Elon Musk has slept on Tesla's factory floor and instructed SpaceX employees to walk out of meetings where they aren't adding value.

The Biden administration is playing it smart, laying the groundwork to protect clean energy programs from a potential rollback under Trump. By finalizing a wave of loans and grants for clean energy before year-end, they're effectively locking in incentives, making it far harder for a new administration to undo them come January.

The billionaire Tesla CEO is in a stronger position to influence development of federal rules that would put more of the fully self-driving cars on the road.