《60分钟》回顾：将 Tesla Model S 与其他汽车相比，就像将 iPhone 与台式电话相比。它是一项技术奇迹，从零加速到时速60英里仅需4秒，疾驰于路面之上。Tesla 是埃隆·马斯克头脑中诞生的又一个革命性构想。这位42岁的硅谷企业家，用小男孩梦想中的事物——跑车和火箭飞船——建立了一个工业帝国。马斯克是一位理想主义者。他告诉我们，他必须创办这些公司，让人类能够殖民火星并拯救地球。他的妹妹说，仿佛她哥哥穿越到了未来，又回来把一切告诉我们。那么未来是什么样子？显然，它速度很快，而且没有烟气。Tesla Model S 由7,000个电池单元驱动，这些电池与一台电动机相连，没有发动机，没有变速箱。

没有排气管。正如这段公司视频所展示的，中控台主要是一台持续连接互联网的计算机。它拥有一批狂热的拥趸，还有一份等候名单，而埃隆·马斯克正努力缩短等候时间。这座位于北加州的高科技工厂每周生产600辆 Model S。我听过很多人对你的描述。好吧，好吧，不错。我的意思是，希望是不平衡的，希望大部分是好的。你会怎样描述自己？我通常把自己描述为工程师。基本上，我从小到大一直都在做这件事。我对那些改变世界或影响未来的事物感兴趣，也对奇妙的新技术感兴趣。当你看到它时，会惊叹：哇，这究竟是怎么发生的？这怎么可能？埃隆·马斯克怎么可能发射到不可能的

事业：制造火箭飞船的 SpaceX，以及可能成为美国90年来第一家成功创办的汽车公司的 Tesla？你当初怎么会认为自己能够创办一家汽车公司并取得成功？嗯，我其实并不认为 Tesla 会成功。我觉得我们很可能会失败，但我认为，我们至少可以纠正人们的一种错误观念，即电动汽车必然像高尔夫球车一样丑陋、缓慢又乏味。但你说自己并不指望公司成功，那为什么还要尝试？如果一件事足够重要，即使可能的结果是失败，你也应该尝试。对马斯克而言，重要的是减少温室气体，因为他认为温室气体威胁着世界。Tesla 充一次电能行驶约250英里，而马斯克

正在建设一个充电站网络，驾驶者充满电无需支付任何费用。他希望有一天这些充电站主要依靠太阳能供电。你可以永远依靠纯粹的阳光免费驾驶。这就是我们试图传达的信息。所以即使这是末日，电网瘫痪，你仍然可以给汽车充电。所以还有丧尸末日保修？是的。如果你正在逃离丧尸，知道 Model S 有1个《消费者报告》历史上最高的质量评分和政府最高的安全评级，还是很有用的。马斯克或许正在像史蒂夫·乔布斯改变手机那样改变汽车。和乔布斯一样，他是工程艺术方面的完美主义者。他的目标不是展示利润，而是揭示各种可能性。

探索的渴望也是马斯克另一类交通工具背后的动力。只有4个实体曾将太空舱送入轨道并成功带回：美国、俄罗斯、中国和埃隆·马斯克。这个巴克·罗杰斯式的梦想始于多年前。当时，他有一个疯狂的想法，想把一座实验温室送往火星，但他没能做到。他发现火箭的价格高得惊人，于是现在自己制造火箭。当时有那么多人试图劝我不要创办她的艺术公司，简直太疯狂了。他们对你说了什么？我的一位好友收集了一整套火箭爆炸的视频，还让我把那些视频全都看了，只是不希望我赔光所有钱。他最终没有发射那座温室，但现在，马斯克正在将商业卫星送入太空，并且

以远低于以往的成本为 NASA 向空间站运送货物。马斯克对技术的迷恋可以追溯到他在南非度过的童年。他就是觉得一切都有趣，什么都想探索。你知道，他还摔掉了牙齿，因为他总是从各种东西上掉下来。其实还来了第2本书。我们采访了他的母亲梅耶、妹妹托斯卡和弟弟金巴尔。他是一个抱负没有止境的人。想做什么的抱负？不是典型的那种抱负。更准确地说，他只是需要不断让自己的头脑得到满足。因此，他承担的问题必须随着时间推移变得越来越复杂，才能让他保持兴趣。他很早就对计算机产生了兴趣，12岁时，他编写了

一款电子游戏的软件，并违背父母的意愿将其卖掉。他把目光投向了世界软件之都。绝大多数这类东西似乎都来自美国。我也读了很多漫画书，而那些故事似乎都发生在美国。我就想，好吧，这是个好地方，我得去那里。他在宾夕法尼亚大学获得商业和物理学学位，并邀请弟弟和他一起前往加州。我们搬到硅谷时一无所有，所以实际上就住在办公室里。晚上睡在地板上，第二天早上去 YMCA 洗澡，然后在部分员工到达之前准备就绪，这样他们就不会认为

我们真的睡在那间办公室里。马斯克发明了一个程序，可以提供两个地址之间的分步路线指引。这在今天的汽车和手机上很常见，但在1995年，这就像魔法一样。4年后，他赚了2,200万美元。只有在美国才能做到，对吧？只有在美国。我同意，绝对是。接下来，他创办了一家网上银行公司，后来发展成为 PayPal，一套用于在互联网上购物的系统。你以多少钱把 PayPal 卖给了 eBay？大约10亿美元。所以，那是一个不错的结果。是个不错的结果，没错。他分得了1.8亿美元，并把全部资金押在 Tesla 和 SpaceX 上。但在37岁时，他跌入了谷底。最初几枚火箭未能进入轨道，早期型号的 Tesla Roadster 也存在质量问题。2008年，这家火箭公司

经营得并不顺利。你知道，已经失败了3次。很好。汽车公司正在大量烧钱。是的。而美国经济在大萧条以来最严重的衰退中崩溃了。对。那对你来说是什么样的？顺便说一句，我正在得到提振。再加上这一点。那绝对是我人生中最糟糕的一年。那可怕的一年被记录在纪录片《电动汽车的复仇》中。他的工厂里堆满了有缺陷、无法交付的汽车。我的天。天啊，我们这里简直有一支汽车大军。天啊，这太吓人了。现在真的必须全力以赴。我的意思是，你知道，每过去1个月，实际上都会让我们付出数千万美元的代价。我的意思是，我们必须意识到这一点。为了挽救 Tesla，马斯克还需要数百万美元，来自

投资者。他的财富已经耗尽。我们给别人打电话说，嘿，你愿意投资吗？他们会因为我们打了电话而生气。就像是，不，这很孤独，不，不；还有，知道，你知道，各种脏话。他基本上已经破产了。哦，是的，还负债，比破产更糟。比破产更糟。没错。我记得2008年圣诞节前的那个星期日醒来时，我心想，我从没觉得自己会是一个可能精神崩溃的人，但那是我最接近崩溃的一次，因为当时的局面看起来非常、非常黑暗。广告之后，故事继续。2008年接近尾声时，SpaceX 准备进行第4次尝试。当时我们已接近弹尽粮绝，几乎没钱了。因此，如果第4次失败……第4次失败就绝对意味着比赛

的一个。结束。完了。SpaceX 破产？是的。3次失败已经够糟了，第4次失败就真的彻底完了。但第4次飞行毫无瑕疵。在马斯克的世界里，它照亮了黑暗。[掌声] 随后，圣诞节所在的那一周一如往常，成了小男孩梦想成真的时刻。NASA 打来电话，告诉我们那份奇怪的1份15亿美元合同。我甚至拿不住那些部件。我当时就脱口而出：我爱你们。是他们救了你？是的，他们确实在财务上救了我，或许在情感上也是如此。我告诉你，那绝对很有帮助，是的。2天后的圣诞前夜，Tesla 的投资者决定投入更多资金。所以你在3天内获救了？是的。靠着2件完全出乎意料的事情？是的。圣诞快乐。

是的，绝对如此，这一点毫无疑问。此后，火箭再也没有失败过。他的货运太空舱已经与空间站对接3次。捕获确认。在加州的工厂里，他们正在安装座椅，为他们希望最终执行的载人任务做准备。SpaceX 还在测试一种可重复使用的火箭，它能依靠一道火焰柱轻柔着陆。这是漫长旅程中的又一步。我希望 SpaceX 能成为将人类带到火星的公司，也希望有生之年能够看到这一幕。他每周有3天在 SpaceX，2天在 Tesla，周末则在家陪伴第一次婚姻所生的5个儿子和第二任妻子塔露拉；他在伦敦结识了她。一切发生得非常快。我们认识大概2个十几星期后就订婚了，而当时我

22，而且当时有这么多男孩，而那是——那是最棒的部分，而且事情发展得很快，然后我们就置身其中了。你们认识了2个星期左右就订婚了？他有什么这么吸引人的地方？他非常有魅力，绝对是我见过的最有趣、最古怪的人。[音乐] Tesla 的股价飙升了近500%，但这并不是基于他如今销售的汽车。这个价格押注的是，Tesla 有望制造出一款成本仅为 Model S 三分之一的电动汽车，而 Model S 的售价约为10万美元。阻碍目标实现的就是这个。这个覆盖着塑料的板状物就是电池。所以，这基本上就是汽车的底部。前轮会在那里，后轮会在这里。它占满了

汽车的整个底部。没错，它就是这样安装在底盘底部的。问题在于电池太贵，必须无法制造出一辆续航里程可以接受、售价为$35,000的汽车。为了让 Tesla 取得成功，他必须彻底改造电池制造方式。马斯克刚刚宣布，将在美国建设一座耗资50亿美元的工厂。他说，这座工厂生产的锂离子电池将超过地球上其他所有工厂的总和。诸如此类的豪赌促使华尔街很多人做空 Tesla，建立押注 Tesla 股价下跌的投资头寸。但截至目前，这些悲观的投资者已经损失了很多钱。你身上究竟有什么特质，似乎总会招致质疑？嗯，我想这是因为我们正在做这些看起来不太可能成功的事情，而

我们很幸运，到目前为止，这些事情都成功了。

60 minutes rewind comparing the Tesla Model S to other cars is like comparing an iPhone to a desk phone it is a technological marvel that scorches the pavement zero to 60 in four seconds Tesla is another revolutionary idea from the mind of Elon Musk a 42 year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who built an industrial empire from the stuff of little boy dreams fast cars and rocket ships musk is an idealist who told us he had to start his companies so that man could colonize Mars and save the earth his sister says it's like her brother traveled into the future and came back to tell us all about it so what is the future like apparently it's fast and smoke free the Tesla Model S is powered by 7,000 battery cells linked to an electric motor no engine no transmission

no tailpipe as this company video shows the dash is dominated by a computer that's constantly connected to the Internet it has a fanatical following there's a waiting list that Elon Musk is trying to shorten building 600 Model S's a week in this high-tech plant in Northern California I have heard a lot of people describe you okay okay good I mean hopefully unbalanced hopefully mostly good how do you describe yourself I usually describe myself as an engineer that's basically what I've been doing since I was a kid I'm interested in things that that changed the world or that affect the future and wondrous new technology where you see it and you're like wow how that even happened how how's that possible how is it possible that Elon Musk could launch to impossible

businesses SpaceX a builder of rocket ships and Tesla which could be the first successful car company startup in America in 90 years how did you figure you were going to start a car company and be successfully well I didn't really think Tesla would be successful I thought we were most likely failed but I thought that we at least could address the false perception that people had that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and and boring like a golf cart but you say you didn't expect the company to be successful then why try if something is important enough used to try even if you probably outcome is failure what's important to musk is reducing greenhouse gases which he believes threaten the world the Tesla will go about 250 miles on a charge and musk

is building a network of charging stations where the driver pays nothing for a fill-up he hopes to make the stations largely solar-powered one day you can drive for free forever on pure sunlight that's the you know message we're trying to convey so even if like this is on the apocalypse and the grid breaks down you'll still be able to charge your car so there's a zombie apocalypse warranty yes and if you're running from zombies it's good to know the Model S one the highest quality rating in the history of Consumer Reports and has the government's highest safety rating musk maybe changing the car the way Steve Jobs changed the phone like jobs he's a perfectionist in the art of engineering his goal wasn't to show a profit but to reveal the possibilities

it is a desire to discover that's also behind Musk's other line of vehicles only four entities have launched a space capsule into orbit and successfully brought it back the United States Russia China and Elon Musk this Buck Rogers dream started years ago when he had a nutty idea to fly an experimental greenhouse to Mars but he couldn't he discovered that the price of rockets was astronomical so now he builds his own I had so many people try to talk me out of starting her art company it was it was crazy what did they tell you one good friend of mine collected a whole series of videos of rockets blowing up and made me watch those just didn't want me to lose all my money he never did launch that greenhouse but now musk is lofting commercial satellites and

flying cargo to the space station for NASA at a fraction of the former cost Musk's fascination with technology dates to his childhood in South Africa he was just found everything interesting he wanted to explore everything you know and knocked his teeth out because he was just falling off stuff came book two actually we spoke with his mother may sister Tosca and brother Kimball he's a guy with unlimited ambition ambition to do what not a typical type of ambition it's it's more he just needs to be constantly his mind just needs to be constantly fulfilled and the problems problems that he takes on therefore need to be can become more and more complex over time in order to keep him interested he was interested in computers early at the age of 12 he wrote

the software for a videogame and sold it against his parents wishes he set his sights on the software capital of the world it seemed like the vast majority of such things came from the United States I also like read a lot of comic books and they will seem to be set in the United States it's like well this is a good place I was where I gotta go this place he earned degrees in business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania and asked his brother to join him in California when we moved to Silicon Valley we had nothing so we actually lived in the office and we would sleep on the floor in the evening and go shower at the YMCA the next morning and then we would be ready to go before thee before some of our employees would arrive so they wouldn't think

we were actually sleeping any others in that office musk invented a program that gave step-by-step directions between addresses that's common today in cars and phones but in 1995 it was magic in four years he made 22 million dollars only in America right only in America I agree absolutely next he started an online banking firm that he grew into PayPal a system for making purchases on the Internet and you sold PayPal to eBay for what I was about one billion dollars so that that was it was good outcome a good outcome yes his share was a hundred and eighty million and he bet it all on Tesla and SpaceX but at the age of 37 he hit rock bottom his first rockets failed to reach orbit and an early model Tesla Roadster had quality problems in 2008 the rocket company

is not going well you know had three failures great the car company is hemorrhaging money yeah and the American economy has tanked in the worst recession since the Great Depression right what was that you're like for you and I'm getting a boost by the way add to that that was that was definitely at the worst year of my life that terrible year was captured in a documentary called revenge of the electric car his plant was filled with flawed cars that couldn't be delivered holy mackerel Jesus we have like an army of cars here like Jesus this is frightening it's really pedal to the metal here I mean you know each month that passes is literally costs us tens of millions of dollars I mean we need to appreciate that to save Tesla must needed millions more from

investors his fortune was gone when we'd call people and say hey would you like to invest they'd be angry that we just called it's like no it's lonely no no and knowing you know various expletives he was essentially broke oh yeah in debt more than broke more than broke yep I remember waking up the Sunday before Christmas on in 2008 and thinking to myself and I never thought I was someone who could ever be capable of a nervous breakdown and but I felt this was the closest I've ever come because it seemed pretty pretty dark the story will continue after this mark toward the end of 2008 SpaceX prepared its fourth attempt we were running on fumes at that point we had virtually no money so a fourth failure the fourth failure would have been absolutely game

of a done done SpaceX bankrupt yes it's bad enough to have three strikes having four strikes it's really kaput but flight four was flawless in Musk's world it lit the darkness [Applause] then as often the week of Christmas became a time when little boy dreams are answered NASA called and told us that weird one a one and a half billion dollar contract and I couldn't even hold the components like I just look I just blurt it out I love you guys they saved you yeah they did financially and maybe even emotionally I'll tell you what that was that that was definitely helpful yeah two days later on Christmas Eve Tesla's investors decided to pour in more money so you were saved in the period of three days yeah by two completely unexpected events yeah Merry Christmas

yeah absolutely that's for sure the Rockets haven't failed since his cargo capsule has docked three times with the space station capture is confirmed and in the California plant they're fitting seats for what they hope will be eventual manned missions SpaceX is also testing a rocket that can be reused softly landing on a column of flame another step on a longer journey I'd love to have SpaceX be the company that brings humanity to Mars and I see it while I'm still alive he's at SpaceX three days a week two days at Tesla and weekends are at home with his five sons from his first marriage and his second wife to Lula whom he met in London it all happened very fast we were we were engaged after I think sort of two teen weeks and knowing each other and I was

22 and it was there were all these boys and it was which was the best part and it was it was fast and then we were in it you knew each other two weeks something before you got engaged what was so attractive he's very charming and definitely the most interesting and eccentric person I have ever met [Music] Tesla's stock has rocketed up nearly 500 percent but that's not based on the cars he's selling today that price is counting on the hope that Tesla will create an electric car at one-third the cost of the Model S which runs about a hundred thousand dollars this is what stands in the way this slab covered in plastic is the battery so this is essentially the bottom of the car the front wheels would be there the rear wheels would be right here it fills up

the entire bottom of the car that's right this is how it fits into the bottom of the chassis trouble is the batteries so expensive must can't build a $35,000 car with acceptable range to make Tesla successful he must reinvent battery manufacturing musk has just announced a five billion dollar factory to be built in the US which he says will make more lithium-ion batteries than all the other plants on earth combined Gamble's like that have led a lot of people on Wall Street to bet against it taking investment positions that count on Tesla's stock to fail but so far those pessimistic investors have lost a lot of money what is it about you that seems to invite skepticism well I think it's because we're doing these things that seem unlikely to succeed and

we've been fortunate and these thus far they have succeeded