Chris

While I’m not going to defend him as ‘saviour of the universe’, he has had quite a profound effect in a couple of important areas - his advocacy of reusability and rapid prototyping has pushed rocket launch technology forward at a pace, so that SpaceX really is in the vanguard now. Spacex’s Starship programme is so impressive NASA has commissioned the company to produce a version of it as its next generation lunar lander. These sorts of bleeding edge projects are routinely handed by NASA to the likes of Boeing and Northrop-Grumman with little more than a nod and wink, so don’t underestimate Spacex’s disruptive ability here.

Also, Tesla, for all its imperfections, has grown from nothing to be a major, recognisable marque on our roads, has single-handedly shown up the established motor manufacturers’ half-hearted electrification programmes and forced them to up their game.