A former Tesla govt went in-depth about his time on the firm over the weekend, together with discussions on electrical autos (EVs), the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), Elon Musk’s politics, China’s EV market, and extra.
Former Tesla Vice President of Public Coverage Rohan Patel was hosted on the Farzad Mesbahi podcast in an episode on Saturday, that includes discussions in regards to the firm with each Farzad and co-host Hans Nelson.
The dialogue runs almost an hour and a half lengthy, and the previous Tesla VP offers a number of insights in it, together with what it was like working on the hyper-fast-paced firm, debates on the federal $7,500 EV tax credit score established by the IRA, and dealing with Musk from his insights on the worldwide automotive business to his political concepts.
At round 53 minutes into the video, Farzad asks Patel about Musk’s transition away from the Democratic occasion, which launched the IRA and has historically been extra supportive of EV and clear power insurance policies, to endorsing Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump.
Farzad notes Patel’s intersection of expertise in authorities and public coverage, in addition to his time working at Tesla and direct expertise working with Musk, as main qualifiers to speak in regards to the matter.
Whereas Patel doesn’t share a few of Musk’s extra far-right political concepts, together with his help for Trump, he says that there are loads of issues that they do agree on.
In response to the video, longtime Tesla fanatic and Full Self-Driving Supervised tester Chuck Cook dinner highlighted the dialog’s “trustworthy and real” strategy, providing his thanks for the podcast episode. In response, Patel stated it was Cook dinner to whom was owed the thanks:
I owe you the thanks – some very cool movies and posts from you through the years.
— Rohan Patel (@rohanspatel) September 28, 2024
Patel left Tesla in April after working for the corporate for eight years, and he performed an more and more important function within the firm’s public-facing academic efforts on social media platforms like X. Particularly up to now few years, Patel and different executives started being extra vocal on X, interacting straight with followers and providing fast, public solutions to questions.
His departure got here as a shock to many, although it was additionally accompanied by the departures of some different executives across the identical time, together with former Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Vitality Engineering Drew Baglino, who had been with the corporate for 18 years.
Upon his departure, Patel shared because of Musk himself for “giving him the possibility and empowering him to guide massive initiatives on the firm.”
You possibly can watch the total Rohan Patel episode from the Farzad Mesbahi podcast beneath.
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