Recently, Elon Musk shared his perceptions during a tech industry conference that public transit is both inconvenient and dangerous. “It’s a pain in the ass,” he said. “That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great. And so that’s why people like individualized transport, that goes where you want, when you want.” — Quartz
Elon Musk has had his sights set on various ways of 'disrupting' America's public transportation system for some time now. Most notably, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been experimenting with the idea of creating underground tunnels for a Hyperloop system that he swears cities are giving the go ahead on despite some public skepticism.
However, after recent comments were made, many of those who have spent years working on public transport are criticizing Musk for stepping out of his lane. As an extremely wealthy person who keeps expressing a strong distaste for the public, Musk may not be the best person to tackle public infrastructure projects that millions of those less fortunate depend on.
What do you expect? Musk makes money from selling cars. Of course he will denounce public transport. The serial killer scenario is also ridiculous. It's far more likelier to die in "private transport", 1.2 million deaths worldwide in traffic accidents. The car is the biggest serial killer in the world.
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What do you expect? Musk makes money from selling cars. Of course he will denounce public transport. The serial killer scenario is also ridiculous. It's far more likelier to die in "private transport", 1.2 million deaths worldwide in traffic accidents. The car is the biggest serial killer in the world.
HYPERLOOP 4 the HYPER's RICH!!!
I don't see how Musk's activities threaten current public transit systems. It's not like he's asking for public money to build Hyperloop.
In my neck of the woods, transit spending is focused on tourist areas and there is little concern for the needs of low-income patrons. The public transit system is run by venal politicians and designed and built by politically connected businesses. Is Musk worse than they are? Maybe, maybe not.
He is truly right, if you are so rich that you does not need to get on public transport, you can criticize on Elon Musk , but for me he is right , that in cities like LA, I wont want to take metro after night falls , or on certain direction. His proposal does not use public money , nor it will kill the rubbish infrastructure that is in the States for poor people, as they are going to survive anyway. He is just provides a technical advance with those rubbish metro we have in LA .
Let's remember who opened the door for Musk: we, the American people. If our elected representatives had been responsibly updating our infrastructure and public transportation, tech titans like Musk wouldn't see a need to "disrupt" or profit off of the collective failings of a government that takes infrastructure for granted. While I'm just as suspicious as anyone about Musk's motives, I'm glad that he's forcing the issue, if only to get the public and our representatives to take an issue as unsexy as public transit and put it where it should be: front and center.
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