RP327 The Electric Henry Ford

 RP327 The Electric "Henry Ford"

If Elon Musk has his way, for longer trips, you' ll zip around in sealed pods that are faster and cheaper than airplanes. And someday you might even own an apartment on Mars! Does that sound far-fetched? Well, if you've ever used PayPal to buy something, you' re already part of Mr. Musk's rapidly changing world.
Born in South Africa in 1971, Elon Musk studied physics and economics in the United States. His early interests included clean energy, space travel, the Internet, and social change. Remarkably, he has had a major impact in all of these areas.
After starting— and later selling— a successful software company, Musk helped establish PayPal in 2001. This online money transfer company has changed the way people pay for many things.
Most of us would consider that enough of an accomplishment. Just a year later, however, Musk literally launched SpaceX, a rocket manufacturing company. His purpose was to advance space travel technology, and he succeeded. In 2012, SpaceX became the first private company ever to dock a vehicle at the International Space Station! Maybe Musk's dream of building a human colony on Mars by 2040 isn't so crazy after all.
Meanwhile, back here on Earth, Musk set up SolarCity in 2006. As you might imagine, this is a solar power company, currently the second-largest in America. Renewable energy was also the main reason Musk took over the Tesla electric car company in 2008. Tesla now allows other carmakers to use its technology to develop their own electric vehicles. For Elon Musk, it seems, money isn't everything— though he certainly has plenty of it!
And the ideas just keep on coming. The "hyperloop" transportation system Musk envisions would have people traveling through tubes in sealed pods at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour. That's nearly 50 percent faster than the average commercial airplane! Musk also wants to make artificial intelligence more widely available and someday connect it directly to the human brain.
From anyone else, that would sound like science fiction. But given all that this remarkable man has already done, we can't dismiss anything he might imagine.