One of the most memorable moments in the documentary Revenge of the Electric Car involved then-Jalopnik Editor-in-Chief Ray Wert bluntly dismissing the Tesla Model S as “vaporware.” During the sequence, it was very evident that the idea of Tesla pulling off a vehicle like the Model S seemed to be so farfetched for Wert, that refused to consider the possibility of the car being real.
That scene, in a lot of ways, is symbolic of Tesla’s journey as a whole. For every step that the company took over the years, Tesla has faced countless criticisms and doubt. Yet today, with the company producing its one-millionth electric vehicle, it is becoming more and more evident that critics and naysayers, both to Elon Musk and Tesla as a whole, are steadily losing the narrative. There are now 1 million reasons proving that Tesla is a thriving company, after all, and the number grows by the day.
Elon Musk has stated that starting an electric car company is idiocy squared, mainly due to the sheer amount of work required to thrive in the automotive industry. Couple that with the fact that Musk took over as Tesla’s CEO right in the midst of the US financial crisis, and one could see just how dire the situation was for the electric car maker during its early days. It was dire enough, for one, that its circumstances inspired an actual Tesla Death Watch series from The Truth About Cars, which eventually abandoned the initiative after it became evident that the electric car maker wasn’t going anywhere.
In a way, Tesla attracts a lot of critics because the company and its CEO dreams big without hesitation. With the Model S, Tesla wanted to prove that electric cars could be better than petrol-powered vehicles, period. With the Model 3, the company wanted to show that EVs can be mainstream. These are lofty goals, and they are very difficult to accomplish. It is then no surprise to see why there is so much opposition to the electric car maker. Some of these opposition comes in the form of short-sellers, who are financially incentivized to push TSLA stock down. A look at social media shows a glimpse of just how cruel and tasteless the company’s critics could become.
Yet despite the unwavering ad hominem attacks against Elon Musk, the physical intimidation of company employees testing Autopilot software, and the downright disturbing practice of doxxing Tesla supporters online, the electric car maker has stubbornly refused to stay down. It has fought every day since the days of the original Roadster, and it continues to do so until today, with the production ramp and impending deliveries of the Model Y. And based on the company’s perception, it will likely continue fighting every day for decades to come.
This is one of the reasons why the Tesla story is so compelling. It is difficult to not root for a company that took years to produce its first electric car and is now on track to manufacture about 500,000 vehicles in one year. Tesla, after all, dug deep to produce 20,000 vehicles in 2013, and just last year, the company closed 2019 with just over 410,000 vehicles manufactured. That’s a remarkable growth story, and it doesn’t even include the massive arm that is Tesla Energy, which is now seeing a ramp of its own.
It is not difficult to see why Tesla attracts such passionate support and anger at the same time. The company is different, its mission is ambitious, its CEO is a brazen dreamer, and it does not function like a traditional carmaker. But for Tesla supporters, the company is something that symbolizes something far more. The company represents some degree of optimism, and that is something that is pretty rare these days. Elon Musk and Tesla will likely be polarizing for years to come, but the company has 1 million reasons and counting that prove its naysayers wrong.
Here’s to the next million, and many more to come.
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his social media platform X on Sunday to remind everyone that the Roadster’s true meaning is not about company growth or adding dollars to shareholders’ pockets. Sometimes, you just do things because you can.
Following the Roadster’s epic unveiling event last Thursday, skeptics and critics of the company or the project itself came out to say that the vehicle is a pointless project because it is not geared toward growing the company, delivering supreme margins for profitability, nor does it contribute to the big picture of Artificial/Super Intelligence.
But that’s just the thing: Roadster is not meant to be some shareholder dream; it’s meant to be a vehicle that people buy just because it is something awesome, unique, and the first of its kind.
Tesla Roadster: Three configs, one can fly, 0-60 in 0.8 seconds
Musk had to remind those who are skeptical about the Roadster’s importance to the company mission that while it is not a major contributor to Tesla’s long-term goals, it is something that is being built just because it can be:
“Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value. The only things that will scale to incredible size (K2 and beyond) economically are super intelligence, robots, solar power, and mass to space. And, of course, if you have the first two, the rest will follow. But Roadster is super cool, so we’re doing it anyway.”
Musk has said on many occasions that Optimus would be the project that would make up the vast majority of Tesla’s value in the coming years.
Robotics will be a major focus of Tesla over the coming years, especially as Musk believes Optimus will enable work to be optional for humans and will enable what he calls “High Universal Income.”
Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value.
The only things that will scale to incredible size (K2 and beyond) economically are super intelligence, robots, solar power and mass to space.
And, of course, if you have the first two, the rest will follow.
But Roadster is super cool, so we’re doing it anyway.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2026
Cybercab will be a passive income opportunity for owners, Musk and Tesla have said for a very long time, as a fleet of self-driving vehicles will operate within a ride-hailing Robotaxi service that won’t require a human driver to be present.
Tesla investors are more than enthusiastic about the company’s future projects, at least from a general consensus perspective. However, it is important to note that the Roadster is a fun and cool project that pushes the boundaries of what people thought was possible for an automobile.
What we saw last week was the first true example of a flying car, and despite the backlash about how it might not contribute to Tesla’s grand ambitions, it’s okay to have fun sometimes, too.
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reminds everyone about Roadster’s true meaning
SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions
Tesla Roadster: Three configs, one can fly, 0-60 in 0.8 seconds
