I mean I wouldn't blame any of your engineers when that moment happen if they sort of rally together and said suck it to those people right and so it was a CEO says I knew I could brah Boeing lucky to find company of course play they're doing just fine without my little cynicism yeah um so so you're well-established now with your relationship with NASA they're generally depending on you you've won this competition that there really are depending on us and so it's actually quite a big responsibility which we take very seriously and so we're working very hard to make sure we don't let them down yeah and you just you were just in Washington or just before the Model S announcement right about the will tell us what what you were actually you were I'm in Washington quite a lot was it this there's a lot interests there both for for SpaceX and Tesla Lam and there was a bit of an announcement right before the March 26 you were there I was reading something where you had to address a group I was I said it was the side like there's a big satellite conference and in DC yeah every year yeah so yeah I I gave it a keynote there right yeah and it was just basically giving people an update on on where SpaceX is and what what progress are making and that's what every bring about yeah yeah so yeah just basically telling people where we are and and we're expecting to to launch our big rock at the Falcon 9 and with it the Dragon spacecraft later this year right I think you were discussion the Falcon 9 right the Biggles have launched today - the Falcon one which is a much smaller vehicle yeah so if lt9 is uh quite as very big if in fact it's going to be the most powerful single core vehicle in the US fleet by single core I mean without using side boosters and then then the Falcon 9 heavy which is the felt and I with side boosters will actually be the most highest payload capable vehicle in the world and when did you share that piece of news was that something that was actually that's been on our website for a while though I'm not sure people believed would actually do it yeah I'm sure there were people waiting for that announcement and also now waiting for the failure you must have a lot of the surrounding people I mean people who are competitive with you I speak of who part of them wants you to succeed because it opens up opportunities for them right but at the same time if it's anything at all like the business of show there's such competition that even those who succeed feel the sense of there isn't enough to go around and if you succeed it means I won't is there more of a camaraderie from your standpoint well it's it depends on who huge format so that there's some companies where we are a great enabler because we're fundamentally SpaceX's in the transportation business and the if transportation improves then those who who use transportation will find that their business is improved you know just as when they finished the Transcontinental railway in the you know in the early days of early history the United States it was a huge boon to businesses and East Coast businesses and you know people could travel back and forth Goods could transfer a lot easier so it was really helpful to everyone except probably the stagecoach companies and so right they didn't like it that well they didn't so if you know but so I think I think there's probably there's more of the space business that that wants us to succeed then doesn't want us to succeed in it yeah yeah and so you're are you feeling more scrutiny about the Model S in terms of competitiveness because here's you know just based on the documentary the killing of the electric cars this has happened before the name itself Tesla comes from someone who is all squashed by the bigger electric companies you know Nikola Tesla that did pretty well for most of his life although he went kind of bonkers at the end hopefully that doesn't happen to me you know yes we're all pulling but I made in terms of who got credit for what that seemed to be the the struggle in terms of the memory if you ask your average American on the street what they know about Nikola it says you're not going to get a lot of yeah Edison and I think in the popular yes mindset you know Tesla get gets less notice than Edison in in science in scientific world Tesla gets more attention and more credit than absent yeah and they they both I think they're both really great man and amazing things and you know the little bit of rivalry is probably a good thing it's a great thing so so it's I think that they're both great we thought would recognize Tesla in naming the company better than naming it the Elan car company or something like that I'm proud of her letting that go here across your mind at some point all right how many people have signed up already officially signed up and are waiting delivery on the Model S uh I don't know the exact number today but we're well over 500 over fine and how do I begin on the next one I would just go to the website time you can just click but I've got you right here out there forms that we could fill out right now it literally you can how easy is it so you go to the website and you follow the simple instructions calling yes me I want one as someone who did PayPal you can imagine that I'm a big focus on making things really easy yeah I started online thanks yeah especially so we spent a lot of time PayPal trying to make things super easy and actually if somebody goes to the Tesla Motors just go to just go to Tesla Motors calm right click on the buy tab you should be able to put down a reservation for Model S in under five minutes I like that alone and it's a five thousand dollar reservation which is refundable and I'm you know personally standing behind the reservation payments so if any is concerned about us going out of business the only thing you should worry about is is if I get hit by a bus I'm probably cover that one as well by you haven't getting some key man insurance in place so if I do get it by a bus just really there's the bus factor that's still it or something you know I would just think no la fortunately I'm safe another people times $5,000 you should be able to cover that fairly easy yeah it's not gonna I don't think it's going to be I think people's department well there is a we can't call it a pause for legal reasons but it people's reservation my payment is I think is safe but I'm glad we were able to uncover the bus factor this is very important I think to a lot of customers they need to know yeah not not only that mean that they're still it I mean there's a tiny bit of risk your kryptonite apparently is the bus right well so there's always a tiny bit of risk and high risk would be if Tesla goes out of business and I lose all of my assets mhm and and don't die don't die and don't die urge the rub in that so and and and for the rest of my life I'm never able to repay to build up my assets the point where people can be repaid that would be the circumstance under which people would lose out them you know what I'm glad you did the math on that because I'm sure a lot of people have also and and well it's if the bus does hit me it needs to kill me not partially paralyzed me or something does encourage a call bus driving your profession do us all a favor and stay the hell away from this man if at all possible hit the dog if I may mr. musk I I cannot thank you enough for sharing as much as you have I would love to to have you on again in terms of watching the progress of SpaceX as well as Tesla because I am wildly curious and I know an awful lot of people are as well that are just starting to discover what's been going on now in your life for the last six years in the case of SpaceX and last Roadster rather and and now the last couple years with Model S and yeah waiting with bated breath to see where this company is going and and and praying with you and for you that it succeeds beyond your dream thanks actually you know what you haven't touched on any personal stuff which is which is fine but you know I didn't want to but I'm happy to go there what would you like to talk about well it there there is a common misperception which which does sort of driving crazy a little bit ok you know I I sort of well what my wife and I getting Mike's wife and I are getting getting divorced and we why I'm in there yeah yeah so sorry the divorce filing took place into the June of June of last year and so it takes a while for these things to get done boy desert yeah and although Mike's wife to your credit made it clear in a blog that that the marriage was over for reasons that had nothing to do with anyone else in fact she wanted to get divorce at least as much as I did if not more that takes a little stress and guilt away sure right there there there been a few articles which have have have said that I left my wife and five kids for for someone else I'm glad you brought this up I wasn't about to go there but for God's sakes let's clear a little air here it's I mean yeah you know that would be very frustrating to me as well if that was the if that was in press releases and articles written about me when I was trying to change the face of the automobile business but yeah let's talk about it well it's it whatever you'd like to share if I read that about someone I think what a dick alright and and and that would be true I mean if it were true but but actually it's not because I would never leave my kids in fact I see them five days a week they keep you from sleeping we talked about that before yeah yeah so what are the age range of these five children of yours I well the twins are turning five and that the triplets are turning are two and a half Wow twins and triplet yeah that makes the five Wow Wow ah well this so anyway it just it's a support point of clarification there was an article I think you know open if there been a few articles where that sort of been mentioned as an offhand comment in fact they weren't even there were positive articles they just mentioned it sort of of the kind of but it and and they were corrected in the online version but it but you know it's difficult sometimes correct these perceptions con the surface of it may seem that that that that's you know that I left my wife for someone else but I didn't and well this is the problem that comes with the limelight you see you've gotten beyond your profession and your expertise and your business life and you're now being scrutinized for your personal life and I do know a great deal about that from of course the business that I chose many years ago and it's never fair it's never balanced and it's always about selling an article or a paper or a magazine and whatever it takes to throw you under that bus if we may go back to that unfortunate spot they will do it and I am more than happy to offer you this form to clear any air in regards to this at any time because a lot of times quite frankly people in showbiz they're sort of taught to stay away from it you know what don't just leave it they're gonna write whatever they want to write and I think that it's pretty damn courageous to sit here and say you know what this is what's being said about me and I don't appreciate it yeah I commend you why I think I just thank you correct I mean I'm certainly you know that's one who is I mean I I'm no saint but I'll say say but but I generally try to do the right thing and and you know so and that's a like like said if people actually were to say go look at my ex-wife's blog or something that's that no okay but the marriage came to an end because do literally stir true apart and yeah it just wasn't working and I'm making each other unhappy so but there people don't always know to do that and now and so anyway yeah well thank you thank you very much for sharing all of that I really genuinely appreciate and I think the people watching appreciate it as much the whole idea of the show was to not just be an infomercial about a film or a project or the design of an electric car it was really about getting to know the people behind their work and their lives and what it takes in some cases to make history and so on that level I thank you very much all right well thanks I agree yeah thank you mister Elon Musk and I want to not only thank him but my first guest Jason and tuned this has been a day and evening for me and for this show on many levels and I want to take the opportunity this time unlike the previous times of thanking my crew because for some reason we're wrapping up all the equipment after the show and I the first thing that crosses my mind is I didn't thank everyone so Jason Calacanis thanks for nothing let's start there ah then we go over to Tyler and crude and Jamie and Jason McEntire and Kate shorter and Professor Chadd I like to call him and worse Jacob is he out there crawling around somewhere you're not getting any credit I'm not thanking and and gypsy Kinnear from across the country lines into Canada and Josh will be sent here today to help out and I want to thank all of you who are insisted on watching us live and contributed I did not put you on the spot to play the Larry King game I'm not sure I should let you slide did you contemplate that at all I'm not Thompson show how in plays there Larry change ok well I'll tell you what um yeah I'm going to insist that you come back with a Larry King game prepared I'm going to let you off the hook on this one because I feel like I've more than pressed my luck with your appearance here and I thank you for your time I sincerely do all right welcome ok so thanks to everyone involved and thank you for watching and please join us again my guest next week on Easter Sunday he's called yet vicious the pitbull of stand-up comedy Bobby Slayton I got myself a funny Jew for Easter that's what I did I also got the star of an amazing documentary called super high me a great great talent mr. Doug Benson we just lined up a few other new guests I'm very excited if you're a fan of the runaway hit Mad Men the golden globe-winning star of that show Jon Hamm has agreed to join us allowed to be the 19th of 26 but on the 19th for certain the Academy award-winning writer of the usual suspects not a bad film so I've been told Felicia Day the beginning of May those of you who enjoy the guild online and everything that it's becoming there beyond a lot of great other people who have said yes and I'll be making more announcements thank you for all your involvement and help don't forget our contests we skipped three degrees of Kevin Pollak we'll get back to that next week and don't forget your suggestions for the Larry King game and thank you for all your questions I'm sorry we didn't get to them and I'll see you next week okay you you
Just in case you didn't know, that guy Kevin Pollak is a famous actor as well.
It really irritates me when people wear hats in interviews.
i just watched this the other day on hulu!