Elon Musk and Bill Gates have a lot in common, all things considered. They’re both titans of American industry, regarded as true pioneers in their respective fields and, in their own way, passionate about saving humanity.
However, the pair do seem to differ is in the class and dignity stakes, judging by the needless barb thrown Gates’ way, over the Microsoft founder’s decision not to buy a Tesla.
Gates was asked about his purchase of a $185,000 Porsche Taycan, his first electric car, in a recent YouTube interview. Naturally he was then asked why he didn’t opt for a Tesla.
“I have to say, it’s a premium price car but it is very, very cool. That’s my first electric car and I’m enjoying it a lot,” Gates said during his chat with Marques Brownlee last week. He added: “Tesla, if you had to name one company that’s helped drive that, it’s them.”
Musk’s response? The tweet below, in response to a thread from the Tesletter account, also questioning Gates’ decision.
My conversations with Gates have been underwhelming tbh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2020
Underwhelming? That’s not very nice now is it? Musk didn’t clarify his remarks were a joke afterwards, although we can’t rule out some shared context between the two tech billionaires.
This isn’t the first time Elon has made pointed remarks about fellow tech big wigs; he previously called Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “limited”. And lets not forget the unsavoury comments about a British diver who, like Gates, didn’t feel like using a Tesla product for the task at hand. Musk may take us all to Mars and a utopian human society one day, but he could be a little nicer about it, surely?
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Back to the matter at hand, the Tesletter site expressed concern that Gates had mentioned range anxiety in his interview with Brownlee. They seemed concerned others might take too much note and not buy an EV.
I was disappointed when Bill mentioned range anxiety. 99% of the days when you do a commute that is less than 200+ miles you don't have to spend time charging.
If takes 5 min to put gas and you do it once a week you now have 260 min (or ~1,500 miles) for Supercharging @elonmusk
— Tesletter (@tesletter) February 18, 2020
You can see the full interview with Gates below:
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.