The year 2017 was an eventful one for technology, creation and entrepreneurship. While creators broke the world with their innovative ideas and innovations, one inventor had an immensely successful year. The last year can easily be termed as the year of Elon Musk. Love him or hate him, you cannot help but be amazed by the number of stupendous things achieved by this genius.
From SpaceX to the Boring Company to Tesla and Neuralink, Elon Musk has revolutionised the way we think about and approach the very concept of space travel, transportation and the way we work. With just a month into the New Year, it seems only fair to take a moment to look at the great things Elon Musk has done in the last year!
1. January 4
Four days into 2017, Elon Musk announced that he had begun the mass production of batteries at its Gigacenter. The lithium ion cells are for use in its Powerpack and Powerwall home batteries.
2. January 23
Musk meets President Trump at the White House along with Michael Dell and the Under Armour founder, Kevin Plank. This signalled the beginning of a very important discussion that started off a massive economic relationship between the American President and Elon Musk. Also, a lot of serious discussions began on testing Hyperloop, for the advanced transportation of technology.
3. February 1
Months after Musk’s company voted to buy SolarCity, the company officially announced its decision to change the name from Tesla Motors to just Tesla, signalling the fact that the company is going to focus on cars.
4. February 27
Musk announces that SpaceX plans to fly two private citizens around the moon sometime in 2018. NASA also collaborated this information by saying that with this relationship, it would signal the beginning of a union between government based and private aerospace organisations.
5. April 4
Tesla’s market capital rises to over 300, making it the most valuable company. With this, Tesla even surged past GM and Ford!
6. April 10
Through Tesla, Musk created a brand new set of solar panels that weigh considerably lesser than the already existing ones. Also, the mounting for these panels wasn’t visible to the naked eye.
7. April 21
Neuralink took the world by storm as it brought to the forefront the concept of brain computer interfaces. Musk’s work towards this “cyborg” goal became actualized this year
7. April 28
Musk officially launches the Boring Company and presents the possibilities of using the tunnels in conjunction with another one of his transportation ideas, the high-speed hyperloop rail.
8. May 3
Tesla delivered a record number of 25,o00 cars and displayed a total revenue of $ 2.7 billion, a first for the company since its partnership with SolarCity. Incidentally, this was also double the amount of revenue recorded by Tesla from the last year till now.
9. June 1
Musk pulls out of Trump’s advisory council after Trump pulls out of the Paris Accord, a pact which includes every country in the world and works towards reducing the impact of climate change.
10. June 28
Musk announces that he has started digging a tunnel under Los Angles using the boring machine created by the Boring Company. This was completed in October!
11. July 9
The first 3 models of Tesla rolls off!
12. August 4
Contrary to the initial plan set by Musk himself in 2013, he starts construction work on the hyperloop himself!
13. September 29
Musk announces his intention to launch not one, but two spacecrafts on Mars using SpaceX rockets!
14. October 24
Tesla jumps in to save Peurto Rico and other Caribbean islands after Hurricane Maria by sending in Powerpanks and Solar Panels to the islands as well as by discussing plans to restore its grid.
15. November 16
Through Tesla, Musk announces Semi, a battery powered tractor trailer that can travel 500 miles on a single charge. The production for this tractor will begin in 2019!
Clearly the past year has been quite an exciting and interesting one for Elon Musk and we can only wait and watch to see what this brilliant revolutionalist will come up with for this year!
