calisnow
Banned
Actually there is another way.
Let Musk be the visionary. Let him dazzle us with his dreams that may one day come true.
Train him to speak slightly differently as he dazzles us
At the same time, develop an effective Communications Team that can take Musk's dreams, run them by their internal experts (software, hardware, manufacturers, operational people, legal, etc) and come up with an implementation strategy that is feasible. Then communicate that to the public.
For instance:
Current Tesla:
(Tweet from Musk): We expect a Tesla will drive from SF to NYC without human input by December 2017!"
(no other communication, so this solidifies from "dream" to "expectation")
My proposed Tesla
(Tweet from Musk): I'm hoping that we can have a Tesla drive from SF to NYC without human input in the very near future! (slightly different wording, but still conveys Musk's vision)
Tesla Communications Team/PR/Speaker: "In our quest to fulfill our vision, Tesla's current time frame is to have AP2 cars reach parity with AP1 cars by XXX date. After this, we will roll out features in this order. A. B. C. This is our current progress on initiative X,Y, and Z. Here are our current hurdles, and how we anticipate overcoming them. For more information, please see the official Press Release at Teslamotors.com"
This sir, is why you do not run Tesla. What a plan - run your vision by a committee and ask THEM what is feasible. Let a bunch of humans who depend on you for their paycheck tell you what they think they may be able to accomplish with the limited knowledge they have available before they begin a project and encounter unknowns. Then feed the message through a professional corporate mouthpiece trained in the art of using as many words as possible to say almost nothing and hedge your bets. All so you don't tick off a few irrelevant nerds on a message board in an obscure corner of the internet.
Yeahhhh baby. That's the ticket.
Uh....No thanks. I'll take Musk's approach any day of the week: "We are now going to the stars." So they miss, and land on the moon. Vs "Where can we go, committee?" "Uh sir we will schedule a working group with a feedback round and get back to you in six weeks. The moon may be possible on this graduated multipart plan that Ed from engineering will share with you in a 45 minute PowerPoint presentation Wednesday morning."
Sheesh