X

Every Elon Musk project right now

He wants to end traffic gridlock, send people to Mars and bring solar energy to everybody. And he's got the cash to do it.

Leslie Gornstein
Leslie Gornstein is a senior editor with CBS Interactive. For the past two decades, she's covered consumer and B-to-B tech; biotech; entertainment and various other subjects that seemed interesting at the time. She's the author of The A-List Playbook (Skyhorse) and she lives in Los Angeles.
Leslie Gornstein
"RACING EXTINCTION" Premiere At The Sundance Film Festival - 2015 Park City
1 of 23 Lily Lawrence/Getty Images

5-minute commutes? Colonies on Mars? AI that won't kill us? Hey, thanks, Elon!

You probably know Elon Musk as the guy who makes Tesla electric cars or maybe as the billionaire who dreams of launching a Mars colony.

But his projects don't end there. Hate traffic gridlock? Do you fear that Skynet will turn us all into human batteries? Fret not. Musk wants to tackle alllllll of it.

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2 of 23 Screenshot by Mike Sorrentino/CNET

Flamethrowers

Musk's Boring Company, founded in late 2016, generated excitement when it launched a line of branded flamethrowers on Musk's Instagram. The digging company sold 15,000 flamethrowers in just a few days, netting $7.5 million.

Why? Probably because they can, at least for now. In January 2017, California state lawmakers were mulling a bill to block the sale of flamethrowers and large blowtorches in the state.

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3 of 23 The Boring Co.

Car elevators

The Boring Co. also wants to turn 2D traffic jams into 3D, underground road networks. His plan? Bore tunnels under the Earth, and then use elevators to whisk cars below the street and into high-speed tunnels.

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4 of 23 Elon Musk

Getting cars off the street

Musk successfully tested this car elevator in June outside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

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5 of 23 Boring Co.

Underground people transporters

Musk also hopes that Boring Co. tunnels will transport people in giant, electric, underground sleds like these.

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6 of 23 Boring Co.

Godot is here

This is Godot, the name of the Boring Co. tunneling machine. Musk has said its first Boring Co. tunnel route will be in Los Angeles, shortening a 45-minute car trip into a five-minute underground tunnel jaunt.

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7 of 23 Boring Co.

Snail of the future

Meet Gary, the snail living at the Boring Co. He's more than a pet, though; he's inspiration. One of Musk's goals is making Godot faster than a snail. 

"Gary (the snail) is a speed demon," Musk tweeted in June. "Long way to go before we beat him/her."

Elon Musk's High Speed Train Concept Company Hyperloop One Holds First Public Test Run
8 of 23 David Becker/Getty Images

Hyperloop: For long hauls

What if you want to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a tunnel? Enter Musk's Hyperloop project, which would use tubes like this one, displayed near Las Vegas in 2016.

Elon Musk's High Speed Train Concept Company Hyperloop One Holds First Public Test Run
9 of 23 David Becker/Getty Images

Only 3 years away?

Musk is already testing the Hyperloop concept with sleds like this one. He plans to create a fully operational system by 2020.

SpaceX: The Privately Funded Aerospace Company Founded By Elon Musk
10 of 23 NASA

To Mars and beyond

Of course we can't ignore SpaceX, the company Musk founded in 2002 to make space travel cheaper and, eventually, enable human life on Mars.

To that end, SpaceX in 2016 tested its Falcon 9 rocket. Here, it makes its first successful upright landing on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship.

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11 of 23 SpaceX

Is this life on Mars?

This conceptual art illustrates a possible version of Musk's planned Interplanetary Transport System, his privately funded Martian transport and colonization tech project.

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12 of 23 SpaceX

Mars or bust

Musk's timetable for sending us to Mars? SpaceX has said it wants to launch its Mars-bound cargo flight no earlier than 2022, followed by the first Mars flight with passengers in 2024.

SpaceX: The Privately Funded Aerospace Company Founded By Elon Musk
13 of 23 NASA

Moon tourism

SpaceX's Falcon and Dragon rocket programs both already deliver payloads into Earth's orbit. 

But there's also tourism in the offing; in 2017, Elon Musk said that two people had hired SpaceX to take them around the moon in a Dragon spacecraft in 2018 -- potentially the first piece of lunar tourism.

Tesla Model 3 in Minecraft
14 of 23 Block

More Teslas ahead

Of course, Musk's Tesla electric car company just keeps on chugging along, too. The latest design, the Model 3, recently got the Minecraft treatment, courtesy of the studio Block.

2018 Tesla Model 3
15 of 23 Tesla Motors/Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

Really big Teslas are coming

The Tesla Semi, an all-electric big rig truck announced by Musk in 2016, is expected to be unveiled in September. Musk has said it will use "a bunch" of Model 3 electric motors.

Experiment with Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in neuroscience laboratory
16 of 23 Erik Tham/Getty Images

Brains talking directly to computers

This isn't a photo of Elon Musk's newest experiment, but it's close. In March, the world learned about Neuralink, a new Musk venture reportedly trying to create brain-computer interfaces, kind of like the one shown here... but implanted in the body.

Experiment with Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in neuroscience laboratory
17 of 23 Erik Tham/Getty Images

Treating serious brain diseases

In the short term, Musk reportedly wants Neuralink to make tech that can treat serious brain diseases. But eventually, the goal is simpler: human enhancement.

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18 of 23 Tesla

Roofs made entirely of solar tiles

Yep, that's a thing, and they're coming, if Musk has his way. Musk merged renewable energy company SolarCity with Tesla in 2016, and the tech is, with luck, the next step in that evolution.

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19 of 23 Tesla

They're shatter-resistant, too

Musk's company started taking preorders for the roofs in May.

Tesla Unveils New Battery System
20 of 23 Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Electric batteries for everybody

Musk also wants everybody to have electric batteries powering their homes. This is a Powerwall, a home battery unit introduced in 2015. 

And, like any good smart home device, the Powerwall can be controlled via your phone, from anywhere.

Tesla Unveils New Battery System
21 of 23 Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

And even electric batteries for your business

For businesses, Musk has a very large utility pack called Powerpack.

Tesla Unveils New Battery System
22 of 23 Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Electricity for everybody!

In 2015, Musk unveiled the home battery named Powerwall with a selling price of $3,500 for 10kWh and $3,000 for 7kWh. As for those roofs, the price could be very high -- like, $50,000 high -- or perhaps only $10,000, depending on rebates and energy bill savings.

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23 of 23 OpenAI

OpenAI: Teaching bots to think

Finally, we can't ignore OpenAI, a Musk non-profit in San Francisco. The goal: Develop AI that's friendly and will help mankind. Here's a screen grab from a video showing OpenAI technology teaching a complex virtual bot how to walk.

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