Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has faced criticism from experts after saying that public transport is inaccessible for many and used by serial killers.
Musk, who is the founder and CEO of companies Tesla and SpaceX, was described as elitist by transit agency consultant Jarrett Walker, after comments he made during a conference in Long Beach, California, last month.
"I think public transport is painful," Musk said, reported by Wired. "It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn't leave where you want it to leave, doesn't start where you want it to start, doesn't end where you want it to end" And it doesn't go all the time."
"It's a pain in the ass," he continued. "That's why everyone doesn't like it. And there's like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great. And so that's why people like individualised transport, that goes where you want, when you want." Musk is currently involved in several mass transport projects. He is behind the Hyperloop high-speed transit concept, which has been proposed to dramatically shorten travel times between cities around the world, while his Boring Company is aiming to dig a network of transport tunnels below Los Angeles to ease congestion.
Walker however questioned Musk's suitability to work in this sector, saying his opinions about sharing transport with strangers are "a luxury (or pathology) that only the rich can afford...