With Elon Musk at the helm of Tesla, SpaceX, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, what else can he do?

After Tesla’s recent acquisition of Solar City and the announcement of Tesla Power, the company looks to expand ever further into the adoption of renewable energy in order to accelerate a sustainable future for all. Elon isn’t concerned with simply producing a product. He is concerned with incentivizing a cultural and environmental revolution. Musk wants societal reformation, seeking fundamental infrastructural change. Despite single handedly producing a newfound appreciation for space exploration and sustainable transport, there is still one thing that Musk and particularly Tesla can do.

Reaching a 1 trillion dollar market cap for any company is difficult, but Elon looks well on his way to doing that through more than one venture (Both SpaceX and Tesla being evident and perhaps imminent examples.)

One lesson simply stated goes “If you want to reach a billion dollars you first need to invent something for a billion people.” The same applies for initiative aiming to achieve 1Trillion. SpaceX is doing just this, and Tesla as well. It’s imperative that you attack a global industry, and have customers that are willing to pay. Thankfully, there is of course, one hugely underserved issue enormous enough to satisfy this need with direct opportunity inline with the mission of Tesla, Solar City, The Boring Company, Hyperloop and more.

“Solar Freaking Roadways”

That’s right, Tesla should build a Solar Roadway, with the technology it has in house from Solar City, to redefine the global transportation system while reaching a trillion dollar (and likely well beyond) market value within the next 10 years. It’s the perfect union of technology, problem and purpose serving both Elon and the entire world.

So Who Is Going To Pay?

Luckily this too offers a simple solution. The US government alone spends nearly 50 BN a year on highway and travel infrastructure. Most of this money is wasted through upkeep, maintenance and outdated roadways utilizing sub-standard technology. In total, the US Spent 416 BN on highways, mass transit and rail, aviation, and utilities in 2014.

The market cap for global infrastructure is roughly 4 Trillion annually, expected to grow to over 9 Trillion in 2025, making Tesla one of the only well equipped companies able to deploy this technology at scale. There is no such thing as too much infrastructural spending with average GDP spend often fluctuating between 2 & 9% annually in both developed and developing nations alike. After agriculture, education, and health, infrastructure is the 4th largest total sector for all countries globally, and growing.

The historical spend for US roadways adjusted for inflation is somewhere north of 25 Trillion and usually accounts for between .3% and .5% of US GDP per year.

But that’s not all.

Number of Jobs Created

Two-thirds of the country’s major roads are in poor condition and a quarter of its bridges require major repair. Fixing these problems could create a considerable number of new jobs, adding to the 14.5 million workers already in the workforce ranging from construction to plant operation.

With Trump proposing up to $1 trillion of spending over a decade on building roads, bridges, ports, and schools, it becomes a no-brainer for Tesla to get involved.

Where Have We Seen This Before?

China put in over 8.5 percent of GDP into infrastructure in the 1990s and 2000s. While the country has had its share of bridges to nowhere,for the most part the new investments have helped support key economic initiatives in growth and development. The associated economic increase has yielded an average of roughly 8 percent per year speaking to the program’s success.

Japan spent $6.3 trillion, or an annual 4.7 percent of GDP, on roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects during the same time. This is a huge market and a never ending need.

In transport, investment is needed in driverless technologies, alternative fuels, shareable vehicle networks, traffic analytics, and transit-oriented development. All of which aid in the mission of companies like Tesla, Solar City, The Boring Company and Hyperloop.

Smart Highways Of The Future

Given the opportunity to create a new global transportation system why not allow Tesla to develop both on land and underground infrastructure for connected highways, incorporating Tesla, The Hyperloop and The Boring Company all at once.

Not to mention the benefits of repurposing or re-architecting the entire fundamental infrastructure to include purpose built cells with mass computation and sensors, capable of deploying state of the art AI and autonomous protocols directly into the road. That is not all. Other major corporations such as Google, Facebook, AT&T and Verizon might be interested in laying new fiber and 5G+ technology for the future of connectivity and bandwith across the US. Companies like Intel and AMD can install and supply new CPU’s for the worlds largest connected computer infrastructure. The list goes on.

Establishing a smart solar roadway is not only an option but an imperative and could make the greatest impact on climate change in energy, transport, and land, as well. With a completely electrified, autonomous fleet, the primary sources of CO2 emissions being agriculture and automobiles would greatly reduce. This is the logical next step for both Elon and innovation.

To The Future & Beyond

Beyond simply building smart highways, there is tremendous opportunity for Elon to concurrently develop a unified infrastructure concerning both The Boring Company and Hyperloop alike. By repurposing or rebuilding America’s roads, Elon could just as easily bore 4–5 tunnel depths below the surface capable creating an unseen, unobtrusive, underground super-highway. Although Elon’s initial proposal calls for a trolly system capable of operating at speeds of up to 200Km/hr, the theoretical limit and potential of this technology far exceeds the limitations of modern transport. Elon could just as easily co-develop The Boring Company below and the Hyperloop above, or directly to the side of the already established, hyper-networked freeways to become solar ready.

Free Energy For All

The benefits don’t stop there.

The energy derived from the implications of a solar roadway are more than exciting. The US (given that energy distribution occurs locally due to poor storage and transmission) would still theoretically allow the entire country to function on renewable power. Either as a service of Tesla or a public expenditure subsidized by the government, all individuals could have limitless capacity forever, for free.

The amount of solar panels needed to create infinite energy for all is less than .6% of available land.

The Endless Benefits of Solar Roadways

New Jobs

AI and Autonomous Ready Infrastructure

Clean Energy for All

Updated and Future Proof Materials, Connectivity and Bandwith.

An Opportunity to Reconstruct and Redesign Global Transport.

The Hyperloop.

The Boring Company.

This Is Just The Beginning

Let’s get Elon on board… ;)

Especially concerning his new announcement regarding the Hyperloop today!

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