The Emperor’s New Rockets: Deconstructing the Musk Mythology

The Business Reality Behind the Hype

Elon Musk’s carefully cultivated image as a technological visionary masks a far more problematic business record characterized by chronic overpromising and underdelivering. Tesla, despite its market capitalization, took nearly two decades to achieve consistent profitability — and even then through questionable accounting practices and regulatory credit sales rather than sustainable manufacturing excellence. The company’s quality control issues remain notorious, with Consumer Reports and J.D. Power consistently flagging Tesla vehicles for reliability problems far exceeding industry averages.

Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology represents perhaps the most flagrant case of technological misrepresentation in modern business. Since 2016, Musk has repeatedly claimed that fully autonomous Teslas were imminent — “definitely” coming within months or a year. These statements, made to investors, customers, and the public, have proven consistently false for eight consecutive years. Rather than …