OPINION: See the full picture before bashing Elon Musk

Tesla chief and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. His involvement with the Thai cave rescue effort has been a topic of debate, and many interwoven allegations rose over the last week. Was Musk’s commitment just a PR stunt? Did his ‘expensive toy’ render any value to rescue operations? Did he bash the rescuers? Beyond the morals and the narratives, let’s look at the whole story before taking aim at the SpaceX head.

While many media outlets reported in parts, the entire plot was missed in the course of the whole incident and its aftermath. So let’s just analyze each of these aspects in the best way possible – but this time with context, as it should have been in the first place.

A. Musk was asked to help

While the billionaire took the blame for a plethora of reasons, many assumed that Elon Musk took it upon himself to offer help. However, it seems that is not the case.

Take this tweet for example:

Unless there's an opportunity for him to showoff the cool technologies SpaceX can build – like the "kid-sized" submarine for cave rescue – I doubt he'll do anything about the kids at the border 😔

— Vivianne Castillo (@vcastillo630) July 8, 2018

Here Elon is asked why he has not solved a border-control situation when there are elected officials and experts who are trying to figure it out. Is this Elon Musk’s job? No. Did he get bashed for not doing it? Yes.

The person who tweeted this expects the billionaire who handles three-to-four major firms to take free time to expressively solve issues – one that includes national security in this case.

Now, the obvious question is, then why did Musk take up the Thai rescue issue.

The kids in Thailand went missing on June 23. When Musk got involved, it was at least a week old and major national news. And here’s a tweet when he was asked to. On July the 3rd.

I suspect that the Thai govt has this under control, but I’m happy to help if there is a way to do so

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2018

Elon Musk, in his character of responding to requests for help on Twitter, dutifully replied the next morning. And when he started talking about it, many others started listening. He started a public discourse on it, but this time hinting that the best engineering minds that work for him are put to good use. He opens the platform for ideas, and assigns a team to work on the practical aspect of it. Pro bono.

B. The ‘expensive toy’ was not useless

Social media armchair activists were quick to attack Musk when he unveiled plans for a mini-submarine to help rescue efforts. Somehow, the critics seem to have forgotten that caves and maneuvering them are part of Musk’s domain with many of his engineers working under the banner of The Boring Company.

https://twitter.com/NarayananVI/status/1016638903707578368

The former Thai provincial governor (described inaccurately as “rescue chief”) is not the subject matter expert. That would be Dick Stanton, who co-led the dive rescue team. This is our direct correspondence: pic.twitter.com/dmC9l3jiZR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2018

However, Narongsak Osotthanakorn, who was transitioning out as the provincial governor, said on BBC: “Even though their equipment is technologically sophisticated, it doesn’t fit with our mission to go in the cave.”

It was not that Musk’s design was useless. It’s that the device did not fit into their plan – a different one that did not involve outside help from the billionaire. It seemed more like the mini-sub came in too late to be part of the rescue efforts.

However, the Thai Navy was more than happy for the tech, with Musk even loaning his engineers to tutor them how to use the device for future ops.

Glad to hear that. Engineering team also getting feedback from the British dive team on how to improve the design for future applications.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2018

C. The ‘pedo’ comment that Musk allegedly used to refer to the rescuers

Yes, Musk loses his cool almost every time. Remember the last earnings call, after which the Tesla CEO bashed analysts? But he gives credit where it’s due.

Here, he tweeted, not once, not twice, but thrice in support of the Thai rescue team – even mentioning the generator and pump teams later on.

Extremely talented dive team. Makes sense given monsoon. Godspeed. https://t.co/t5XRo3gTxK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2018

Continue to be amazed by the bravery, resilience & tenacity of kids & diving team in Thailand. Human character at its best.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2018

Great news that they made it out safely. Congratulations to an outstanding rescue team!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2018

Yes. Caves are now filled with water again. Difficulty of passage is massively dependent on water level. Little kids can walk/swim in when low, but it can be deadly to pro divers when high. Pump & generator engineering team deserves some credit for the rescue.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2018

Now, about Elon losing his cool. A few years ago, Vern Unsworth, a retired British expat living in Chiang Rai was exploring the same cave system the boys went missing. This helped him predict where they were, helping rescue efforts. He also aided in bringing in experts in cave diving for the rescue.

However, he went on record to simply bash Musk’s efforts. Why he did it, was still a mystery.

Cave rescuer on Musk: “It was a PR stunt. It had no chance of working.” pic.twitter.com/uPgRMQLkRx

— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) July 13, 2018

Naturally, Musk lost it.

With his knowledge of Chiang Rai, where Unsworth lives, being alleged as a place for sex tourism, trafficking and child prostitution in general, the Tesla chief factored that in his rather crass and generalized bashing. While this is no defense for his words, it wasn’t random. But they need to be condemned.

However, the whole story needs to be told. There might be more, but the active culture for bashing Musk and gaining clicks from it prevails, drowning out most of the balance.

At the end of the day, Musk worked on a backup plan. Yes, it did not get implemented. But did he deliver? You can now figure the answer to that one on your own.

This reaction has shaken my opinion of many people. We were asked to create a backup option & worked hard to do so. Checked with dive team many times to confirm it was worthwhile. Now it’s there for anyone who needs it in future. Something’s messed up if this is not a good thing.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2018

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