Quotes · Timelines, self-driving and robots
I'm pathologically optimistic on schedule
Elon Musk · Nov 2023 · Elon Musk: War, AI, Aliens, Politics, Physics, Video Games, and Humanity | Lex Fridman Podcast #400 (watch at 1:54:39)
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we're putting a massive amount of effort into manufacturing, engineering the machine that makes the machine.
Jul 22, 2020 · Tesla Q2 2020 earnings call (2020)
The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is not well understood. It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.
Sep 22, 2020 · X post (@elonmusk)
I think we're at the most interesting part of human history
Jul 2025 · Elon Musk Interview | The Future, Engineered | X Takeover 2025
you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there
May 2014 · USC Commencement (2014)
a product is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Jan 29, 2025 · Tesla Q4 and full year 2024 earnings call (2025)
And that's what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring Future for everyone.
Jun 2026 · SpaceX IPO — Nasdaq Bell Speech
I don't ever give up I mean I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated
Mar 2012 · 60 Minutes (2012)
nobody bleeds for the prince in the palace
Dec 2020 · WSJ CEO Council Summit
I think most likely if we're a simulation, it's really boring outside
Sep 2018 · Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk
who wouldn't want their own personal C3PO
Nov 2025 · US-Saudi Investment Forum
it's not a question of will it's a question of way
Mar 2013 · Elon Musk at SXSW 2013
The world desperately needs sustainable transport.
Sep 2015 · Tesla Model X Reveal
AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization
Jul 2017 · National Governors Association
Oh, that's question 27. Here you go. It has answer 27 that I've given a hundred times before.
Oct 2026 · Elon Musk: What Comes Next for Humanity (Tesla Owners Silicon Valley)
goal of X is to be the best source of Truth on the internet
Apr 2024 · Elon Musk | LIVE Podcast | In Good Company | Norges Bank Investment Management
non autonomous gasoline vehicles in the future will be like riding a horse
Oct 23, 2024 · Tesla Q3 2024 earnings call (2024)
reusability is only relevant if it is rapid and complete
Apr 2017 · The future we're building -- and boring | Elon Musk
Prototypes are a piece of cake, but high volume production of a new technology is extremely hard. Takes much longer than people think to climb the production S-curve. I can’t emphasize enough that production is by *far* the hard part.
Oct 7, 2020 · X post (@elonmusk)
Btw, just want to express a word of appreciation for the hard work of the Tesla Gigafactory team. Reason I camped on the roof was because it was less time than driving to a hotel room in Reno. Production hell, ~8th circle …
Oct 26, 2017 · X post (@elonmusk)
Many movies exist about a lone inventor in a garage having a eureka moment, but almost none about manufacturing, so it’s underappreciated by the public.
Mar 28, 2024 · X post (@elonmusk)
Compared to the insane pain of reaching high-volume, positive-margin production, prototypes are a piece of cake.
Mar 28, 2024 · X post (@elonmusk)
Bigtime. Production at scale is 100X harder than making a prototype. There is no movie that illustrates this.
Sep 13, 2025 · X post (@elonmusk)
The factory is the product
Jan 11, 2021 · X post (@elonmusk)
Prototypes are easy, production is hard. This is not widely understood.
Dec 9, 2025 · X post (@elonmusk)
There's just not really a movie about that, but there should be.
Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054
The manufacturing is somewhere between 100 and a thousand times harder than making a prototype.
Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054
You could say, to first approximation, there are 10,000 things that have to go right, at least, for production to work.
Oct 31, 2023 · Joe Rogan Experience #2054
I think currently a factory is underrated and design is overrated.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour
So people generally think that like this Eureka moment of like you come up with this idea and that's it, now it's good.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour
And if this was not true, I'd like 1000 Raptors please. Oh, you can't make them? Oh, okay.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour
If people have not been in manufacturing, especially manufacturing of something that's relatively new, then they don't understand.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour
And they think the design is the hard part, and they think production is like a copier or something like that. This is completely false.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour
I can't emphasize enough, I'm trying to correct the misperception that design is the hard part. It is not the hard part.
Aug 3, 2021 · Everyday Astronaut Starbase tour