The magical realism of Tesla

YOU HAVE to hand it to the "technoking". For all his impish self-aggrandisement, mockery of deadlines, baiting of regulators and soon-to-be sideline as a "Saturday Night Live" comedy host, Elon Musk is deadly serious about technology. So serious, in fact, that as he was discussing the nitty-gritty of neural networks on an earnings call on April 26th, Tesla's boss did not miss a beat when what sounded like his infant son let out a wail in the background. The electric-car maker's record net profit of $438m in the first quarter, the seventh straight in the black, came as an afterthought. Your browser does not support the audio element.