WALDEN’S WORLD

Afew years ago I found myself sitting in the back garden of Elon Musk’s French château-style Bel Air mega-mansion drinking lemonade with the baby-faced entrepreneur. Although he was already chairman of Tesla Motors and the CEO of Spacex, Musk

(right) hadn’t yet sent his first spacecraft to the International Space Station or made Tesla “a real car company” – it was his now ex-wife, the British actress Talulah Riley, who was getting all the media attention.

Well, in the past four days, Musk has managed both to launch Spacex’s 12th successful rocket this year and make Tesla “real” after finally hitting production targets – none of which surprises me. That afternoon it was clear I was in the presence of a genius nerd who admitted to working 100-hour weeks and planned to build a “biosphere” on Mars – but only once he had succeeded in making sustainable cars covetable. So that you can save the planet and look cool, I asked? “Exactly.”

Musk got his PA to drop me home in his Tesla, and we were careering through the streets of LA when a van drew up alongside us and the driver held up a laminated A4 sign to the window on which the words “ARE YOU FAMOUS?” were printed. When I shook my head, the man shrugged and flipped the card around. “NEVER MIND,” read the other side. “NICE CAR!”