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Elon Musk Is TIME's Person of the Year 2021, Now What?

Elon Musk's achievements during 2021 have led to him being selected as TIME's Person of the Year 2021. The leader of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX was praised by the American magazine for his achievements during this year, but also his goals regarding space.
Elon Musk 12 photos
Photo: Tesla Motors
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At the moment of writing, Elon Musk was the richest private person on Earth in history, yet he does not own a house, as TIME magazine points out.

As a reference, the first-ever Person of the Year by TIME magazine was Charles Lindbergh, the man who completed the first solo transatlantic flight ever.

While the magazine did not point this out, we think that Elon Musk is the person who managed to make electric vehicles cool and interesting, instead of just an oddity, and he is doing the same to autonomous vehicles.

Unfortunately, we have yet to see genuine autonomous vehicles from the company run by Elon Musk, despite what the Autopilot name might lead you to believe.

However, Elon Musk has managed to bring innovation to the field of vehicles, and without his efforts with Tesla Motors products, it is difficult to claim that EVs would have been as popular as they are today.

If we look at the reasons why TIME magazine selected Elon Musk to be this year's Person of the Year, you will observe that Elon has had quite a busy year. From winning a contract with NASA to put astronauts on the moon again, hosting Saturday Night Live, or going into space, Elon has been busy.

As Time does point out, Musk did find the time to tweet his thoughts to a following of over 66 million accounts. Some of those tweets may have been written on the “porcelain throne,” while others are memes, announcements of SpaceX plans, Tesla Motors-related news, and many more.

Despite some of his tweets, Elon is worth following on that social media platform. The South-African-born businessperson even joked about quitting his jobs to become a full-time influencer due to his huge fan base.

Do not worry, though, as he will not do something like this. Elon seems to have his work cut out for him in the following years. Might we suggest perfecting Tesla's Autopilot and improving company culture?

While he did have a successful 2021, Elon Musk was beaten by Jeff Bezos by 22 years to the “TIME Person of the Year” distinction. Former winners include Greta Thunberg, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Clinton, and many more.

Another interesting fact is that Elon Musk is not the first leader of a vehicle manufacturing company to win this distinction, as Harlow Curtice, the President of General Motors from 1953 to 1958, won the distinction in 1955 when the corporation sold five million vehicles and became the first to earn $1 billion in a single year.

Curtice was not the first person in the automotive industry to receive this award either, as that honor went to Walter Percy Chrysler in 1928, when he oversaw the merger of the corporation that bears his surname with Dodge and then started work on the famous skyscraper in Manhattan.

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Editor's note: For illustration purposes, the photo gallery features several images of Elon Musk.

About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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