When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world.

I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration.

I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.

The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.

Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure - the law firms, the real estate, all that - that are all actually geared toward being accepting of startups.

We polled Tesla owners, do you want autopilot disabled or not. Not one person wanted it disabled. That's pretty telling.

I was born in Africa. I came to California because it's really where new technologies can be brought to fruition, and I don't see a viable competitor.

Mars is the only place in the solar system where it's possible for life to become multi-planetarian.

Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do.

I just want to retire before I go senile because if I don't retire before I go senile, then I'll do more damage than good at that point.

I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.

In the early days of aviation, there was a great deal of experimentation and a high death rate.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

The goal of Tesla is to accelerate sustainable energy, so we're going to take a step back and think about what's most likely to achieve that goal.

The fuel cell is just a fundamentally inferior way of delivering electrical energy to an electric motor than batteries.

My opinion is it's a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars.

Selling an electric sports car creates an opportunity to fundamentally change the way America drives.

I've actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don't mean hybrid, I mean fully electric.

A battery by definition is a collection of cells. So the cell is a little can of chemicals. And the challenge is taking a very high-energy cell, and a large number of them, and combining them safely into a large battery.