Political Quotes

“Before there was a Tesla, when I was in college in the early 1990s--and this is one of the things that makes me such a strong believer in innovation and really gives me the optimism to say that we can do just about anything as a country when we set our mind to it--my fellow students and I joined the Sun race in 1993. At the college I attended, a number of my colleagues who were studying electrical engineering--I was studying mechanical engineering, and we had people who were studying material science--we all got together and we designed and built a car, a solar car, that we raced across the United States. We raced from Dallas, TX, up to Minneapolis, MN. People were asking us along the way: When are we going to be driving solar cars? That really wasn't quite the point, but it was a great opening to say this isn't about having solar cars. We are not going to have solar cars because you need a pretty big car to get enough sunlight to do the job. But it is about driving that innovation and engaging the best--and we have the best--education system at the collegiate level in the world and putting that to work to make sure we are growing the next generation of jobs and the opportunity that represents. While there are not solar cars riding around in the United States today, there are now electric cars, and many of the fundamental innovations we made are now showing up throughout the auto industry.…”