Elon Musk – mad genius or gone too far? 9 times Tesla's CEO stunned us

Elon Musk is best known for being a disruptor in the science and tech community. Whether it is with his ceaseless innovations in the field of electric vehicles or back to back successes in space travel. He has even conjured up a way to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to people across the world with his Starlink project, a 12,000 strong mega constellation of internet satellites that he plans to deploy over time.

Then, there is his ambitious Neuralink venture, a company he founded in 2017 to make brain control interface system a reality. Musk is also working towards developing an alternate mode of transportation through his California-based infrastructure and tunnel construction firm The Boring Company.

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And let’s not forget that the serial tech entrepreneur also invested in OpenAI through which he hopes to keep a check on ongoing developments and prevent potential abuse of the burgeoning technology. When not innovating or disrupting the state of affairs, Tesla's founder is known to invest deeply in memes and flamethrowers.

Every now and then, he also loves to shake up the Twitter-verse with his cryptic posts and comments. Love him or not, you simply cannot ignore Musk.

Here are nine times he left the tech universe stunned with his genius innovations and not-so-conventional ideas.

1. Leaving many surprised, on February 6, 2018, Musk launched the inaugural flight of his Falcon Heavy rocket. Accompanying this landmark moment was a spacesuit-donning mannequin the Starman holding the reins to Musk’s cherry red Tesla Roadster.

2. Earlier this year, Musk stepped up his game announcing the upcoming launch of self-driving robotaxis in the US. If his words are any indication, these ambitious robotaxis should arrive latest by 2020.

3. The CEO didn’t think twice before joining the #DeleteFacebook movement and removed Tesla's and SpaceX's pages from the social media website. This was in the light of the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal.

4. A pop culture fan, Musk once had people believe that “when the zombie apocalypse happens, you will be glad you bought a flamethrower” as it “works against hordes of the undead”. In case that didn’t work, he even guaranteed a full refund.

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5. Realising that his statement might now have gone down well with conspiracy theorists, Musk later clarified that any rumours of him creating a “zombie apocalypse to generate demand for flamethrowers is completely false.”

6. The many achievements of Musk and his aerospace company SpaceX have managed to get the younger generation interested in the ‘space and the beyond’. Especially, when it comes to the rocket launches, the Tesla founder has proven to be repeatedly successful in recovering his rocket boosters, thus cutting down the cost of space exploration.

7. In a bid to make the red planet more habitable for the human race, Elon Musk recently said that he would Nuke Mars to make the planet warm.

8. In 2015, Musk joined an illustrious list of space personalities such as Stephen Hawking, Mike Massimino, and Leonard Nimoy, when he made a cameo on an episode of popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

9. And last but not the least, that time when Musk had the collective Indian Twitterati lose its cool after posting a GIF from Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone starring Bollywood hit, Padmavat.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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