Behold Tesla’s self-driving taxi

Elon Musk’s latest transport brainchild has plenty of ‘cool’ and ‘fun’ aspects, but that’s not its real purpose

Elon Musk: if Uber was the killer app for the taxi industry, Tesla’s Model X may be the killer app for Uber Picture: Bloomberg

Like many people, I’m a fan of Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and the chairman of Solar City. Watching Tesla launches, like the recent Model X and Powerwall announcements, remind me of watching early Apple product launches.

Musk’s presentation style is not as polished as Steve Jobs, but he manages to pull it off in a slightly awkward, if endearing, manner. Beneath some of the recent announcements are, I ...