{"id":679104,"date":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679104\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:17:09","slug":"elon-musk-israel-is-number-one-by-far-in-innovation-per-capita-as-ai-reshapes-mobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/679104\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk: Israel is \u2018number one by far\u2019 in innovation per capita as AI reshapes mobi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk<\/a> praised Israel\u2019s innovation ecosystem this week during a remote appearance at the 9th International Samson Smart Mobility Summit, saying the country stands out globally for the scale of its technological output.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel,\u201d Musk said. \u201cHonestly, I think it\u2019s objectively true that Israel punches far above its weight for population.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He went further, adding: \u201cInnovation per capita, Israel must be number one by far in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking from Austin, Texas, where he said it was about 2:30 a.m., Musk apologized for not attending the summit in person and said he looked forward to visiting Israel again. He also appeared to suggest that preparations for a possible SpaceX initial public offering were keeping him away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be there in person, but this is IPO, you know, going to get the IPO, SpaceX IPO going pretty soon, I think,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d0\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d0\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05df<\/p>\n

Elon Musk <\/p>\n

(Photo: Gonzalo Fuentes\/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

Most of the conversation focused on smart mobility and Tesla\u2019s push to bring self-driving technology from testing into wider use. Musk said Tesla was making \u201csteady progress\u201d toward making autonomous driving ubiquitous, stressing that the company\u2019s Full Self-Driving system relies on artificial intelligence and cameras rather than radar or LiDAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tesla full self-driving software, which is really just AI and cameras. We don\u2019t use radars or LiDAR or anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Musk said Tesla is trying to teach cars to drive in the same basic way humans do, using vision and a neural network.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really trying to drive the car in the same way that a human drives the car,\u201d he said, describing Tesla\u2019s approach as \u201ca digital neural net and cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

He predicted the system would eventually be \u201cat least an order of magnitude safer\u201d than human drivers and said he hoped Israelis would soon be able to experience it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure if we have approval for this in Israel. I think we may have. We\u2019ll get it soon hopefully, and you\u2019ll be able to experience it for yourself,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

He described the current technology in striking terms, saying Tesla\u2019s latest software makes the vehicle feel almost alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite magical because the car feels like it is sentient,\u201d he said. \u201cIt actually feels like it\u2019s alive, and as we improve the software, you can feel the sentience growing in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Musk, Tesla already has vehicles operating with no people inside as safety monitors in three cities in Texas. He said the service would probably become widespread in the United States by the end of the year, adding that he hoped it would eventually reach Israel as well.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Musk predicted that driving one\u2019s own car could become rare within a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guess is, 10 years from now, probably 90% of all distance driven will be driven by the AI in a self-driving car,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be quite a niche thing in 10 years to actually be driving your own car. The car will drive you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk also said the world is heading toward an era in which robots will become far more common, describing Tesla\u2019s cars as \u201cfour-wheel robots\u201d and saying humanoid robots are likely to become widespread.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy prediction is that there will be far, far more robots, like intelligent robots, in the world than there will be people,\u201d he said. \u201cI think this is most likely to be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he said, robot safety should remain a serious concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to be a little paranoid,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly not complacent about the safety of robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added that a \u201cTerminator\u201d scenario was unlikely but \u201cnot impossible,\u201d saying developers must ensure robots are safe.<\/p>\n

Musk argued that the rise of advanced robots could dramatically expand economic productivity and create what he called \u201cuniversal high income,\u201d rather than universal basic income.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the robots are extremely productive and you have a lot of them, you\u2019re effectively going to have an economy that will be maybe 10 or even 100 times bigger than what it is today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The session ended with Transportation and Road Safety Minister Miri Regev joining the conversation and thanking Musk for taking part despite the late hour in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk praised Israel\u2019s innovation ecosystem this week during a remote appearance at the 9th International Samson Smart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-679104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}