The report comes from CB Insights and it notes that while most of the media focus on Elon Musk is plans for autonomous vehicles via Tesla and his plans to colonize Mars through SpaceX, Musk’s companies are actually taking on almost every key industry.
The potential for major disruption is very real and there are eight major sectors where established companies need to brace themselves for new competition and an altered landscape, from different technologies, digitization or automation.
Energy
Musk’s efforts with Tesla and SolarCity could completely alter U.S. power utilities and the traditional utility business model. SolarCity markets, manufactures, and installs residential and commercial solar panels in the US. It has also provided other energy services.
Automotive
While Tesla is innovation, Musk also wants Tesla vehicles to be affordable. The technology of self-driving cars could also pose a major challenge to traditional taxi firms.
READ MORE: Essential Science — Zero emission vehicles are on the horizon
Telecommunications
Musk’s work in space should begin to alter how people get online as well as providing fast, affordable Internet. This includes providing the Internet to many remote communities currently without access. For more about this, see the Digital Journal article “Someday we’ll need the Internet in space.”
Transportation
This includes the Hyperloop, a proposed fifth mode of transportation, which aims to reduce the 6-hour trip from DC to New York to a mere 30 minutes. A Hyperloop is a proposed mode of passenger and/or freight transportation, first used to describe an open-source vactrain design released by a joint team from Tesla and SpaceX.
Infrastructure/Tunneling
Musk’s venture into tunnel boring aims to lower costs across the tunneling industry. Currently, CB Insights notes, a mile of tunnel currently costs $1 billion to dig. In late 2017, Godot, which is Musk’s name for the giant tunneller, has started digging in Los Angeles.
Aerospace/Airlines
While SpaceX plans a motorway to Mars rocket technology could also revolutionize Earth travel as a well, such as a type of “spaceflight” trip from London to Hong Kong. This concept takes advantage of sub-orbital space flight routes around the globe. Musk is of the view that with such a flight trajectory, you can reach anywhere on earth in under an hour.
Artificial Intelligence
Musk has expressed concerns about artificial intelligence triggering a world war; for this reason he is seeking to build better AI. Musk has been quoted as saying: “I keep sounding the alarm bell but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal.”
Healthcare
Musk has been involved with developing different healthcare technologies like the high-bandwidth, minimally invasive brain machine interface designed by Neuralink. Musk has said the company aims to make devices to treat serious brain diseases in the short-term, with the eventual goal of human enhancement.
