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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed his support on Friday for Elon Musk and said he wants the city to continue to carry out several large-scale projects with the tech mogul companies, despite his eyebrow behavior .
The City of Los Angeles is evaluating several projects supported by Musk, including an underground tunnels system aimed at reducing car traffic at the surface level through its Boring company. In May, another Musk company, SpaceX, was also authorized by the city to develop an 18-acre site at the Port of Los Angeles to build a rocket for manned flights to Mars.
Musk has been involved in a series of incidents in recent months, which plunged the stock of his company Tesla and some have questioned his mental stability.
"A great guy, sometimes he smokes pot in interviews," joked Garcetti when he was interviewed by City News Service about Musk at a press conference. Musk smoked marijuana with comedian Joe Rogan.
RELATED: Elon Musk Smokes Pot In Joe Rogan Interview; Tesla Shares Tumble
The two-hour interview, available on YouTube, shows Musk and Rogan talking about technology, samurai swords and other topics, including marijuana.
When Rogan pulled out what he described as a joint of tobacco and marijuana, Musk asked, "I mean, it's legal, right?
"Totally legal," Rogan replied, as Musk searched for the seal. Rogan added, "How does it work? Do people get angry at you if you do certain things? Musk shrugged in response.
Tesla shares fell 9% the next day and fell 6%.
When asked if he was worried that Musk's recent behavior would jeopardize the city's plans he is pursuing with his companies, Garcetti expressed his support for Musk.
"I was very impressed with what Elon produced. There is always someone who pushes the border, literally in space, in the basement and on the ground – all three, as well as the virtual, "Garcetti said.
"He was someone who attracts incredible talents. I think everyone is so obsessed with their personality, "added Garcetti. "I do not run the city on my own and he does not run his businesses on his own. The people who work around him, the people of the Boring company are incredible engineers. It's a big risk. Will it work? We do not know, but I want L.A. to be the place where people test it.
A British diver who helped rescue a dozen boys from a flooded cave in Thailad recently sued Musk for defamation and slander, alleging that Tesla's chief executive had defamed him by falsely calling him a pedophile on Twitter.
Musk had other PR problems this summer. Tesla has seen massive layoffs, the loss of several leaders and a slowdown in production. In response to a customer complaint regarding the slow delivery of electric cars, Musk tweeted that "we went from the hell of production to the hell of delivery logistics," but the company was "progressing rapidly".
Tesla shares plummeted on Tuesday after the US Justice Department announced it would investigate the company following a statement by CEO Elon Musk about the privatization of Tesla.
RELATED: Tesla under criminal investigation for the statement of Elon Musk
Tesla confirmed that it was contacted by the DOJ in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
"Last month, following Elon's announcement that he was considering privatizing the company, Tesla received a voluntary request for DOJ documents and cooperated to respond. We have not received any summons, request for testimony or any other official procedure. We respect the DOJ's desire to obtain information on this matter and we believe that the issue should be resolved quickly when they review the information they have received, "said a spokesman for the company.
According to reports, Musk is under surveillance for tweeting in August that he intends to take over the electric car company. This announcement initially pushed up stock prices, up 11% in one day. But the value of the shares has fallen since.
Shortly after, the company admitted that the funding was not planned, and Musk finally gave up the idea.
Musk also granted an interview to The New York Times last month where he stated that he slept very little and that he depended on Ambien's sleep medication. The Times also reported that he had been crying during an interview during the discussion about the personal track record of his businesses, even though Musk later denied having cried and said his voice was no longer in danger. had cracked that one time.
A Boring Co. project to build a zero-emission, high-speed underground public transport system from the Hollywood area to the Dodger Stadium was the subject of a public hearing in August.
The approximately 3.6-mile Dugout Loop Tunnel will connect the Dodger Stadium to the Boring Co., near Red Line Vermont / Sunset, Vermont / Santa Monica or Vermont / Beverly subway stations. .
RELATED: Elon Musk's Dugout Loop takes fans to Dodger Stadium in minutes
The tunnel would be fully funded by the private sector and would not require any tax, the company said. Passengers will board "autonomous electric skates" powered by several electric motors carrying eight to 16 people. They will travel 125-50 miles at the time for a trip that will take less than four minutes and cost about $ 1, depending on the company.
The tunnel will be entirely under public ownership or on land owned by The Boring Co. The Dugout Loop is similar to a series of tunnels at the citywide scale. Musk also proposed to build with private funds. A Los Angeles City Council committee approved the excavation permits in April. Musk is looking for a 2.7-mile proof-of-concept tunnel on the west side.
However, the Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee noted that Metro will need to review the project, in part to ensure that it does not conflict with the agency's own plans to build a system of transit along the Sepulveda corridor.
The committee also added an amendment to clarify that the tunnel was not a public transit system and that a proof of concept – a necessary distinction for the committee to find also that the project is exempt from the Act requirements.
Hawthorne-based SpaceX is already leasing 8.1 acres of trees in San Pedro's outer harbor, where priming reactors and other spacecraft returning from orbital missions can be moored.
But a new facility approved by the city in May on the former Southwest Marine shipyard will be used to build the company's Big Falcon rocket for possible Mars missions and to transport passengers around the world in record time. Musk predicts the rocket will be ready for launch on Mars by 2022.
SpaceX wants to use the port to be able to ship parts of the rocket by sea to potential launch sites in other parts of the country because the ships would be too big to be transported by land.
According to a project description in a California Environmental Quality Act study, "the ships, once completed, would be too big to be transported by road and must therefore be taken by supply barges.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved City News Service contributed to this report.)
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