New York Times about to drop the dime on wonderboy Elon

Sounds like they are ripping him new one on Autopilot and FSD. If any FCers see it can you give your opinion?
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from TV Guide

• • Elon Musk's Crash Course Review: FX Documentary Digs Into a Deadly Cult of Personality

The latest installment in The New York Times Presents is a shocking indictment of a man and his vision


at Hulu
LIKE

• Thorough argument
• Feels vital and necessary to this moment
• Lets the subjects speak for themselves

DISLIKE

• Not exactly reinventing the documentary filmmaking wheel

In particular, Elon Musk's Crash Course is sharp in how it lays out Musk's vision for the future of the auto industry, which has its merits and ostensibly noble goals, and how that vision is often put ahead of reality. The first part of the documentary builds anticipation, showing the growth and potential of both Tesla and Musk, before revealing the disasters to come. We watch as Musk's rise is chronicled, from his early days at video game startup Rocket Science to becoming the man with the vision for Tesla's electric cars, all while the doc's opening minutes — in which we hear 9-1-1 calls about a gruesome crash — linger in our minds.

Elon Musk's Crash Course is structured to hit you in the gut. It's sharp in the way it shows how Musk is more than just your average CEO and innovator because of his public-facing persona and how uniquely he's linked with his companies. He's a brand himself; his tweets can send a stock skyrocketing or plummeting, and he has consumers who treat him as a deity of sorts.

Among the documentary's many talking heads, the most fascinating and instructive is Kim Paquette, a beta tester for Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" (or FSD) cars. Paquette explains that there's an "early access program" in which a group of Tesla owners test the software privately, rather than through any sort of public program or through professional test drivers. The episode makes it clear that Tesla is essentially using the public as guinea pigs without really being upfront about the potential dangers, but what's more interesting is how Paquette talks about Musk and Tesla. "Elon Musk is someone who comes along once in a generation," she says before showing off some of the toy Tesla cars she has on her bookshelf while saying it's "an honor" to get to be "part of history."

Elon Musk's Crash Course never berates the people who think like Kim, never disparages those who put Musk on a pedestal and think he's some sort of revolutionary genius. Rather, the documentary uses their words to contrast Musk's actual achievements against his promises, creating a rather spellbinding look at how Musk, and in turn many companies and public figures, are more interested in myth-making, marketing, and storytelling than they are in delivering a viable product.

The accidents detailed here are horrific, both in terms of the lives lost and what it means for public safety as self-driving cars continue to roll out with limited regulatory testing or intervention, and it's important for this investigation to be out there. But what makes Elon Musk's Crash Course really worth watching is the way it uses its material to dig into the ways the collision of celebrity and capitalism can have a dangerous effect on the public good.