There is one thing that often bothers most of us in the scientific field about Elon Musk. While many of us love that he has invested in aerospace ventures and electric vehicles, the issue is that people assume he’s behind everything. Musk is scientifically literate, which is not a bad thing at all. However, it makes him come across as an inventor or developer. In reality, he is neither of those things and is mostly a rich man who invested in the right things at the right time. Of course, Musk is a complicated man that has become a controversial figure. Take the recent Twitter debacle for example.
As the owner of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, Musk has been part of some pretty revolutionary scientific breakthroughs in space and vehicle design. Yet what gets lost in all of this is that Musk is often given all of the credit for every invention and development. Some assume he is similar to Steve Jobs in that, he comes up with ideas and others make the ideas work. However, Musk cannot even be compared to Jobs either. A lot of the things he is credited for were concepts others came up with. He might have “Chief Engineer” or “Product Architect” in his title, but neither is true. Therefore, we wanted to highlight the true people that actually deserve credit.
[Image via NBC News]
Glaring Holes In Elon Musk’s “Invention” History
While we normally only have to do a little research to write about scientific innovations, history, and other material… this article forced us to dig quite a lot into Elon Musk and his past. We do not like to call people out for screwing others over, and we did not want to do some investigational hit piece. However, our research led us down a rabbit hole that uncovered some incredible results. Throughout our research, we came across inventors truly behind a lot of what you might see currently at Tesla, Inc. or SpaceX. Some assumed it was all Elon behind these things due to his “Chief Engineer” or “Product Architect” status.
[Image via The New York Times]
This could not be further from the truth. Moreover, we also came across articles that repeatedly mentioned Musk held at least five patents. We could not find any patents of his in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but we did manage to find patents when we did a worldwide “intellectual property” search. However, what we found was that Musk seemed to put his name first on all of the documents. Leading to searches showing his name before anyone else. Musk’s patents involve at least one or nearly a dozen other people. This means Musk likely just added his name to inventions others put forward. It’s apropos that he runs a company called “Tesla.” Edison would be proud!
[Image via Ryan Fletcher/Shutterstock.com]
The Electric Jet
In 2014, Elon Musk took part in MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Centennial Symposium. During a Q&A at the event, he referenced that he was thinking about how to develop an electric jet, which would obviously be powered purely by electricity rather than use any form of gas or oil. He also referenced the idea of having it take off vertically and that he’d make sure it reached supersonic speeds. However, nothing like what Musk referenced has been invented by Tesla, SpaceX, or Musk himself. On top of this, Musk was nowhere close to the first person to reference the idea of an electric plane or jet.
[Image via IEEE Spectrum]
In fact, this has been something many people have referenced and even worked on for several years now. Of course, Tesla was starting to take off in a big way by 2014. Therefore, it made sense that if Musk was the “electric car guy,” then he and Tesla would likely also want to make electric planes too, right? However, the main people who could likely work on that are busy at SpaceX. Therefore, many have beaten him to the punch on it, such as Eviation who unveiled their electric plane prototype in 2021. Airbus has a whole fleet of electric planes, and in August 2022 Harbour Air completed the first commercial point-to-point electric airplane flight.
[Image via Siwakorn TH/Shutterstock.com]
The Hyperloop
You might have seen us reference the Musk Hyperloop in the past, as it was considered to be one of the worst ideas he ever had. Musk saw the bullet train in places like Japan and felt this could be improved upon with the Hyperloop. He even teased the idea back in 2013 when he unveiled the idea to the public. Musk hyped it as the “fifth mode of transport,” as it would be capable of reaching speeds of 700 mph. Passengers would ride in pressurized tubes to propel pods across the country at high, breakneck speeds. However, when evaluated by engineers, they claimed his concept could never actually work. Not only did Elon Musk not consider some very important structural problems, but the cost to even do this would be extreme. In fact, it would cost far more than Musk has in his bank account.
[Image via The Virgin Group]
While Musk’s Boring Company is apparently still making underground tunnels for Tesla vehicles, Elon was going to shift things to use the tunnels for the hyperloop. Well, until his plan turned out to be nonsensical, dangerous, and costly. On top of this, Musk is not the first to come up with the idea. It was conceived back in 1799 by the incredible inventor, George Medhurst. In 1904, Robert H. Goddard then invented the vactrain which essentially did a version of the same thing. In an ironic twist, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, a SpaceX competitor, has a hyperloop that makes far more sense and had a successful launch in November 2020. The Virgin Hyperloop is able to reach up to 670 mph as of this writing. They also managed to cut the cost of tunnels in half!
[Image via Jennie Book/Shutterstock.com]
SolarCity
SolarCity is currently one of the top solar energy corporations around. It was started in 2006 by Peter and Lyndon Rive, who happen to be Elon Musk’s cousins. When the company first started, the brothers went door-to-door to sell their products. While they sold solar panels that you’d see in homes, they also sold solar panels to businesses and other industrial sectors. Of course, they also sold several other solar energy products. For residential sectors, the brothers came up with a unique business plan. The customers would pay nothing upfront but they had to agree to purchase the power generated by the panels from SolarCity for 20 years.
[Image via AlyoshinE/Shutterstock.com]
While not something most would take on, it actually seemed to become pretty popular. They became the most popular residential solar installer, but their business method also put them in debt by $1.5 billion. Elon bought the company in 2016 for around $2 billion, which was not a popular decision for holders of Tesla’s IPO. In turn, Musk merged SolarCity into the Tesla family to form “Tesla Energy.” SolarCity was a major part of Tesla’s introduction into residential energy storage for homes and it became one of the first installers of major Tesla Energy products. All this said it is clear Musk never came up with any of the technology SolarCity used.
[Image via Hadrian/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors was founded on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. It is important that you know this because many believe Elon Musk came up with the Tesla name and somehow founded the company. What actually happened was that Tesla Motors sought out funding to develop their first electric vehicle. It is common for companies to seek out venture capital/investments in their company like this. However, the two men lucked out because Elon Musk happened to come into a lot of money a little before this.
[Image via Aleksei Potov/Shutterstock.com]
That led to his $6.4 million investment in Tesla Motors in February 2004. This was quite a lot of money for a newer company and Musk was not about investing and getting his money back plus interest. Rather, he wanted his investment to lead to an ownership stake. His investment made him the largest shareholder, but he was not part of the major corporate structure until 2008 when he became the CEO. A later lawsuit involving Tesla Motors in 2009 led to Musk being allowed to call himself a co-founder of the company. This is crazy, considering he clearly was not a founder and simply invested at the right time.
[Image via SpaceX]
Falcon 1 Rocket
SpaceX truly did something no other company had ever done. They were the first private company, completely self-funded, to launch a liquid-fueled rocket into space. That is not something to scoff at. It was officially referred to as a “small-lift launch vehicle,” but most of us call it a rocket. It was a two-stage-to-orbit rocket that used liquid oxygen and rocket propellant (also known as LOX/RP-1). This rocket was first powered by a single Merlin engine and the second was powered by a single Kestrel engine. Of course, SpaceX launched the Falcon 1 Rocket five times, eventually reaching orbit on its fourth attempt.
[Image via SpaceX]
Tom Mueller designed both the Merlin and Kestrel engines and assisted in the total design of the Falcon 1 Rocket. Elon Musk had no role in any of the design or development processes, regardless of calling himself SpaceX’s “Chief Engineer.” This is not to say he did not keep up with the process or speak to the actual designers and engineers working on the rocket. Simply put, Musk hired a very good team at SpaceX that made his aspirations a reality. Musk gave them a goal to reach and they reached it. Yet Musk should not be called the “inventor” or even one of them when it comes to this rocket.
[Image via Surassawadee/Shutterstock.com]
Dogecoin
Elon Musk has had a huge interest in cryptocurrency for years now. This is why both Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin and Musk himself made huge bets on both Ethereum and Bitcoin overall. Yet two dudes were sort of fed up with the crypto world as it was a crazy rise and fall type of territory. It is more untrustworthy than the stock market for investments. Therefore, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer made “Dogecoin” simply as a joke. They did not expect anything to come of it but knew the crypto world was so insane that they could get some bites. Many now call it the first “meme coin,” but it was certainly the first coin to have a dog on it. The coin featuring a Shiba Inu dog launched in December 2013, and due to its satirical nature, developed a nice online following.
[Image via Hanson L/Shutterstock.com]
Musk saw it and began to discuss it on his Twitter account, resulting in many investing in the coin. While this is technically market manipulation that would be illegal for stocks, there is no rule against this for crypto. Musk at one point in 2020 just tweeted: “One Word: Doge.” The coin rose 20% as a result. Another tweet in February 2021 led to a 40% rise, but a tweet in April 2021 led to a 100% rise. It eventually reached a market capitalization of $85 billion! This has since led to a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit citing Musk and his companies. As of September 2022, at least six investor plaintiffs and six new defendants have joined the lawsuit. While Elon Musk certainly helped to market the coin, he’s still not its inventor.
[Image via IEEE Spectrum]
Neuralink
Elon Musk has worried about machines taking over and feels we need to be prepared. He feels there are also ways we can improve our lives. That’s only if we can put technology to good use inside the brain itself. This fear led Musk along with Max Hodak and Paul Merolla to co-found Neuralink in 2016, but it was not officially launched until March 2017. One important note here is that Elon Musk knows practically nothing about neuroscience. To his credit, he is not going around claiming to be a neuroscience expert. Of course, we know he does not know anything about the field because most of his claims about it have been refuted by proper neuroscientists.
[Image via Seeker – YouTube]
The idea of Neuralink was understandable though because if nothing else the tech they work on could be helpful potentially for brain disorders. Since it launched, Neuralink has hired a ton of high-profile neuroscientists from top universities. In 2019, the company received $158 million in funding but $100 million of that was from Musk. That led to around 90 staff members being hired. The company claimed to be working on a sewing machine-like device capable of implanting threads into the brain. At the time, they only worked on lab rats and expected human testing by 2020 but this was pushed off until 2022. The main issue Neuralink has faced is backlash from scientists that questioned a lot of Musk’s claims about Neuralink and its technology.
[Image via LinkedIn]
Zip2
Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk, along with Greg Kouri founded Zip2 in 1995. This was a Global Link Information Network that was relatively successful for its time. Yet what they did was not exactly revolutionary, they simply had the right connections and opportunities to grow Zip2 properly. A few “angel investors” helped the company initially. It was claimed that Errol Musk (Elon and Kimbal’s father), put up around 10% of the money which equates to around $200,000. What Musk and crew initially managed to do was work with local businesses with an internet presence by linking their services to searchers and then providing directions.
[Image via Economic Times]
This was a useful service for California-based companies that eventually led to Zip2 finding success outside the state too. Yet Musk did not write some revolutionary code or make some crazy complex software to do this. Rather, Musk used the free Navteq database (a geographic information system) along with the Palo Alto business database to create Zip2’s first system. This is like putting two toys together, painting them, then passing the toy off as something brand new. It isn’t, and the systems Musk had to use were written by other people first. Without these, Zip2 never would have done anything noteworthy at all.
Elon Musk holding an X.com card. Quora.
X.com
Perhaps X.com is truly where Musk managed to really flaunt his money for the first time. He founded the company in January 1999 after the sale of his Zip2 corporation. He invested about $12 million into co-founding X.com with Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho. They all had a connection to one another from a previous period. Musk knew Fricker from his time as an intern at the Bank of Nova Scotia and Payne was a friend of Fricker’s. Yet Ed Ho happened to be a former engineer at Silicon Graphics and was one of the executives at Zip2.
[Image via Engadget]
Former Intuit CEO Bill Harris then came in around December of 1999 to serve as the company’s first CEO. That helped a lot and X.com managed to attract 200,000 people to sign up within two months. Power struggle issues led to a sale by March 2000. Through all of this, one man was left out when it came to the main tech behind X.com. Ed Ho was responsible for most of this. Even on his very own LinkedIn bio, Ho claims to be “responsible for software architecture and development at X.com.” Musk was pretty much the money and Harris had to come in as CEO because Musk was not capable of running the business side properly either.
[Image via Time.com]
PayPal
A lot of people like to add PayPal to Elon Musk’s list of accomplishments, but it likely shouldn’t be. PayPal was founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December of 1998. At the time, they were known as Confinity and merely developed security software for hand-held devices. This was not super successful, so they moved on to focus on becoming a “digital wallet.” By 1999, the first electronic payment system for the company was launched. Confinity became a pretty big success but the turmoil at X.com allowed the companies to merge in March of 2000. X.com sold off in the merger for around $400 million.
[Image via Lets Design Studio/Shutterstock.com]
The merge allowed a lot of the staff from X.com to move over, including Musk and Harris. However, Harris disagreed with Musk about the money transfer side of the business and left the company that May. Around the same time, Peter Thiel replaced Musk as CEO of X.com which was then renamed “PayPal.” The company went public in 2002, with its IPO going for $13 a share and generating over $61 million. Musk was fired from his role and removed from the company but was able to keep his equity, allowing him to gain heavily once PayPal went public. Today, Musk no longer owns any stock or equity of any kind in PayPal.
[Image via Space.com]
Falcon 9 v1.0 Rocket
SpaceX has been responsible for a lot of really great tech in the aerospace industry. Many like to connect Elon Musk to the success of the Falcon rockets. They even claim he helped to invent or design them. None of this is true, but it’s especially nonsense when it comes to the Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket. The rocket used Merlin engines designed by Tom Mueller. These were of course upgraded from previous Merlin rocket engines used for the Falcon rockets. The rocket was developed as part of the United States Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle and NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services programs.
[Image via Next Spaceflight]
This meant several people from multiple U.S. Military science divisions would have been involved at some point or another. On top of this, NASA scientists would obviously also take part in its development. The first launch took place at Cape Canaveral in 2010 but it would be replaced by the Falcon 9 v1.1 series in 2013. The other Falcon variants took place after this. However, none of this would have taken place without Mueller’s Merlin Engines and help from the U.S. Military along with NASA scientists. SpaceX worked very closely with NASA when the company first began, whereas today they work together a lot but not as much as they did before.
[Image via Mike Mareen/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Roadster (First-Generation)
As we already referenced, Tesla Motors was not started by Elon Musk. He didn’t take a major role in the company until after the company developed its first electric vehicle. Known as the Tesla Roadster, it was relatively revolutionary for its time. It was the very first legal highway serial production, all-electric vehicle to use lithium-ion battery cells. It is also the very first all-electric car to be capable of traveling more than 320 kilometers (or 200 miles) on a single charge. Of course, we also know the Roadster became the first car to be launched into deep space when SpaceX carried it on a test flight in February 2018.
[Image via Mike Mareen/Shutterstock.com]
Elon Musk might have invested in Tesla Motors, but the first car did not come until a few years into that investment. Of course, we know the Roadster was an incredible vehicle that helped Tesla become the industry standard for all-electric cars. Many claim that Musk was the architect of the Roadster, but this does not make sense. Mostly because it is said that Musk had the very first Roadster delivered to him in February of 2008. Therefore, he could not have been its designer nor the man behind its innovative features. Jeffrey Brian “JB” Straubel was brought in early to be the Chief Technology Officer and is likely responsible for its design.
[Image via Universal Pictures]
Elon Musk’s Back To The Future 2 Patent
Perhaps the earliest patent Elon Musk filed took place in 1997, referred to as the “System and Method For Initiating A Telephone Call Utilizing Internet Initiation.” This is a system and method for uniquely combining the Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network for calling an entity displayed on a monitor. The user inputs a request into the computer to initiate a call. This call request data is received at a website providing a display and is then relayed over the Internet to a call center. The call center then establishes the desired phone connection over the Public Switched Telephone Network.
[Image via Zoom]
Many believe that Musk had invented Skype or Zoom before it was cool. However, it’s likely that this would not have worked very well in the mid-1990s. Our internet was not very powerful, and power would be needed to do this properly. Having to then use a separate and public switched telephone network wouldn’t be sensible either. Plus, was this not used in Back to the Future 2? The concept was filed in 1997 by Zip2 but was not accepted until 2001. Aleksandar Dukic was the other inventor mentioned on the patent. He happens to be a communications expert and while little is known about him, he has been a V.P. of Engineering.
[Image via Roschetzky Photography/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Powerwall
If you recall, the SolarCity buyout allowed Elon Musk to open up Tesla Energy. This is where Tesla focuses on a lot of energy-efficient products. While this did include solar energy products, it also included a lot of residential material that could be used to store electricity. The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that stores electricity for solar self-consumption. This can be crucial because solar panels only do so much. Most of the time, the panels only power things up when they have the sun directly on them. Most places that sold solar energy panels did not offer any sort of energy storage unit that was worth your time.
[Image via Joni Hanebutt/Shutterstock.com]
This allowed the Tesla Powerwall to really become an asset as it stored that solar energy where your home could gather up all the solar energy panels could manage during the day. Yet what your home was not using could then be stored in the Powerwall as backup power. When it first came out in 2015, the production was limited but mass production began in 2017. By Spring 2021, Tesla installed as many as 200,000 Powerwalls. Musk was not responsible for the design of this either. The inventor was Arch Rao, who was Tesla’s Head of Product at the time. Today, they have also produced even larger and more efficient Powerwalls than the original.
[Image via Mike Mareen/Shutterstock.com]
Starlink
Starlink is a satellite system that is expected to hopefully provide internet globally. SpaceX will be responsible for this satellite internet constellation. The name it’s given is likely due to the massive amount of satellites already launched. On top of those that will be launched. As of now, at least 40 countries are involved in the program but by 2023, Elon Musk wants complete global access. By July 2022, at least 3,000 satellites (all small and in low orbit) were officially in space from the team. As of now, at least 500,000 people subscribe to the service. This process has taken around a decade to perfect, and it has cost billions of dollars.
[Image via CG Alex/Shutterstock.com]
By 2025, it is expected that at least $30 billion will have been spent on the project. Back in 2019, the FCC in the United States submitted filings to the International Telecommunications Union to arrange for another 30,000 satellites to supplement the 12,000 already approved by the FCC. Many astronomers are against the sea of new satellites though. Critics, including NASA, feel that it will cause possible issues with the numerous satellites we already have. It’ll also be harder for telescopes to see into space while constantly blocked or disrupted. Moreover, it is not as if Musk invented these satellites nor did anything revolutionary. Satellites providing internet has been a thing for a very long time now.
[Image via Piotr Swat/Shutterstock.com]
OpenAI
Elon Musk has been a huge hater of artificial intelligence and truly seems to fear it as a future problem for mankind. Therefore, it is kind of interesting that he decided to have any involvement in an AI company. OpenAI is officially an AI research laboratory that also has a for-profit corporation attached to it, known as OpenAI LP. All of this falls under the OpenAI Inc. parent company. Musk started the company along with Sam Altman, and Ilya Sutskever, among a few others back in 2015. The goal was to both promote and develop “friendly AI.” With the added goal of ensuring that this artificial intelligence benefitted humanity.
[Image via Medium]
Musk might be a co-founder, but OpenAI is not a company he seems to have much involvement in. He was part of the board initially but left it back in 2018, though he remained a donor. In 2019, the company secured a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. The main person in charge seems to be Dr. Sutskever, who previously worked for Google as part of their Google Brain division. He’s also the co-inventor of the convolutional neural network known as AlexNet. Ilya is a brilliant man who serves as Chief Scientist at OpenAI for a reason. Anything that comes out of here likely has his fingerprints all over it, and none of Elon’s.
[Image via Mike Mareen/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Model X
The Tesla Model X officially went on sale in 2015 and was Tesla’s first attempt at a full-size sedan, and it worked well. It also used falcon-wing doors for passengers, giving a more futuristic feel. On top of this, the Model X was capable of reaching up to 360 miles on a single charge for its “Long Range” model. Yet the normal model was not bad, as it could reach roughly 340 miles on a single charge. Both came with Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system too. Franz von Holzhausen is more than likely the main man behind the development of the Model X.
[Image via Roman.S-Photographer/Shutterstock.com]
We know this now only because Franz has held a few major roles in Tesla Motors, but also because he is even credited for its development. He has been with Tesla for 14 years now, so since roughly 2008. He is the Senior Design Executive and was more than deserving of this role. Before Tesla, Franz had worked at Maza, Voltzwagon, and General Motors as a Design Executive or Senior Engineer. Therefore, it is pretty clear Elon Musk did not serve a major role in the invention of this car and Franz (along with his team of engineers) should be getting the credit instead.
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Elon Musk Steals Almir Grbic’s Patent Thunder
This particular patent was filed when Elon Musk was essentially right in the middle of the initial merger with PayPal. This was filed in August 2001, when Musk would have been on the outs with PayPal after being the company’s CEO the year prior. This particular invention provides a system for sending and receiving a facsimile of a document. A sending user transmits a FAX to a FAX server, along with a recipient’s ID code. The server stores the FAX in a designed webpage, with the webpage being associated with a FAX uniform resource locator address.
[Image via junpiiiiiiiiiii/Shutterstock.com]
The server determines the electronic communications location of the retrieving user from the recipient’s ID code and sends the FAX URL address to them. The recipient can then retrieve it by using a web browser. The invention was called “Bi-Directional Facsimile Mechanism Using The Internet.” Seems a lot like a complicated version of e-mail, right? Along with Musk, the patent also mentions Almir Grbic. It is very likely that this was a Grbic invention entirely, as this man seems to be brilliant. He was a software consultant for Zip2, which is likely where Musk met him. He’d go on to work for AltaVista and Intel, which proves he was likely the main inventor of this concept.
[Image via MyWay.com]
Elon Musk’s Weird Zip2 Patent
Musk also put in for a patent over twenty years ago named “Method and Apparatus For An Accelerated Radius Search.” How does this patent work? Essentially, it patented a search category built to have a density value corresponding to a geographic area. A first radius search is generated connected to the category and is used to perform a “first search.” If this first search returns an insufficient number of results, then a second search radius is generated. It will do this by using a heuristic to increase the aforementioned first search radius, and then the second search radius will perform a second search. This is repeated until one gets the desired result.
[Image via MyWay.com]
The assignee of the patent was the MyWay.com Corporation, which connects to Musk because Zip2 became a subsidiary of this corporation around 2000. MyWay was owned by IAC, a previous internet juggernaut. They stripped Zip2 of all its branding and it would eventually sell off to many internet companies. Yet this 1998 patent did not get to Zip2 until August of 2000 right in the middle of everything. Since this patent revolved around MyWay’s entire business model, it was also worked on by King-Sun Wai and Leo Chan. King-Sun is a prolific software engineer with many patents of his own and Leo Chan is an engineer himself, so it seems like Musk was only added to this and likely did nothing on the project over the other two.
[Image via Alex Terentii/Shutterstock.com]
SpaceX Raptor Engines
It is important to reference that there are several Raptor Engines developed by SpaceX. Therefore, when we mention them, we’re referring to the entire family of engines. These particular engines were powered by cryogenic liquid methane along with liquid oxygen. This differs from the RP-1 (rocket propellant) and liquid oxygen combo that had been used in the Kerolox & Merlin engines previously. Best of all, the initial Raptor Engine had more than twice the thrust of the SpaceX Merlin 1D engine that powers both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. The Raptor 2 alone produces over 240 tons of force!
[Image via CNET]
On top of this, these engines are used in the SpaceX starship system for both the “super-heavy-lift” Super Booster and in the Starship Spacecraft. The engines are used in the second stage when launched from Earth. They also operate as independent spacecraft in low earth orbit and beyond. The plan for SpaceX is to use the Starship in various formats, so the Raptor Engines need to be capable of working properly. The main inventor or developer of the engines is more than likely Tom Mueller. He worked on the other engines and more than likely would have developed these as well. Even if he’s gone from SpaceX entirely today, his work will be used in the making of every engine SpaceX develops.
[Image via Felipe Sanchez/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Supercharger Station
Let’s face it, the biggest problem with electric cars has been the clear lack of charging stations. You can find a gas station almost anywhere, in the United States at least. Yet charging stations aren’t as easy to find, particularly in southern states. Tesla Motors knew that they could not expect people to travel as often in their vehicles if they couldn’t find a reliable place to charge their cars. While some hotels allow people to charge their car, it isn’t as common as one would want. That led to the introduction of charging stations.
[Image via Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock.com]
Not only did Tesla want to provide reliable charging places, but also ensure it doesn’t take very long to charge the cars too. The Tesla Charging Stations weren’t exactly invented by Elon Musk, but he did feel that charging stations needed to be available. Production on these stations began in 2012 on the original stations, where Tesla actually offered free charges. This ended around the Spring of 2020. Today, there are over 35,000 Tesla Supercharger Stations, making it the world’s largest fast-charging network. It is assumed Javier Verdura is the brainchild behind the supercharger stations. He has been the Tesla Global Design Director since 2012.
[Image via CanadianPhotographer56/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 is quite an interesting vehicle for the company. While it was made to be all-electric like the others, the design made it look like what one might find at any dealership. This is an executive sedan that launched in mid-2017 on a limited production. There are two versions of the Model 3. The first is capable of reaching 272 miles on a single charge. Meanwhile, the slightly more expensive “Long Range” version could reach 358 miles on a single charge. The Model 3 also contains full self-driving hardware, with periodic software updates that add functionality. Before the Model 3 came out, one issue plagued Tesla Motors. Their cars were expensive.
[Image via Christopher Lyzcen/Shutterstock.com]
That made it harder to purchase them for the average person. That’s why the Model 3 was reduced in price compared to previous Tesla vehicles. In fact, the company marketed it as “affordable.” Today, a rear-wheel drive version will cost you around $40,000 while the AWD is a little over $56,000. This plan by Tesla, Inc. worked out well for them too. By 2020, the Model 3 became the best-selling electric car in history. By 2021, Tesla sold 1 million Model 3 vehicles. The planning for the Model 3 goes back several years, with Franz von Holzhausen operating as Design Chief. Franz wanted to make the design come off like an Audi A4 or BMW 3 series type of vehicle. He managed to do this, and it was 20% smaller than the Model S too!
[Image via Alexander Lukatskiy/Shutterstock.com]
Elon Musk and Maurice J. Fitzgerald, II’s Dual Patent
Elon Musk along with Maurice J. Fitzgerald, II filed two patents that appear to be for the same invention. It is called “Interactive Network Directory Service With Integrated Maps and Directions.” Both were filed as part of Zip2. The first looks to have been filed by “Zip2” in 1996 and given in August 1999. The second was filed for in June 1999 and given in November 2000. The invention provides a network-accessible service that integrates both a business directory and map database. A user can search the business directory in numerous methods, including using aspects of the map database to quantify the search.
[Image via Studio Monkey/Shutterstock.com]
Users can then obtain directions from a specific user location to a selected search result. All of this is accomplished by accessing a single website. This was literally the entire business operation of Zip2. While simplistic in its concept, by not patenting it, they’d run the risk of someone else doing so and thereby ending their entire business model. Interestingly, Maurice seems to be connected to several more patents on top of this. Either their father invented several things or they were credited as just Maurice Fitzgerald. Meaning Maurice, Sr. or his son likely assisted big time with this concept.
[Image via NASA]
The TR-106 Rocket Engine
The TR-106 Rocket Engine was incredibly important to SpaceX and its future. TRW, Inc. began working on the TR-106 Rocket Engine as early as the late 1990s. TRW often took on military contracts. In business since 1901, TRW managed to help the military develop the first intercontinental ballistic missile in the 1950s. You know it best as the ICBM. Eventually, Tom Mueller began working with them and was made the Lead Engineer for the development of the LCPE, a 650,000 pounds of thrust LOX/LH2 engine. They managed to successfully hot-fire test it at 100% of its rated thrust plus 65% throttle condition.
[Image via NASA]
Yet TRW then changed the pintle injector among other things but suddenly development of the engine ended with the cancellation of the Space Launch Initiative. In 2002, TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman and the TR-107 began with a NASA contract. Elon Musk offered Tom Mueller the opportunity to become a founding member of SpaceX in 2002 and Mueller’s work on the TR-106 did not go to waste. He used part of this to help SpaceX develop the Merlin Engines. These engines, of course, were part of the initial Falcon Rockets. His work on these engines led to the development of others too.
[Image via Mike Mareen/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Cybertruck
While we do not know as much about the Tesla Cybertruck as we do about other vehicles, it does involve one of Musk’s biggest blunders. When introducing it, he claimed the windows are bulletproof. He likely was not briefed on the model used for the display. Those obviously don’t include all the bells and whistles of the Cybertruck at launch. The windows are certainly bulletproof for all Cybertrucks as Musk said, the model used for his talk about it was not. When he attempted to prove the strength of the windows, he asked Franz von Holzhausen to attempt to break one.
[Image via Forbes]
Franz asked if Musk was sure before he did it, when Elon said he was, Franz actually broke the window. This is why you always ask your team if the display model is 100% the vehicle one sees at launch. While Franz is one of the main designers of the Cybertruck, a few others also contributed to the design and other engineering aspects of the Cybertruck. Ian Kettle, Sahm Jafari, David Imai, and Ivan Lampkin all contributed to its design and development. While Musk has been talking about Tesla making an all-electric truck for years, he’s not the mastermind behind it. Moreover, it is not going to be available to buy until 2023.
[Image via Kent Weakley/Shutterstock.com]
Falcon Heavy and Merlin Rocket Engines
The Falcon Heavy Rocket was an engineering masterpiece that surely will help space travel to places like Mars a reality. This same rocket could also be useful for future Moon travel and base setup. Initially, SpaceX had developed rockets that mostly went into Low Earth Orbit. The Falcon Heavy was made to go beyond this territory, so the right equipment had to be developed for it. What makes the Falcon Heavy Rocket stand out is its reusability, which is very abnormal to see from a heavy-lift launch vehicle. It uses two strap-on boosters made from the Falcon 9’s first stages, and a second stage is used on top.
[Image via Mark_Sawyer/Shutterstock.com]
As of now, the Falcon Heavy also has the highest payload capacity of any current and operational rocket/launch vehicle. Only the Saturn V and Energia have ever been capable of carrying larger payloads. The first launch happened in 2018, then two more took place in 2019 (more are scheduled). The National Security Space Launch Program has since certified the ship. On top of this, this rocket uses Merlin Engines to reach its destination. While Elon Musk has been wanting to make a rocket like this for years, the man who has made a lot of this happen is Tom Mueller. He made the engines and he along with other engineers designed the Falcon Heavy itself.
[Image via TY Lim/Shutterstock.com]
Elon Musk Essentially Just Added His Name To This Tesla Patent
The first Elon Musk patent we’re going to discuss involves “Autonomous and User Controlled Vehicle Summon To A Target.” The invention revolves around a processor coupled to memory that’s configured to receive an identification of a geographical location, associated with a target, specified by a user remote from a vehicle. A machine learning model is utilized to generate a representation of, at the very least, a portion of an environment surrounding the vehicle. This uses sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle. A portion of a path-to-target location then corresponds to receive geographical location, calculated using the generated representation of the environment surrounding the vehicle.
[Image via Lipik Stock Media/Shutterstock.com]
At least one command is then provided to automatically navigate the vehicle based on a determined path and updated sensor data from a portion of one or more sensors in said vehicle. This was filed on behalf of Tesla, Inc. in 2019 and the inventors of this include Elon Musk, Kate Park, Nenad Uzunovic, Christopher Coleman Moore, Francis Havlak, Stuart Bowers, Andrej Karpathy, Arvind Ramanandan, Ashima Kapur Sud, Paul Chen, Paril Jain, Alexander Hertzberg, Jason Kong, Li Wang, Oktay Arslan, Nicklas Gustafsson, Charles Shieh, and David Seelig. Needless to say, Musk didn’t write his school report, he put his name on a friend’s. If you’d like to read about the invention fully, you can do so here.
[Image via Grossinger/Shutterstock.com]
SpaceX Starship
Perhaps the biggest project being undertaken by SpaceX at the moment is their Starship. Yes, it is exactly what you think it is. They have already built most of it and are currently developing launch sites for it. This ship, unlike any of the Falcon Rockets, is going to be used for human travel into space. It is the very first launch vehicle ever made for human travel to be completely reusable. It is the tallest, most powerful launch vehicle ever made. The Starship works in two stages, which consist of the Super Heavy booster stage then the Starship’s second stage comes into play…also referred to as the spacecraft itself. This spacecraft is going to have four things inside: the cargo, crew, propellant tanker, and lunar lander.
[Image via Space.com]
The Starship launch will be able to deliver 220,000 pounds of force as it enters into Low Earth Orbit. The cool part is that once in orbit, Starship tankers can refuel the spacecraft to transport into higher orbits or other destinations beyond LOE. This spacecraft will also be able to enter the atmosphere of most planets. It can then use its engines to land properly or it can be left in space. They’ve been working on it since 2005, so it is very likely Tom Mueller had been behind a lot of it. He was especially part of the Raptor Engines development. Several engineers are also involved in making it work along with NASA and the FAA. Yet there are still questions surrounding the Starship, particularly for exploration. Elon Musk might have been planning to do this, but he never was involved in the development process itself.
[Image via Abu hasim.A/Shutterstock.com]
Tesla Model S
Perhaps the biggest public battle Elon Musk has ever had when it comes to the development of one of his company’s most infamous products has to do with the Tesla Model S. The main man behind this car’s development is Peter Rawlinson. Of course, Rawlinson was Chief Engineer on the Model S and said as much when speaking to the press. He worked with Tesla as the Vice President and Chief Engineer of the Model S from 2009 to 2012, a full three years. Yet Musk claimed this was not true, and it is likely due to what happened with Rawlinson’s exit and the work he has done ever since. Such as Lucid making its own impressive car.
[Image via CanadianPhotographer56/Shutterstock.com]
When asked by the press about why he left Tesla in 2012, he claimed that his aging mother needed him and that “I had a boss that wasn’t treating me too well.” He did not choose to elaborate on this. Yet Rawlinson would go on to Lucid Motors where he became the Chief Technology Officer and now operates as both CEO and CTO at the company. Musk claims Rawlinson was never the Chief Engineer of the Model S but this is very false. Not only did the announcement of his hire mention his position but he is in Tesla videos discussing the car with his position(s) being referenced in them! Franz von Holzhausen was also crucial to this car’s development.
Where Do We Find this Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:
National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
United States Patent & Trademark Office
Justia Patents
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Tesla, Inc.
SpaceX
Virgin Group
OpenAI
Navteq
Airbus
Harbour Air
Reuters
The Hill
Smithsonian Magazine
Futurism
Forbes
Electrek