Transcript: Who Is the Cybertruck For Anyway?

What happens when Elon Musk’s formula for success goes wrong? In this episode of Elon, Inc., we explore the shortcomings of the Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling venture, with Bloomberg reporter Sarah McBride. As Bloomberg Businessweek reported, Boring Co. workers say Musk has achieved little in the way of actual innovations and has mostly focused on cutting corners (often at their expense, allegedly). Later on the podcast, we talk to Hannah Elliott, co-host of the Hot Pursuit! podcast, about her recent review of the Tesla Cybertruck. Elliott had been skeptical of Musk’s weird retro-futuristic pickup, but she mostly liked it. Finally, we dive into a feud with a possible happy ending—Piegate.

David Papadopoulos: Welcome to Elon, Inc., Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk. It's February 27th, 2024. I'm your host, David Papadopoulos. The Boring Company is Elon's mass transit gambit. According to Musk, it's supposed to take us from New York City to Washington, D.C. in just 30 minutes with a high speed underground transportation system. So a fast train, more or less. But a new piece from Bloomberg BusinessWeek tells a story of scarring, chemical burns, broken promises, and little progress beyond a glorified shuttle bus system built for the Las Vegas Convention Center. We'll talk about that today, but we also have better news for Elon. The Cybertruck is good. Hannah Elliott will join us to talk about her review of Elon's hotly debated futuristic pickup. We start with Boring though. And then to do that, I am joined here in the studio by Max Chafkin, Bloomberg BusinessWeek Reporter. Hello, Max.