Here’s a brief list of things that Musk has done for this world:
1. Tesla Motors
It’s
impossible to think of Musk and not think of Tesla: conspicuously, one
of his most well-known innovations, Tesla is an electric-car company
bringing fully-electric vehicles to consumers. Its Model 3 car retails
for a starting price of $35,000. There’s huge demand for Tesla cars because of its environmental benefits.
2. SpaceX
Tesla
and SpaceX are in a close fight when it comes to popularity; both are
equally valuable though. Founded in 2002, the eponymous SpaceX aims is
reduce the cost of space expeditions and enable colonisation of Mars. So
far they have flown over six cargos and are on a working contract with
NASA to produce craft for NASA’s crew members, to and from International Space Station.
3. PayPal
The
online payment giant PayPal too is a brainchild of Musk. Founded in the
year 1999, Musk kick-started an organisation called X.com, which
focused on financial services and email payments. A year into their
operations, they merged with Confinity and adopted their best-selling
product PayPal.
Just imagine the kind of revolution and ease in transactions it has bought.
4. Hyperloop
The
Hyperloop — high-speed travel in pods inside a partial-vacuum tube — is
the brainchild of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who open sourced the basic
design in 2013 in the form of a white paper. The transportation system,
which was introduced in 2013 aims to reduce the travel time from hours
to minutes. It will be 4 times faster![]()
than a commercial flight.
5. Zip2
This
was Musk’s first web software company. Founded with his brother and
funded by the money loaned by his father, Zip2 was aimed at making city
guides for newspaper companies, so that they could categorise it for
their users. He later sold the company to Compaq for $22 million.
6. SolarCity
One
great thing about all of Musk’s inventions is that he is always trying
to ease the life of users and bring about a change that will not only
relax the way things work but will also have several other benefits.
SolarCity, in the same light, is a project that aims at providing
solar-power systems in the US and is the second largest in its field.![]()
7. Electric Jet
Still,
in Musk’s thought catalogue, he is considering the possibility of
electric supersonic jets, that will basically have "vertical take-off
and landing”.
With this in action, electric
motors could have a fan to propel the aircrafts and then they won’t need
a runway to fly, making airports shorter.
8. Musk Foundation
More
creation than innovation, the Musk Foundation is for pushing ideas from
the grassroots. The organisation aims at supporting young minds and
awarding grants that support research into renewable energy, space
exploration, childhood diseases and disorders, and educational
endeavours.
So far, the organisation has given out $783,700, including a donation of $250,000![]()
![]()
towards a solar power project in Sōma.
9. Web-based Phone Calls
A
little less intricate that Skype, Musk’s plan was to have computers
call landline phones and he even filed a patent for it in 2002. He
basically wanted to use the information given on the Web to simplify the
process of calling. Ideally, users would see the number on the screen,
hit the Call button and then calls would be directed to the company via a
call centre.
10. Mahalo.com
A
combination of Quora, Wikipedia and AskJeeves, Musk invested in Mahalo
in 2007: the site allows people to post questions and have them
answered. Unfortunately, this one did not work quite well for him. After
Google revolutionised the search system, the company was forced to cut
its operations to only making ‘how to’ videos and answering live
user-generated questions.
11. Location-specific searches
We
all know how Google and many other tech giants are targeting people
based on their locations. But all of this wasn’t there in the early days
of the internet. Back in 1998, it was Musk who thought of making a
system that would cater to geographic locations of people and then
automatically bring in results for the closest places nearby.
His
Wikipedia page exhibits a long list of his achievements. He is the
founder CEO and CTO of SpaceX: a co-founder, CEO, and product architect
of Tesla Inc.; co-chairman of OpenAI; and founder and CEO of Neuralink.
A revolutionising transportation both on earth and in space, Musk’s estimated net worth is $20.8 billion.