Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures, discusses the development timeline and commercial viability of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Lilium.
Opinion
Beebe: It is game over for hydrogen and internal combustion vehicles
“I, you know, I think it's game over for hydrogen based vehicles. It's game over for internal combustion engines.”
Assertion Supported
Beebe: Solar Scaled Through Brute-Force Supply Chains, Not Novel Tech
“And one of the key catalysts that I hadn't really understood was the ability to use non-semiconductor grade silicon, you know, not the purest type of silicon to make solar cells. So instead of radical innovation, you know people like Nanosolar and even Solyndr…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Beebe: Big Tech will build gas plants for AI, delaying climate goals
“The latest version of that that I'm very worried about is large tech companies acknowledging, hey, you know, we're not going to lose this AI thing. I think they're going to blame it on China and say, hey, it's a national security. Security thing we can't lose,…”
Assertion Contradicted
Beebe: Zanskar has proven a 90% hit rate for exploratory geothermal wells
“Today, when we do, when we drill wells looking for geothermal, we'll drill 10 wells and get one hot spot. And that's not cost effective. Those wells are very expensive. With Zanskar, they have been proven that they can drill 10 wells and get 90% hit rates, and…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Beebe: Geothermal can power AI data centers in 3-4 years vs 10 for SMRs
“Building de novo facilities to power either clusters or giga sites for massive data centers, I think is going to be much, much harder, and they're going to try with small modular reactors, that's a ten-year kind of process, but doing it with geothermal, I thin…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Beebe: Internal combustion fleet residual values will plummet, impacting insurers
“I'm watching residual values of internal combustion fleets because I think they're going to plummet. I think that's going to have an impact on lease companies. I think it's going to have an impact on insurance companies.”