--- title: "As Elon Musk Promises Human Brain Implants in 6 Months, Remember He Promised a Million Tesla Robotaxis by 2020" description: "Elon Musk is claiming that he will have Neuralink implants in human brains by summer 2023 — but as any close watcher knows, those sorts of promises should always be taken with a grain of salt. Last week, Musk tweeted that \"we are now confident that the Neuralink device is ready for humans\" after Bloomberg reported […]" date: "2022-12-06" modified: "2022-12-06" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-neuralink-six-months" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Brain" - "Brain Implants" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Health & Medicine" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "neuralink" - "robotaxi" - "tesla" --- # As Elon Musk Promises Human Brain Implants in 6 Months, Remember He Promised a Million Tesla Robotaxis by 2020 ![Elon Musk is claiming that he will have Neuralink implants in human brains in six months — but that claim should be taken with a grain of salt.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Last week, [Elon Musk said]() he expected Neuralink to implants its first device in a human brain within "about six months," tweeting that the "device is ready" — but as any close watcher knows, those sorts of promises should always be taken with a grain of salt. Even without getting into the [*Reuters*' big reveal yesterday of a federal investigation into Neuralink]() over some [very serious animal abuse allegations](), Musk's history of [over-promising]() on ambitious timelines — even [at Neuralink]() — has long chipped away at his credibility. While countless examples of Musk blowing past his own predictions, one of the most egregious in terms of its sheer magnitude and falsifiability is Musk's claim back in April 2019 that [Tesla would have a cool million robotaxis]() on the roads by the year 2020. For those keeping score, that's now roughly 35 months past. "I feel very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla next year," Musk told investors at one of his company's autonomous driving events around the end of the first quarter of 2019. He added that such self-driving taxis wouldn't be able to operate "in all jurisdictions" due to government red tape, but he was nonetheless "confident we will have at least regulatory approval somewhere, literally next year." Of course, that year, and the one after it and almost the entirety of the one after that, have now come and gone with nary a sign of Tesla robotaxis. Indeed, Tesla's long-awaited full self-driving mode that drivers don't have to constantly monitor has yet to materialize at all. Even the limited system that's currently deployed is still [mired in major](), [deadly issues]() that are [increasingly drawing the attention of federal regulators](). That's really just the tip of the Muskberg. In fact, the chaotic billion has promised self-driving cars *every single year* since 2014. If he keeps trying he might eventually be right, but any one promise at this point holds little cachet. And on top of all that, things at Neuralink are looking worse than they did when Musk issued his latest prediction last week. We'll spare you the worst of the reportage, but those whistleblowing Neuralink workers told *Reuters* that since 2018, roughly 1,500 animals have been killed during brain chip experiments. It remains unclear exactly how many of those would have died after being implanted, though [previous reporting]() found that 21 percent of monkeys died after receiving a Neuralink implant. The bottom line, of course, is that Musk shouldn't be promising anything of the sort with that kind of carnage behind him. If history is any indicator, this overly-ambitious brain implant timeline is going to experience a series of delays that surely nobody could have seen coming. **More on robodriving:** [*Watch Elon Musk Promise Self-Driving Cars "Next Year" Every Year Since 2014*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()