Here's a guy with some pretty unimaginable resources. He tries to use some of the resources for good, and a bunch of people go out of their way to get upset at him for it, and then laugh when what he tried to help with didn't work.
People slinging all this mud are the reason others are hesitant to help.
The original intent of the rescue, judging from the Washington Post version of this article, was to have the two rescue drivers carry the kid between them as much as possible. It was realized when they were transporting the first kid that said transit mechanism was impossible, as the space was too cramped to do that; the operation then had one diver carrying the kid, swapping divers frequently because that's a very physically taxing job.
Between the weight and the length of the sub, it's clear from descriptions of the rescue operation that it was completely unusable. Any attempt to use it would have had a very high risk of it getting wedged somewhere in the cave that would have made the cave impassable. And guess what? Pretty much everyone who had some sort of experience with caving commented that the sub idea was unworkable when it was first announced.
Just because you want to help doesn't mean you can help, and you shouldn't give someone a pass on their actions just because they're trying to help. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When you and I sat in front of our monitors to see what others were doing, some people took inventory of their resources and offered whatever they could in the chance that it might be useful. They were willing for it to be thrown away if it wasn't useful.
I'm not here to apologise for Musk. I'm here to praise everyone who donated food, tanks, hoses, pumps, skeds, submarines, money, housing, or their life. Thank you.
I hope he takes that opportunity.
The main problem with the sub was that the rescue started earlier than expected, so there wasn't time to iterate. That isn't Musk's fault.
I wouldn't be surprised if the idea to use the stretcher arose after the sub idea was mentioned.
There's plenty to criticize Musk for (labor practices, hyping Autopilot recklessly), but it seems absurd to rewrite the events in Thailand in order to do so.
Given that experienced cave divers, including cave rescue divers, were involved with the rescue operation, saying that they needed Musk's sub idea to suggest use of a standard piece of rescue equipment is absurd and comes across as trying to steal credit.
There was simply no time for the people on location to look at Musk's stuff and testing it. It would have been a big distraction from the work at hand.
So far I would rate his involvement as pure PR stunt. However, if he kept working on this now that the crisis is over and worked with experts on something viable for the next rescue he would be really helpful. I don't know if that's happening and to be honest I have my doubts.
The rescue started earlier than expected. If it had been another week or two there would have been time for more iteration or for the project to be scrapped.
The rescue effort started earlier than expected, so there wasn't time to iterate on the design. There's plenty to criticize Musk for but it's dumb to comment if you don't know the sequence of events.
Sorry you couldn't see through it.
>I suspect that the Thai govt has this under control, but I’m happy to help if there is a way to do so
Please don't comment if you don't even know the sequence of events in Thailand. The rescue started sooner than expected. Had there been a longer wait there would have been time to iterate on ideas.
I don't know whether you had experience with clueless dominant people trying to help you, but it usually sux big time. And I mean, it sux and slows down in low pressure low stakes situations.