Elon Musk tries to help, but does not always succeed

Musk’s comments were a response to an Business Insider interview with Unsworth on Sunday. The original tweet and a second one doubling down on the message were later deleted. Musk soon started a “Twitter argument over how much credit he deserved for offering to help save the youths”, writes The Washington Post.

“This has nothing to do with defending Tesla”, said Erik Gordon, a business and law professor at the University of MI.

“I can’t let it go”.

The letter comes two days after Musk tweeted an unfounded and disparaging claim about Vernon Unsworth, an expert caver who participated in the rescue mission that saved 12 boys and their soccer coach who spent almost three weeks trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. The submarine was not used.

“It wouldn’t have made the first fifty metres into the cave… just a PR stunt”, Mr Unsworth said.

Musk had earlier triggered controversy after tweeting that the Thai rescue chief, who had declined the submarine prototype offer, was not really in charge of the operation. He then said, “bet ya a signed dollar it’s true”.

Unsworth told the Guardian on Monday he was “astonished and very angry” at the online abuse he had received from a very rich tech billionaire. After the tweet, Tesla’s stock took a hit, in a now familiar pattern.

It’s not the first time that Musk has made baseless claims about critics.

Tesla has had delays in bringing the Model 3 to market due to bottlenecks and the firm is rumored to need to raise more money from investors to avoid a cash crunch.

Elon Musk can’t follow his own advice.

“He was the guy who mapped most of that cave”, he said.

Mr Musk did not back down when challenged.

Elon Musk has been on a tear this year.

Mr Musk has cultivated reputation as a creative genius, with some comparisons to another technology star known for being erratic, the late Apple-co-founder Steve Jobs. Patty Crocker, aka @shehulkjd, tweeted: “My husband, whose dream auto was a Tesla.is now reading Musk’s donations in shock”.

What do you think of Elon Musk’s “pedo” comment and the revelation that he’s funded a Republican PAC? “Because no one believes you any more”. Tesla shares fell from $318.87 on Friday’s close to $307.20 in after-hours trading on Monday, Reuters reports, stripping nearly $2 billion from the company’s market value.

However, Tesla customers tend to be people with high levels of disposable income who are also concerned about climate change and pollution.

“You can’t be doing yourself any favour minimally by creating this kind of a distraction, and at worst raising questions about your credibility”, he said. “I will correct it”, added the CEO showing humility and self-awareness.

There have also been larger issues involving Tesla.

Musk’s Tesla has never earned an annual profit.

“If he does the right thing, he can recover from this”, Mr Moorhead said.