Elon Musk is one of the many individuals that has played a crucial role in tech innovation. Musk is known all over the world for a number of companies and a variety of products.
Specifically, he is known as an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. Tesla as his brain child has led the revolution of electric cars which have the potential to replace the polluting combustion engine-driven vehicles. Tesla vehicles represent man’s drive towards clean transportation; being able to move around without contaminating the air he breathes. In 2019, the company manufactured over 300,000 vehicles and generated about US$24.578 dollars, that’s a lot of money J
Musk is also the progenitor of The Boring Company, an American Infrastructural and tunnel construction company founded in 2016. We can’t also forget Open AI, an Artificial Intelligence company dedicated to ensuring AI does not lead to human extinction. Elon with regards to Open AI, shares the idea that AI if not controlled can broaden its ability to re-design and improve itself which can be inimical for man. Because of this, the company partners with other organisations and researchers in the field to ensure AI remains an extension of human intelligence and not necessarily a competitor.
A company that will be of interest to any is SpaceX officially known as the Space Explosion Technologies Corp., an American aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company. SpaceX is not just a representation of Elon’s desire for space travel, but the deeper vision of colonizing Mars. In 2017, SpaceX unveiled the Interplanetary Transport System, a privately funded system.
In 2020, SpaceX in collaboration with NASA launched two astronauts into space, the fist launch since the U.S. government retired its space program after a national tragedy. It was also the first collaboration between NASA and a private organisation. This however does not seem to be the last launch for Elon’s company as the next launch is scheduled for June 12. SpaceX will among other things, be sending another 60 of its starling satellites into orbit.
Elon Musk’s works do not in any way undermine the products, innovations, researches and actions of others in the tech field. But they unsurprisingly put him at the forefront of it all.
How this affects the tech space and the rest of the world?
Elon’s companies and their products are causing ripple effects in their respective industries. They are giving the “old” way of doing things a run for its money. His inventions and innovations ordinarily represent the tools of the new era of tech. At the same time, he is becoming a threat to competitors in the tech industry. Kanye’s West words “how can one man have all that power?!” resonates in the minds of competitors and business men who want a slice of Elon’s cake.
Be this as it may, without worthy competitors, Elon will be left to dominate and control the trends in Artificial Intelligence, Space travel among others. This is not strange in anyway. Once upon a time, we had Steve Jobs at the fore front of innovation in tech.
For consumers, Elon’s dominance in the tech field might be a little troublesome. Having innovative tech is good for us, but having them from the same person does not cut it. If that is to happen, the tech market will be dominated by Elon Musk and his many tech companies which could in more ways than one, limit the variety of products in our lives. Moreover, tech could become monotonous being that the concepts emanated from the same mind.
Governmental policies could also be affected by Elon’s dominance of the tech industry. SpaceX launches, as much as they have a record of firsts, it won’t be wrong to say that either subtly or not, the company and Elon has impacted government’s policies; specifically, as regards space travel.
On the whole, these don’t mean Elon Musk is an overbearing capitalist, but we need the tech industry to step up to match his innovations specifically in these fields: artificial intelligence, space travel, automobile and car manufacturing.