Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Last updated

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Elon Musk - Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.jpg
AuthorAshlee Vance
LanguageEnglish
SubjectBiography
Published2015
PublisherHarperCollins
Pages400pp
ISBN 978-0062301239

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future is Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, published in 2015. The book traces Elon Musk's life from his childhood up to the time he spent at Zip2 and PayPal, and then onto SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. In the book, Vance interviews Musk, those close to him, and those who were with him at the most important points of his life; Musk had no control over the biography's contents. [1]

Contents

Reception

The Washington Post wrote that "the book is a tremendous look into arguably the world's most important entrepreneur. Vance paints an unforgettable picture of Musk's unique personality, insatiable drive and ability to thrive through hardship." [2] Dwight Garner, writing in The New York Times, wrote, "Mr. Vance delivers a well-calibrated portrait of Mr. Musk, so that we comprehend both his friends and his enemies. It's a book with many ancillary pleasures. Mr. Vance brings us up to date on the states of green energy and space launches. He also veers away from his subject just often enough, offering profiles of the frequently brilliant people who work alongside Mr. Musk. The best thing Mr. Vance does in this book, though, is tell Mr. Musk's story simply and well." [3] It was declared one of the best books of 2015 by The Wall Street Journal , NPR, Amazon.com, Fast Company and Audible. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elon Musk</span> Business magnate (born 1971)

Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate and investor. Musk is the founder, chairman, CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, product architect and former chairman of Tesla, Inc.; owner, chairman and CTO of X Corp.; founder of the Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the Musk Foundation. He is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$232 billion as of September 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $253 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in both Tesla and SpaceX.

<i>The Know-It-All</i> 2004 book by A. J. Jacobs

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World is a book by Esquire editor A. J. Jacobs, published in 2004.

X.com was an online bank founded by Elon Musk, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, and Ed Ho in 1999 in Palo Alto, California. In 2000, it merged with competitor Confinity and in 2001, the merged company changed its name to PayPal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tesla, Inc.</span> American electric vehicle and clean energy company

Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas, which designs and manufactures electric vehicles, stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services. Its subsidiary Tesla Energy develops and is a major installer of photovoltaic systems in the United States and is one of the largest global suppliers of battery energy storage systems with 6.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) installed in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashlee Vance</span> American journalist

Ashlee Vance is an American reporter, writer and filmmaker. His biography of Elon Musk, titled Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, was released on May 19, 2015.

Jennifer Justine Musk is a Canadian author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan E. Salzman</span> American venture capitalist

Alan E. Salzman is an American venture capitalist and managing partner. He is the co-founder, CEO and Managing Partner of VantagePoint Capital Partners, a venture capital firm in the U.S. and an investor in clean technology companies.

Zip2 Corp. was a company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers. The company was founded in Palo Alto, California as Global Link Information Network, Inc. on November 9, 1995, by Greg Kouri and brothers Elon and Kimbal Musk. Initially, Global Link provided local businesses with an Internet presence, but later began to assist newspapers in designing online city guides before being purchased by Compaq Computer in 1999.

This is the corporate history of Tesla, Inc., an electric vehicle manufacturer and clean energy company founded in San Carlos, California in 2003 by American entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The company is named after Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla is the world's leading electric vehicle manufacturer, and, as of the end of 2021, Tesla's cumulative global vehicle sales totaled 2.3 million units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tesla Roadster (second generation)</span> Upcoming electric sports car from Tesla

The Tesla Roadster is an upcoming battery electric four-seater sports car to be built by Tesla, Inc. The company has said that it will be capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds. The Roadster is the successor to Tesla's first production car, the 2008 Roadster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster</span> Sports car launched into space in 2018

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that served as the dummy payload for the February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight and became an artificial satellite of the Sun. A mannequin in a spacesuit, dubbed "Starman", occupies the driver's seat. The car and rocket are products of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively, both companies headed by Elon Musk. The 2010 Roadster is personally owned by and previously used by Musk for commuting to work. It is the first production car launched into space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">How to Make a Spaceship</span> Non-fiction book by Julian Guthrie

How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, An Epic Race, And the Birth of Private Spaceflight is a bestselling award-winning 2016 non-fiction book by journalist Julian Guthrie about the origins of the X Prize Foundation and Peter Diamandis, the first X Prize, the Ansari X Prize and Anousheh Ansari, the entrants into that suborbital spaceflight competition, and the winning team, Mojave Aerospace Ventures of Vulcan Inc., Paul G. Allen, Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan, and their platform of Tier One of SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnightOne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TSLAQ</span> Group of people who criticize Tesla, Inc.

TSLAQ is a loose, international collective of largely anonymous short-sellers, skeptics, and researchers who openly criticize Tesla, Inc. and its CEO Elon Musk. The group primarily organizes on Twitter, often using the $TSLAQ cashtag, and Reddit to coordinate efforts and share news, opinions, and analysis about the company and its stock. Edward Niedermeyer, in his book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors (2019), establishes the catalyst for the formation of TSLAQ in July 2018 to be the doxxing by a Twitter user of Lawrence Fossi, a Seeking Alpha writer and Tesla short seller who uses the pseudonym Montana Skeptic.

Elon Musk, the CEO or owner of multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and X Corp, has expressed many views on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from politics to science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of Tesla, Inc.</span> Systemic criticism of Tesla, Inc. and its products and leadership

Tesla, Inc. has been criticized for its cars, workplace culture, business practices, and occupational safety. Many of the criticisms are also directed toward Elon Musk, the company's CEO and Product Architect. Critics have also accused Tesla of deceptive marketing, unfulfilled promises, and fraud. The company is currently facing criminal and civil investigations into its self-driving claims. Critics have highlighted Tesla's downplaying of issues, and Tesla's alleged retaliation against several whistleblowers.

<i>Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century</i> 2021 book by Tim Higgins

Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century is Tim Higgins's book about Tesla, Inc., published in 2021, that focuses on the company while under the management of Elon Musk. The book does not contain any interviews with Musk himself, but many anonymous current and former executives from Tesla. In response to the book in general, Musk tweeted "Higgins managed to make his book both false *and* boring".

The Musk family is a wealthy South African origin family that is largely active in the United States and Canada. The Musks are of Anglo-Canadian, English, Swiss, and Afrikaner descent. The family is known for its entrepreneurial endeavours.

<i>Elon Musk</i> (Isaacson book) 2023 Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk is an authorized biography of American business magnate and SpaceX/Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The book was written by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN, TIME and the Aspen Institute who had previously written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Leonardo Da Vinci. The book was published on September 12, 2023, by Simon & Schuster.

Elon Musk is a business magnet and investor.

References

  1. ‘Elon Musk,’ a Biography by Ashlee Vance, Paints a Driven Portrait Archived 30 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times, May 12, 2015
  2. McFarland, Matt (11 May 2015). "The 22 most memorable quotes from the new Elon Musk book, ranked". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  3. Garner, Dwight (12 May 2015). "'Elon Musk,' a Biography by Ashlee Vance, Paints a Driven Portrait". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  4. 9 December 2015. "WSJ's Best Books of 2015 - WSJ.com". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  5. Cohen, Nicole; Friedman, Rose; Mayer, Petra; Novey, Beth (8 December 2015). "Best Books of 2015 : NPR". NPR . Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  6. "Amazon.com: Audiobooks - Best Books of 2015: Books (Page two)". Amazon . Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  7. Vanderkam, Laura. "The 10 Best Business And Productivity Books Of 2015". Fast Company . Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  8. "Best of 2015". Audible . Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.