Elon Musk's Most Important Remarks from #Codecon

We've posted the full video of Elon Musk's interview at Codecon 2021, and I recommend watching it. He gives a lot of insightful answers to questions. Here's what I think were the most important things he talked about:

Sub Orbital Flight

Sub orbital flight is a step in the right direction of orbital flight. To put things in perspective, you need about 100 times more energy to get into orbit than sub orbit.

Orbit is 2 orders of magnitude more difficult to get to than sub orbit. Elon Musk talks about Starlink and that he has 1,500 satellites. In order to provide high bandwidth and low latency connectivity to a large number of people, you need a lot of satellites at low earth orbit. There's a gigantic difference between low earth orbit and high earth orbit satellites.

Starlink is not a threat to 5G or anything like that. Starlink best serves those areas that can't easily build the infrastructure for 5G. it's for the least served 5% of humanity where the internet is too expensive or they don't have it at all, or for other reasons.

SpaceX and Starlink Revenue

Elon Musk talked about SpaceX and Starlink. Launching other people's satellites tops out at 3 to 4 billion dollars of revenue.

If Starlink can get to 3 to 4 percent of global internet traffic, that becomes a trillion dollar a year business. Elon Musk wants to use the revenue from SpaceX and Starlink to eventually fund rocket technology for traveling to Mars and beyond.

Launch Costs for SpaceX

It's about 15 million dollars for a launch of 15 tons. The Falcon 9 rocket is about 1/3 cost of other alternatives. With Starship, the cost should get to 1% of expendable systems. The marginal cost of launch for 100 tons could get to 1 million dollars - maybe even 150 tons with better designs.

Elon Musk mentioned that SpaceX was the Earth's only hope for getting to Mars.

Jeff Bezos Suing SpaceX

Elon Musk mentioned that Jeff Bezos should put more energy into getting into high earth orbit than into suing SpaceX. He said you can't sue your way into orbit.

He also mentioned that our most precious resource today is time - because that is something money can't buy and you can never get your time back. Time is the ultimate currency.

Why Wasn't Tesla Invited to the Latest EV Summit at the White House

Joe Biden held an EV summit and didn't invite Tesla. He invited GM, Ford, and Chrysler, and praise them for leading the EV revolution.

Elon Musk mentioned that was a little biased. He thinks the U.S. presidency isn't the friendliest administration and is controlled by unions.

Population Collapse

Elon Musk thinks the biggest danger to humanity is population collapse. There is a perception that there is too many people on the planet, but the opposite is true.

There was a decline, the last two years, in demographics due to the birth rate plummeting. If there are no babies, there is no humanity.

Autonomy and FSD

Elon Musk talked about the FUD regarding full self-driving and autonomy. Even if you reduce fatalities by 90% with autonomy, the 10% that do die are going to sue you, and the other 90% don't even know that autonomy is the reason they are alive.

Elon Musk praised the Autopilot team and mentioned that doing the right thing is much more important than being criticized and sued. You should do the right thing always.

Are We In a Simulation?

And to cap this article off, Elon Musk was asked if we are living in a simulation. His answer was this:

My heart says No
My brain says Yes

Business Insider reveals important information on Tesla Giga Berlin's final approval date, let's see if it is able to substantiate it. https://t.co/DhSr0c7Qhc-NEW-#Tesla #GigaBerlin pic.twitter.com/JUP1J1GWqV— Torque News (@torquenewsauto) October 1, 2021

What do you think of Elon Musk's remarks at Codecon, 2021? Was there anything that stood out to you worth mentioning?

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.