Elon Musk Once Again Challenges the World To Dream Big

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely already seen the news that another one of Elon Musk’s companies just made history. This time it was Tesla corporation, and they just showcased a flying car.

Check out their event video here announcing the new Tesla Roadster:

NO this isn’t AI, YES Tesla made a Flying Car.

 

The World Now Has Flying Cars

Funnily enough, I was standing in a line at Tokyo Disneyland when I heard a group of Japanese kids nearby laughing and cheering at their smartphones, watching the video of the Tesla Roadster flying in the air. I checked my phone and watched the event video myself and had to laugh as well. Elon had done it again - made a dream of my childhood a reality.

I then turned the phone to my daughter and told her:

“Honey, Elon just made a flying car”.

And she said: “The rocket guy? This isn’t AI?” 

No This Isn’t AI

While it is pretty awesome for an 80’s kid like me to finally see a flying car - I loved the Jetsons – there’s actually much more going on here than a meme coming true.

Elon has once again challenged the world to dream big. He’s showing everyone that if you can dream it, it’s possible. And he’s also shown his competition in business what true innovation looks like.

In the 90’s and early 2000’s - if I asked you to say the first word that comes to mind when I mention the word innovative, most people would have said “Apple” or “Jobs”  without much hesitation.

Now, in the 2020’s - most people would say “Elon” or “Musk”.

Innovation vs. De-innovation by Design

When I was growing up, Apple was the leading innovator around. From their computers, to software, to devices, to own an Apple product meant you had the best of the best. The reputation Apple and Steve Jobs cultivated over decades was one of bleeding edge innovation with customer satisfaction at the pinnacle of focus. But I believe they’ve lost their way, and the new leader on innovation is now Elon Muck and his various companies.

Watch this one minute clip and then ask yourself - when was the last time you felt this for an Apple product?

When will we see an Apple Innovation on par with this again?

 

A True Friend of Apple

Now you might be thinking that I’m picking on Apple, but that’s not what I’m doing – I’m actually a huge fan of Apple. I currently own several iPhones and personally use my MacBook for business.

But as the famous saying goes – “a real friend will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.”

Even Mark Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan spoke to this - calling out how Apple really hasn’t had a major innovation in many years and are overly restrictive on their support for 3rd party integrations - something they’re thankfully starting to remedy.

Here is the important part of the interview: 

Mark Was Trying to Help Apple With His Comments Here

 

iPhone Owners

Let's dig a bit deeper with a few more questions:

How do you feel when you see a new iOS update is available for your iPhone?

Are you Happy, Indifferent or Dreading the update? 

Or, do you instead speak some dark humor about having to buy new power cords or fearing the decreased battery life on your current iPhone with a new one on the way?

Apple Watch Owners

What about the Apple Watch?

If I told you Apple is announcing a new Apple Watch next week - what are you hoping they add to the series?

Do you even know what they added in the last generation?

De-innovation by Design

The sad truth is - Apple really hasn’t innovated their main products such as their iPhone or Apple Watch for years. This has left many of their most die-hard fans wondering what happened.

There are also countless memes showcasing Apple’s UX fiddling with constant logo and icon iteration - keeping designers at Apple employed - but offering confusion to customers with no long-term value creation. This is high-cost overhead with low ROI - except internet mockery.

And what about the endless camera phone upgrades to justify a new device? Few consumers are asking for this and declining sales are confirming this as well. Consumers despise this kind of low-value iteration and will jump ship when a viable opportunity arises.

 

Starlink for Smart Phones

To make matters worse for Apple, Elon Musk has now set his sights on this stagnant product mix.

SpaceX recently filed an application with the FCC to acquire a nationwide portfolio of 800 MHz low-band spectrum (up to 14 MHz of paired frequencies) from digital infrastructure firm Grain Management.
This filing represents the final piece of SpaceX’s push to turn Starlink Mobile into a standalone national wireless carrier.

The Two Frequency Layers in SpaceX's Strategy

SpaceX is combining two distinct spectrum tiers to eliminate the traditional limitations of satellite-to-phone connectivity:

• 800 MHz Low-Band (The Recent Filing): Purpose: Indoor and obstacle penetration.
  • Satellite signals traditionally struggle to reach phones inside buildings, vehicles, or dense tree cover. Low-frequency 800 MHz waves travel long distances and easily pass through walls, roofs, and windows.
  • Elon Musk characterized securing this nationwide low-band slice as the final regulatory step needed to provide unbroken phone coverage anywhere in the United States.
• 2 GHz Mid-Band (EchoStar Spectrum): Purpose: High-speed data capacity.
  • The FCC approved SpaceX’s acquisition of 65 MHz of nationwide 2 GHz AWS spectrum transferred from EchoStar/Dish.
  • This mid-band spectrum delivers the bandwidth required for video streaming, fast downloads, and web browsing, functioning as the high-capacity backbone.

Key Takeaways from the FCC Developments

• FCC Greenlight for 15,000 Dedicated Satellites: Alongside the spectrum deals, the FCC officially approved SpaceX’s application to launch a dedicated fleet of 15,000 "V2 Mobile" direct-to-device satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). These satellites feature massive phased-array antennas designed to be deployed aboard Starship.
• No Special Hardware Needed: Because these frequencies fall within standard cellular bands, the network operates directly with existing, unmodified consumer smartphones - this means no dongles, satellite dishes, or custom antenna cases required.
• Shift from Partner to Competitor: SpaceX originally pitched Starlink direct-to-cell as a supplemental roaming partner to terrestrial carriers (such as T-Mobile) to eliminate remote dead zones. Now, by acquiring its own proprietary nationwide 800 MHz and 2 GHz spectrum licenses, SpaceX is building a hybrid satellite/terrestrial network capable of competing directly with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile as an independent fourth nationwide carrier.

Is An Amazon Competitor Next?

Folks at Amazon better watch out - did you catch Elon saying that he may just spin up an Amazon competitor - designed to be SI-bot-first?

Maybe we should start a competitor to Amazon 🤔

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026

Don’t take this as mere jest. Often, I suspect Elon says things like this before he has something to show.

Elon’s Impact on Innovation

Companies competing with Elon’s businesses need to consider that he and his teams are simply operating at a different level. Something that many of us were saying about Apple in the 90’s and 2000’s. 

But what does it mean to operate at a different level? Playing chess while others play checkers?

To explain the way I see things I remembered a line delivered by Kevin Costner in the movie JFK. To set the scene, you have Costner playing DA Jim Garrison investigating the JFK assassination. He’s trying to convey to his team of lawyers that they’re up against something much bigger than a rival firm or even a major criminal. 

"You all got to start thinkin' on a different level - like the CIA does. Now, we're through the lookin' glass here, people. White is black, and black is white." [1]

Kevin Costner's character is trying to rally his team of lawyers to break free of the prison of their own minds and guardrails of what’s possible, and consider far-outside the norm of thinking, different level thinking like the CIA does. 

A Personal Example 

This concept of operating on a “different  level” also reminds me of the personal experience I had almost 25 years ago, but one that obviously stuck with me ever since. In a small way, this single conversation changed the way I thought about money and power, and influence. 

Back around 2000, I used to build websites for a man named Bruce Milne of the Corum Group up in Seattle Washington. Bruce is a very nice man, and despite his enormous success, always struck me as a down to earth person. And he was very generous with his time. 

On one trip up to Seattle to meet with him, he picked me and my business partner up in a beat up suburban truck. Now I knew Bruce was a wealthy guy and so being the outspoken kid I was at the time, I said to him something like:

“Bruce why did you pick us up in this piece of crap, don’t you have a nice car?”

To which Bruce in his aged wisdom schooled my dumbass for life when he said, 

“Mark, I don’t play with cars, I play with boats.” 

I soon saw exactly what he meant. Bruce at the time owned (2) 100+ft yachts which he rented to celebrities occasionally for getaway adventures. What Bruce was nicely conveying to me was a life lesson and not unlike what Jim Garrison was telling his team of lawyers: Some people in the world reach a point where they are operating on an entirely different level than others. 

Elon Musk is clearly one of these people - and regardless of how you feel about his personal politics, this is something to respect.

Elon’s Operating Level

Elon is operating at a different level of thinking than many of his peer CEO’s in the US tech space. His imagination is being made real through his various companies, and those who wish to compete with him and his vision will need to start thinking more like he does and elevate their approach in several ways. 

• Innovation does not just mean iteration.
• Risk isn’t to be feared but bested.
• Failure has always been the best way to learn.

Elon continues to expand his influence in many ways, from Biology with Neuralink, SpaceX with Space & Military, Tesla with Transportation & Automation, X and Xcart (potential future competitor to Amazon) with Media & Digital Marketing.

 

Giving People Back Their Voice

To highlight yet another one of Musk’s companies groundbreaking achievements, I would like to show you this video from Neuralink. 

The video below showcases Terry, a man who was diagnosed with bulbar-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the video shows how Neuralink has given him his voice back - through his thoughts! Neuralink has literally figured out how to read minds

Reading Minds Used to Be Science Fiction

 

The Wrap up - Look Past The Flying Car

Elon is bombastic, polarizing, and deliberately shocking. But with many industries sliding into safe, corporate complacency, that is exactly what a disruptive CEO has to be: an unapologetic force multiplier for attention.

True innovation doesn't whisper; it commands the room. To sustain that momentum, a leader has to:

• Rally the ranks: Give internal teams a mission audacious enough to ignite genuine obsession.
• Electrify the base: Turn casual buyers into active evangelists.
• Starve the competition: Suck all the oxygen out of the media cycle so competitors are perpetually left reacting.
• Redefine what’s possible: Prove that technical boundaries are merely suggestions.

Tesla’s flying car isn’t just a product tease - it is psychological warfare against de-innovation.

Look past the spectacle.

The deeper message directed at stagnant competitors and cynical naysayers is simple: while you are busy managing risk, nothing is out of our reach.

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A Bit More About the Tesla Roadster

Tesla unveiled the production-intent second-generation Roadster at a SpaceX test facility in Texas, introducing three distinct configurations and a revised deposit structure.

Pricing & Reservation Structure

Tesla has not yet published an official final MSRP for any trim, but has established a tiered reservation deposit ladder:

• Performance: $50,000 reservation deposit ($5,000 initial card payment, followed by a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days).

• Thrust: $250,000 reservation deposit ($5,000 card payment, followed by a $245,000 wire transfer).

• Rocket: Invitation-only, with private allocation terms and no public deposit schedule announced.

(For context, the 2017 prototype was originally announced with a $200,000 base price and $250,000 Founders Series price before Tesla removed list pricing from its site).

Trim Levels & Performance Specs

Key Technical Highlights

• Cold-Gas Thruster System: The Rocket package replaces the rear cargo area and passenger seating with high-pressure composite tanks and SpaceX cold-gas thruster nozzles. These thrusters fire compressed gas to augment cornering grip, boost straight-line acceleration, and execute brief, controlled low-altitude hops and rotational maneuvers.

• Shift from 2017 Concept: While the 2017 concept car advertised a 2+2 seating layout and a 620-mile range via a massive 200 kWh battery pack, the production iteration shifted toward light weigh, a 2-seat (or 1-seat) layout, and a ~300-mile pack optimized for discharge rate and thrust integration.

• Production Schedule: While the production-intent car and stunts were demonstrated live, customer deliveries have not yet begun. Elon Musk stated that commercial production is slated to start in 2028.