Elon Musk to be given credit?? or is he just the media hog?
Musk deserves a lot of credit for expediting the growth of the electric vehicle market. Before Tesla started, none of the major automakers were seriously pursuing it. Now they all are, and they know that EVs (along with autonomous driving) are the future. It's just a matter of when at this point. The EV market has still taken off faster in China and parts of Europe, aside from California, but it won't be too long before they take off in other parts of the US and countries around the world.
Building the gigafactory for batteries in northern Nevada was a smart move not only for his cars, but their energy storage business. The Powerwalls get more hype but the utility-scale projects in Australia and California are much more significant.
His boring company is also pretty forward thinking, but who knows if the hyperloop will ever be developed anywhere. It sounds like his de facto Chicago blue line express between the Loop and OHare is not going to happen, regardless of who is elected their next mayor tomorrow.
That said, he deserves to be criticized for repeatedly overpromising and overhyping everything. Merging Tesla with SolarCity made sense in theory, but it hasn't worked out well. Other solar companies (particularly Sunrun) took their market share and even these high-end solar roofs with solar shingles that just look like regular roofs haven't taken off nor will they ever be cost-competitive with regular roof-top solar installations.
If he gets in any more legal trouble, though, he might be best off selling the business, which might happen, anyway. As it is, SpaceX seems to be is biggest interest.
