All language subtitles for The.Elon.Musk.Show.S01E02_track3_[eng]

This programme contains scenes of
Repetitive Flashing Images and
some strong language from the start

There's not a lot of human beings
like you. You know that?
You're an oddity to chimps like me.

We're all chimps. Some of us
are a little more confused.

When I watch you doing
all these things, I'm like,

"How does this fucker have all
this time and all this energy
and all these ideas,

"and then people just let him
do these things?"

Because I'm an alien.

If you had to describe
Elon to an alien,

how would you describe him?

Well, I think of Elon as the alien.

I don't know -
"Meet your fellow countryman."

No, um...

I wonder, if there was one
intelligent being that we created,

you know, like some AI creature...
Yeah. ..that's superior to people?

Maybe it would just hang around
with us for a little while,

like you've been doing,
and then fix a bunch of shit.

Maybe that's the way.
HE LAUGHS

I might have some mutation
or something like that.

You might. Do you think you do?

Probably. Do you wonder?

Like, when you're around normal
people, you're like, "Hmm."

I always used to think of him...
He had this...was a sort of

benevolent alien.

You know, he would be, you know,
"Hello."

I think he could kind of see
the way the world was going,

in a way I just...I just
did not understand.

How connected is this technology
going to be in our life?

It will be, at some point,
indistinguishable from reality.

Your phone is already
an extension of you.

You're already a cyborg.

If you assume any improvements
at all,

you will be essentially a snapshot
into a computer at any time.

If your biological self dies,

you could just upload
into a new unit.

Or civilisation will end.

One of those two things will occur.

Pass that whiskey.

HE CHUCKLES
This is too freaky.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I was thinking about this
for a long time, by the way.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Elon Musk is the richest
man who has ever lived

but says he doesn't own a house.

He's a little
different than a lot
of other people.

He truly embodies big thinking
and risk taking.

With a few taps from his fingers,

global markets can crash and soar.

CEO Elon Musk creating
chaos with a single tweet.

Bizarre, shook confidence.

Probably sleep deprived.

This company is not run properly.

He is creating a chip
that can be put into our brains.

Yeah, a chip and a bunch
of tiny wires.

And it would do what?
Could you input?

Could you download Jim? Mm-hm.

Yes. Well, what...?
HE LAUGHS

And right now, he's building rockets
that could take 100 people to Mars.

His power and wealth
continue to grow.

No-one on Earth is doing
more to change the world.

Come on over, man.

Why...why?
Why would you want to talk to me?

Because you are...you are the dude,
my friend.

You are the dude.

He's done things
that no other country can do.

It's quite magnificent.

You're his mum. Yes.

And his greatest champion. Yes.

He's so dangerous.

Completely, totally irresponsible.

It's not as much fun being me
as you'd think.

I'm not sure I want to be me.

It seems a little strange
to be handing it all over

to private enterprise, but I guess
I'm kind of stuck in the past, huh?

"Unstable." "Reckless."

I'm just being me.

We used up all the 100 million.

And then,
there was the big recession.

In the end,
I had to invest everything.

Why did you want to take the risks?

These businesses
that you've gone into.

Have to say, at times,
I've wondered.

Um...

But, you know, like,
creating a company

is almost like having a child.

So, it's sort of like how do you say
your child should not have food?

You have to feed it and nurse it.
Yeah.

Take care of it,
even if it ruins you.

Yeah.

There were some tough times
in...end of 2008.

How did you get through
that period of crisis?

Yeah.

Can we just break for a second? I...
Sure. Of course, yeah.

I'm not sure if it was worth it.

Sure hope so.
Sure hope it was worth it.

In 2009,

Elon Musk is a bruised
and weary man.

The father of five has invested all
of his money in his two companies,

SpaceX, making rockets,
and Tesla electric cars.

Running a company
does have its drawbacks.

A friend of mine has a good phrase -
it's like eating glass

and staring into the abyss.

And you agree with that? Yeah.

And if you don't eat the glass,
you're not going to be successful.

This is Elon. Hi.

Tesla narrowly scraped through
last year's global financial crisis.

And now, Elon has a new car -

the Model S -

that he hopes will be the first

mass-produced, all-electric car
in history.

Again, thanks for coming here.

I think you'll be pretty excited
what we...about what

we're about to unveil.

Somebody kick me that flashlight.

I really believe that the sedan
is absolute vapourware.

There is no way that Tesla
has the cash on hand

in order to be able to truly
develop their own sedan.

This is the first mass-manufactured
electric car.

This is something that is...

They've got a prototype
that they're going to show,

and they're going to start taking
deposits, which I find

just an amazing act of gall.

Just been a very, very high
workload.

And then, between SpaceX, Tesla
and kids, it's...there's just...

..really not enough time in the day,
so not enough time to sleep and...

It was really awful.

He'd ploughed his money
into Tesla and SpaceX.

He was under incredible stress.

I was worried he was going
to have a heart attack.

I just kept thinking, "God,

"I've just got to keep
this guy alive."

The honest answer is,

I'm not looking forward
to the party tonight.

All night long, I'll be selling cars
for five hours,

after selling cars
for five hours before that.

HE LAUGHS AND SIGHS

It won't be fun for me.

It was one of the bad Christmases.

He'd forgotten to get me
a Christmas present.

We were in Boulder, Colorado.

So, there's loads and loads of snow,
and we were in bed.

And he said, "I do...you know..."

He said, "It's not that I don't
love you.

"I do really, really love you.

"It's just it's, like, you know,
my brain is exploding."

And I was like,
"No, I know. It's fine."

And he sort of got up in the middle
of the night and disappeared.

I was like, "Where's...where
has he gone?"

And he came back two hours later,

and he'd gone outside in his T-shirt
and shorts, barefoot,

and he'd gone and, like, dug
through the snow

and picked flowers for...

Like, he'd walked all over Boulder
and, like, came back

with a little bouquet
of picked flowers.

"Because I just wanted to show you
how much I loved you."

He was very supportive
of me having a career.

But I had to come back
and do St Trinian's 2,

and it was the first time
we'd been apart, and he sent

two lorry-loads of flowers
to set for me,

and he'd also found out
from production the name

of every woman on set, and he'd sent
them all flowers and champagne

and chocolate, so that, then,
when he came to visit,

everyone was like, "Oh, hi."

REPORTERS CLAMOUR

Talulah, sign the card here.

I remember, at the premier,

he came along and he was holding
my umbrella for me

while I was doing some signings.

No-one knew who Elon was.

Talulah! Talulah!

He was very sweet and lovely
and very supportive.

Two years after meeting Tallulah...

..Elon's divorce from the mother
of his five children comes through.

I wanted to get married in the UK
and Elon said,

"You know, it's up to you."

I wanted a religious ceremony.

Elon just went along with it.

# She said I love you more than
words can say... #

We just had really good fun.
I love Fred Astaire.

So, I'd introduced Elon
to Fred Astaire movies,

and then Elon got very
into Fred Astaire

because he admired his sort of
technical proficiency.

On the morning of the wedding,
I got him a sort of top hat and cane

as a joke, and I said,

"Is there anything you would like
at the wedding,

you know, that's important to you?

And he said, "Yes, I would like
there to be hovercraft and eels."

My hovercraft is full of eels.

So, we had hovercraft and eels
at our wedding.

After the wedding, we went
to Paris on honeymoon.

Couldn't be a long, long honeymoon,
obviously, because of work.

But we managed a couple of days
in Paris, and he took some meetings

while we were there.

But, yeah, it was lovely.

It was really nice.

Elon and Talulah are building
a new life together.

But there's a major problem.

Court documents from Elon's divorce
show that, for months,

he's been using emergency loans
from friends

to pay his divorce costs

and living expenses.

A year after promising
the world's first mass-produced,

all-electric car,

Tesla has so far only made
a few prototypes

and has neither the factory
or the staff to produce the cars.

Elon decides to gamble.

For the first time in 50 years,
a car company is being floated

on the US Stock Exchange.

If the stocks do well,
Elon will have the money

to ramp up production.

He'll know his fate
by the closing bell.

Tesla motors, they're making
their debut on the Nasdaq today.

Now, the company has yet to make
a profit, even for a single quarter.

You know what?
This company has yet to make a dime.

It has lost $290 Million.

Tesla's to sell, sell, sell.

You don't want to own this stock.
You don't want to lease it.

Heck, you don't even...

You shouldn't even rent
the darn thing.

I think Elon was pretty
stressed out that day.

You could see it on his face

that he was under some
under some pressure

and worried about how it was all
going to come together.

Elon, a huge day for Tesla,
the company going public.

Like many start-up companies,
you lose money.

The company has lost about
$260 million since its inception.

Yeah. You're going public.

You want the public
to invest in Tesla.

We were this car company
that had no money,

that was, you know, making this
crazy car in Silicon Valley

and without any automotive expert.

So, everyone was like,
"They're never going to make it.

"What are they doing?"

We weren't even close
to being a household name.

There was definite risk.

There's no place to charge
the stupid thing right now.

You have to...you have to... That's
the least of them, Joe. Really?

How do you begin mass
market production

of an electric vehicle?

You're guaranteeing that this
is going to be built

and that you can get production
ramped up on this model?

Because in the auto industry,
a lot of people are saying,

"Not going to happen."

Well, you know, I think people,
at this point,

ought to be a little bit
more optimistic

about the future of Tesla.

I remember the energy kind
of in the studio,

right before they rang the bell.

I mean, it was palpable.

Well, big losses on Wall Street
today, as we've been reporting.

And it's just the same
for just about any US stock

you care to name except one.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's a result that almost
no-one saw coming.

The shares go stratospheric,

valuing the company at $2.2 billion.

At the end of the day,
Elon's own stake in the company

is worth $650 million.

Tesla's always been
the problem child.

I suppose, all the sort of
intensity of, you know,

"It's us against the world.

"We're about to die any second."

We had a lot of bloggers maintaining
a Tesla death watch.

A day-by-day count of how long
before Tesla will die. Right.

Tesla has this cool factor
that a lot of car companies

out there just don't have.

Flush with a new cash injection,

Elon gets to work.

Well, we have a very big sign.

He buys a factory in Fremont,
California, for $42 million.

It has the capacity to mass-produce
the Model S, but Elon needs someone

to help sell his electric dreams
to petrol-obsessed America.

George Blankenship.

G-E-O-R-G-E.

Blankenship - B-L-A-N-K-E-N-S-H-I-P.

He chooses the man Steve Jobs
trusted to launch the Apple stores

across the globe.

I retired from Apple, and I started
getting these emails.

"George, Elon Musk would like
to speak to you. Give me a call."

HE CHUCKLES
Delete.

I mean, I assumed
this was junk mail.

Elon got on the phone,
and we started chatting.

"Why don't you come work
for the company?"

I was like, "I've retired,

"and I need to spend time
with my wife and kids and stuff."

He said, "Oh, come out to LA."

I met with Elon,
and I thought he was special.

He asked me, "You know, if you were
going to bring Tesla EVs to market,

"How would you do it?"

I said, "Well, I'd do it
just like Apple."

There's a whole education thing
we had to go through at Apple,

and there's going to be a whole
education thing,

we're going to have to do with EVs.

"How much does it cost to charge?
And how do I charge this?

And there's all these questions
out there.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The Roadster was proof of concept,
but the Model S was the first car

that was really meant for people
to drive like a regular car.

We would talk to people
about the car and show it to them

and all that, and then they'd say,
"Well, how do I get one of these?"

And with a straight face,
we would look them in the eye,

and we would say,

"Well, give me $5,000 today,

"and I'll...I'll give you a car
in a couple of years."

They'd go, "What?" We'd go, "Yeah.

"You give me a $5,000 deposit today,
and we'll send you a car

"in a couple of years."

"You're kidding."

Just go, "No, no. That's what we do.

"We'll give you
a reservation number, and...

"Unless you want one
of the first 1,000.

"If you want one of the first 1,000,
you've got to give me $40,000 today,

"and I'll send you a car
in a couple of years."

And people did it.

Elon has sold his customers
a vision of the future.

Yeah. It looks really amazing
in the pictures.

Green, fast, sleek.

Completely away from gas.

And so I decided you got to put
your money where your mouth is

and support it.

Under George W Bush,
the American government

had also bought into Elon's
future plans.

In late 2008,

NASA granted Elon's rocket company,
SpaceX, a $1.6 billion contract

to take over the duties
of the retiring Space Shuttle.

It was incredible.

SHUTTLE BLASTS

And then, Obama got elected.

It was a sort of amazing
moment in history.

And so, we...we sat on the stage
for his inauguration.

The thing I do remember is that Elon
hadn't appropriately packed,

and it started snowing,
and he had to borrow the driver's

coat and hat, because otherwise
he would have frozen to death.

I think, at that point, I was like,
"Shall I just pack for you

"when we go on trips?"

He was like,
"OK, probably a good idea."

Preserve, protect
and defend the Constitution

of the United States.

Preserve, protect and defend

the Constitution
of the United States.

So help you God. So help me God.

Congratulations, Mr President.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

BAND PLAYS, FIREWORKS BANG

# Can't explain all the feelings
that you're making me feel

# My heart's in overdrive... #

So, today, I'd like to talk about
the next chapter in this story,

not just to continue
on the same path.

We want to leap into the future.

# Touching you, touching me... #

The bottom line is,
nobody is more committed

to manned space flight than I am.

But we've got to do it
in a smart way.

# I believe in a thing called love

# Just listen to the rhythm
of my heart... #

Governments are just really bad
at cost efficiency.

They tend to do things expensively
and inefficiently.

People in Washington, driven,
sometimes, less by vision

than by politics, have neglected
Nasa's mission -

space exploration
in the 21st century.

Do you consider yourself
a visionary?

I suppose...I suppose
I've been a visionary. Yeah.

I think the reality
of being president

is that you're actually, like,
the captain of a very huge ship

and have a small rudder.
HE CHUCKLES

You know, I'm generally a fan

of, like, minimal
government interference.

Like, the government should
be kind of like the referee

but not the player.

And there shouldn't
be too many referees.

Are there some pitfalls
and some risks?

I mean, it seems
like you're creating

intellectual material that wouldn't
be good, maybe, in the wrong hands.

I mean, as far as being able
to go send something

up into space, does the govern...?

Is there any resistance
from the government?

No, the government is...the US
government is our primary customer.

NASA took a risk.

We were a small company,
very unproven.

We had, like, I don't know,

300 people maybe.

We went from, like, launching
a small rocket to working

on the transportation system
to the International Space Station.

Jumping into this huge
responsibility was a major step -

you know, suddenly,
in the big league.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

With the retirement
of the last ever Space Shuttle,

the US government is now reliant
on SpaceX to make good its promise

to resupply
the International Space Station.

The young start-up
has to upscale fast.

I jokingly describe myself
as the Pied Piper of super nerds.

My role is essentially to go find
people 1,000 times smarter than me,

get them excited about solving
a really hard problem.

One of the ways that we explained
what the SpaceX culture was,

and this was in order to be really
honest with people -

SpaceX is special forces.

We take on the missions
that others deem impossible.

This will be the hardest thing
you will ever do in your life.

It is the kind of personality
that wants to be a Navy SEAL -

the engineering equivalent of that.

It will be bruising and punishing
and uncomfortable every day.

Growth is rarely comfortable.

If you are comfortable,
you are probably not growing.

To work for Elon
is to be comfortable

in a constant state of discomfort.

He has 10,000 times more
what the average person has

streaming through their brain
at any given time.

Our ability to think about
and analyse a problem

is nothing compared
to how his brain works.

Elon aspires to be, like,
the greatest engineer

in the history of the world.

He does have the cognitive
horsepower of the geniuses

that we have seen come before us.

But he is not Einstein
is he?

I think he is smarter than Einstein.

But then, there's another company
that's specifically focused

on cancer, kind of more
of a near-term thing.

And I think that's going to be one
of the key things to solving

a lot of diseases, actually,
which is to just basically

write a programme that destroys
the disease. Right.

And then...and code it...

Just code. Just code, right?
Yeah, it's just software. Yeah.

As well as rockets and cars,

Elon's interests are growing.

Elon starts tweeting
about his interests

in artificial intelligence,

something he refers
to as "summoning the demon".

We're building progressively
greater intelligence.

And the percentage of intelligence
that is not human is increasing.

And eventually, we will represent

a very small percentage
of intelligence.

Are you honestly, legitimately
concerned about this?

Is, like, AI one
of your main worries? Yes.

He later goes on to confess
his deepest fears

on the Joe Rogan podcast
to a worldwide audience.

It's going to be very tempting
to use AI as a weapon.

You scare the shit out of me
when you talk about AI.

And no-one's really
paying attention too much,

other than people like you.

I tried to convince people
to slow down.

Slow down AI.

This was futile. Nobody listened.

Nobody listened. No-one.
We met with Obama.

And what did he say?

No-one seemed to realise
where this was going.

I don't want the government
to handle this.

Who do you want to handle it?
I want you to handle this. Oh, geez.

Yeah. I feel like you're the one
who could ring the bell better.

There's not a million Elon Musk's.

There's one.

Do you think about that?

Hmm.

I don't think...

..I don't think you'd necessarily
want to be me.

It's launch day.

Ten years after SpaceX was founded,

the company is operating
on the world stage.

A perfect launch must lead
to a precise deployment

of the Dragon capsule, which will
then dock autonomously

with the International
Space Station.

I was the launch chief engineer.

My job was to make sure
everything goes right.

T-minus one minute.

The flight computer's in control
of the vehicle.

A rocket is a risky product.

You've just got to keep your nerves,

and you got to....you got
to basically do your job,

and then trust your data
and trust your tests.

Trust your work.

T-minus 30 seconds.

We're going to launch our Dragon
spaceship on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Dragon will then manoeuvre
over to the Space Station,

figure out the position
and orientation,

and then go through
a series of steps,

where it gets closer and closer
to the Space Station

and eventually docks.

There's a lot that could go wrong.
I mean, really, a lot.

I cannot emphasise that enough.

This mission may not succeed.

Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
ROCKET BLASTS

Falcon 9 has cleared the tower.

You have to remember,

a rocket is, like, essentially,
a miracle.

80,000 custom components.

One wire, one millimetre off,
anything off by the smallest margin,

and you are done.

Launch of the SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket as Nasa's turns

to the private sector to resupply
the International Space Station.

Only four governments in the world
have the capability of doing

what SpaceX is attempting
to accomplish.

It seems a little strange
to be handing it all over

to private enterprise, but I guess
I'm kind of stuck in the past, huh?

For a rocket mission,

everything is over in ten minutes.

You see the satellite being deployed
and you can head to the party.

Not true for Dragon.
HE CHUCKLES

Rendezvous is one of
the trickiest manoeuvres in space,

to bring together two spacecraft
going five miles a second.

Initiating the capture
of the Dragon.

Standing by.

Copy. Confirm.

When Dragon docks
with the Space Station,

first, it gets grappled by the arm,

then it gets moved over
to a berthing port.

And then, that port has
to be actually fitting

whatever you have
on the Dragon side.

And you never have a chance
to actually check that

because the hardware
is on the Space Station.

So, the first time you do this
is actually when you do

the first mission,
and you just...you just hope

this all works
at the end of the day.

Official hatch-opening time
for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

4.53am, Central Time.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We also got a little desert,
just like you said.

Got a little ice cream.

Can I have a big hand
for our friends at NASA

who helped make this happen?
Guys! Woohoo!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The mission is a complete success.

But some established aerospace
figures aren't happy.

SpaceX's lack
of experience bothers

some NASA legends,
like Apollo astronauts

Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan.

Welcome, Mr Neil Armstrong,
who was commander of Apollo 11.

SPEECH INAUDIBLE

Turn the button on.

How about that? That's good.

With regard to President Obama's
2010 plan, I have yet to find

a person in NASA,
the Defence Department,

the Air Force,
the National Academies, industry,

or academia that had any
knowledge of the plan

prior to its announcement.

I support the encouragement
of newcomers toward their goal

of lower-cost access to space.

But having cut my teeth in rockets
more than 50 years ago,

I am not confident.

Now is the time for wiser heads

in Congress of the United States
to prevail.

Now is the time to overrule

this administration's pledge
to mediocrity.

Folks who propose such
a limited architecture

do not yet know
what they don't know.

There are people who say about you

that you don't know
what you don't know.

Well, I suppose that's true
of anyone.

How can anyone know
what they don't know?

When critics say you can't do this,

your answer to them is...?
We've done it.

Neil, Jim Lovell and I have come
to a unanimous conclusion

that this is, in fact, a blueprint
for a mission to nowhere.

You know, there are American heroes
who don't like this idea,

and I wonder what you think of that.

I was very sad to see that
because those guys are...

Yeah.

You know, those guys are heroes
of mine, so it's really tough.

You know, I wish they would come
and visit and see the hardware

that we're doing here.

And I think that would
change their mind.

They inspired you to do this,
didn't they?

Yes.

And to see them casting stones
in your direction?

It's difficult.

He has a kind
of innocence to him.

What I mean by that is that he feels
with incredible purity,

the emotion that he is feeling
at the time,

whatever that emotion is.

He feels things very, very deeply.

So, you know, I've heard it said
that he's cold and emotionless,

and that could not be further
from the truth.

He is the most emotional
person I know.

One of the things I remember,
really early on, is we were...

We'd gone to the cinema,
and we were watching some comedy.

And Elon found the film so funny
that he literally fell on the floor

and was, like, rolling around,
holding his tummy laughing,

and everyone else in the cinema
was looking at us, like,

"What the hell is going on
over there?"

And I was sort of like, "No,
come on, get up off the floor."

But he was he was just enraptured
by what was on the screen,

and he was feeling it.

And he feels things.

And, you know, if he feels anger,
you know it - it's there.

You know, anything,
he...it's...it's...

It goes deep.

He told me all about his childhood
growing up.

I think his childhood shaped him
in a lot of ways.

I think he knows what it's like
to be bottom of the pack, to be hurt

by people that you should
be able to trust.

And obviously, I think
that leaves scars.

You grew up in South Africa?

Yes. Yeah.

I left when I was 17, by myself.

I had a backpack of clothes and
a suitcase of books, and that's it.

Did you have a happy childhood?
No. It was terrible.

Are you serious? Yes.

Why was it terrible?
HE CHUCKLES

I had this one guy
who would want to see me,

and when I had nothing else to do,
then I would see him.

But he was very insulting

to people and rude and I didn't

really like him that much.

But then otherwise
I'd just sit at home, you know.

After a couple
of years, my brother banned him

from seeing me.

For two years, I didn't see him.

I graduated and went to live in
Cape Town and he came to visit me,

just turned up with an engagement
ring and I said,
"I'll never wear it."

And then he went back and told my
family that I'd agreed to marry him,

which surprised my family
because they didn't know

I was seeing him, and I wasn't.

And then I just got this telegram
from my parents.

"Congratulations.
The wedding arrangements are made.

"The invites are out,
and 800 people are coming."

I called him, I said, "What do
you mean, I'm marrying you?"

And he said, "I will change
when we get married

"because then I'll be kinder
and nicer.

"I'm just aggressive
because you won't marry me."

So I did believe him.

And then I fell pregnant
on honeymoon.

Then the abuse started right away,
beating me up if I didn't do

as I was told.

I came back from honeymoon,
bruised and pregnant,

and then I didn't want my
family to know.

So then you just put up with it
because you have no choice.

Elon, while he was a little boy...

..he grew up in a very violent home.

Like, for example, when I always
had to drive the car

and he would be punching me and Elon
would be between the seats,

hitting his father to stop him
punching me. When he would be at

home and punching me, Kimbal and
Tosca would be crying in the corner

because they were really babies.

Elon was five, Kimbal four,
Tosca three.

Elon would be hitting his dad
at the back of his legs.

And then when he was eight, we left.

Our father has serious issues.

OK, well, so you didn't
have a happy childhood.

It was very violent.

His father, Errol,

denies all the allegations
of domestic abuse.

After two years, Elon said he wanted
to go and live with his father.

And that made me very sad.

Very sad because I didn't see why
he would have wanted to do that.

His father had the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.

I couldn't afford books.

I mean, he'd read everything
in the library in Durban,

so he had the opportunity
to actually read

the whole encyclopaedias.

I could call him any time
and ask him any subject,

anything in the world.

I do know that you were bullied
at school and had... I was almost

beaten to death,
if you call that bullied.

He was shy and awkward at school.

Elon didn't have many friends.

Pupils at Elon's school
saw him as strange...

..and he was systematically
bullied for years.

A gang beat up his best friend,
making him agree never to hang

around with Elon.

On one occasion, Elon was pushed
down a flight of stairs and beaten

violently, leaving him
in hospital for weeks.

It's no surprise then that as
an adult, he's a fighter determined

to succeed and prove everyone wrong.

All right. It is now time.

It is the moment we've been
waiting for for a long time.

Time to deliver Model S.

CHEERING

Yes!

Delivery of model S.

We decided that we should make
an event of this.

Yes.

I was sort of emcee.

I got the opportunity to be emcee
and I came out and I sort of

fired up the crowd.

There are a lot of people who said
this day would never come.

We did it!

CHEERING

The person who is going to drive
this, have the best car

in the solar system.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Elon Musk.

What the Model S is fundamentally
about is that an electric car

can in fact be the best
car in the world.

Time to start delivering Model S.

Give Jeff his, his car keys.

All right.

Thank you.

Let him go.

The PR drive for the
Model S is up and running...

..but manufacturing is slow.

The cars need to be rolling
off the production line

in their thousands.

So far, Tesla has made ten.

Tesla!

The hype is bolstered by the Model S
becoming the first ever electric car

to win the industry's prestigious
Car of the Year award.

Congratulations, Elon.

Despite the chasm between hype
and economic reality, Elon makes

a bold claim to investors.

Just a couple of questions.

The first one is, how confident
are you that you guys are moving

in the right direction there?

I really feel that, that Tesla
has turned a corner.

We're very confident of achieving
a small profit in the first quarter.

Elon tweeted, "Tesla will be
profitable in Q1, 2013."

Should we talk about this?

In the first quarter, we expect
to produce and deliver

almost 5,000 cars.

We had to deliver 4,750 cars.

In Q2 of 2012,

we delivered 12 cars.

People will view this as a turning
point in time when an electric car

company became a truly viable
company.

I think that's how this period
will be looked at in the future.

He asked us to do the impossible,

but he modelled that himself.

So, you know, how are you going

to tell the hardest-working man

in the world that like,
no, I can't get that done?

Elon, good to see you.

You too.

We're ready to walk over
to the factory. Walk over there? OK.

Do you ever think
you're going too quickly?

The faster we can accelerate the
advent of electric cars, the better

the world will be so, I think...

But as you well know,
it's a fine line

between growing and meeting
demand and making sure

that you don't stumble
along the way.

Well, I have no doubt that we will
stumble, and we certainly

have stumbled in the past, and no
doubt we'll stumble in the future.

But, yeah, but we want to go as fast
as we possibly can without maybe

falling totally flat on our face.

It was tough.

I mean, four hours of sleep
at night.

My wife left and went to Florida.

You know, she left around
the 15th of February.

She said, "I can't watch you any
more."

It was the toughest month
I ever worked.

He assumed that we weren't doing
enough fast enough to deliver

enough cars in Q1 of 2013.

Too little, too late.

He kept saying, "Too little,
too late."

There were moments when he would
get, he would definitely get upset.

And you've heard of him
firing people on the spot. Yes.

All of that happened. When Elon
was behaving badly,

I would kind of liken it
to a toddler. Right?

Like that was having a tantrum about
something or upset about something.

Yeah, my desk is in the factory.
It's just right over there.

I can show you where it is.

He wants to take us by his desk.

He moved his desk over to near my
desk so that he could watch

what was going on every single day.

I think it's important for a leader
to be at the front lines.

My biggest challenge is ramping
up production.

And so what's that about?

It's about being in the factory and
understanding where the issues are.

And so I want the very opposite of
being up in an ivory tower.

I want to be in the middle
of the battle.

And so that means putting my
desk in the middle of the factory.

So that's where it is.

It's a noticeably clean desk
with the exception of the award.

Yeah. I mean, it's got... I guess
it's my the Phototrend award,

my sunglasses and coffee.

Yeah, this is my, this is my desk.

I think failure is bad.

I don't think it's good,
but if something's important enough,

then you do it, even though the risk
of failure is high.

My advice, if somebody wants
to start a company,

is they should bear in mind
that the most likely outcome is,

is that it's not going to work
and they should only do

it if they feel that they are
really compelled to do it, you know.

There were a number
of times that I witnessed Elon

sleeping in the factory,
showing people how important

it is to be focused on finding
a solution.

Because if Elon Musk can take
the time to sleep there and be there

24 hours a day, everyone
else should make the time.

Factory's ramping up, you know,
and they're building cars,

but it's going to be close.

Could they build enough?

And we're halfway through the
quarter and we weren't making it.

We were not making it, and...

I'm getting emotional here because
this was really a tough time.

And we started bringing people
from Europe, bringing people

from all over to help deliver cars.

The IT team was washing cars, other
departments, marketing was driving

them to the other end
of the parking lot and...

I started an email trail to Elon
every night telling him,

"Here's how many you sold.
Here's how many delivered.

"That's how many we have deposits
on. And here's where we stand."

And it didn't look good.

It did not look good.

And he would... I would send it to
him at 11.30 and he'd respond back

at 11.35, and it just didn't
look good.

And he let me know.

Then on the Tuesday, the last week
of the quarter, I sent him one

and I remember it
as if it was yesterday.

He said, "This looks promising."

And it was Saturday at 3.00,

we delivered the
4,750th car at 3.00.

We made $11 million that quarter,
put us over the hump.

Stock went from $20 to $90.

And Tesla became a viable company.

I stood up on the desk like this,
called everybody around,

and I said...

"You guys have no idea how impactful
it is what you just did.

"You can't understand it.

"But what you just did is
monumental, not just for Tesla,

"but for what we're going to do
for mankind.

"You should all feel extraordinary
sense of accomplishment."

We were a real company on
March 31st, 2013.

19 years after starting
his first company,

Elon Musk now has a net
worth of $11 billion.

Tesla is starting to become
a household name

with mass market appeal.

And SpaceX has cornered
the lucrative market in launching

commercial satellites into orbit.

But despite all of these
achievements, Elon Musk has always

dreamt of one ultimate goal.

If you look at things
on an historical time scale,

the multibillion year history
of Earth itself,

you can really point to about half
a dozen major steps on the evolution

of life - single-celled life, life
moving from the oceans to land.

Mammals, consciousness, you know,
those are sort of like the big ones.

On that scale also would fit
the extension of life

to multiple planets.

But a critical element is making
reusable orbital craft.

In any mode of transport,

if you had a reusable vehicle
or expendable vehicle,

it would be a night and day
difference.

I mean, how many people
would have driven

here if their car was single-use.
Yeah.

We've got this weird situation
in space where vehicles can only

be used once.

If you want a return
journey, you've got to like

tow one behind you.

So the huge breakthrough
that SpaceX aspires to achieve,

and this is a very difficult thing,
is to make a fully reusable

orbital launch vehicle.

SpaceX is fundamentally a vehicle
to make a thriving future

for humanity in space possible.

You cannot do that with
$200 million rockets.

That is the equivalent of buying
a yacht, sailing it from here

to France, and then essentially
setting it on fire.

That makes no sense.

After each supply trip
to the International Space Station,

SpaceX attempt to land their rockets
safely so they can be used again.

You're one of the CEOs of SpaceX,
and I'm incredibly excited...

The CEO. You're THE CEO?
Oh, I'm sorry.

Your goal is to try to land
the Falcon rocket on a barge at sea

so you can re-use... A ship,
technically. A ship?

If it's got engines, it's a ship.
OK.

We have footage of... This is
the last attempt, I think, to land

the rocket after it successfully
delivered a payload.

Here it goes.

Come on, baby.

You can do it.

It broke the leg on landing.

It broke more than that.

So we're still looking at data.
We need to analyse what happened.

It certainly needs more work
in the next couple of missions.

So far, many of SpaceX's
attempts to land the Falcon

rocket have failed.

Liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket...

On the next trip
to the space station,

there's a bigger problem.

Falcon has cleared the tower.

We have important payload on board.

We have a docking adaptor
for the space station.

We had a spacesuit on there, too.

And of course, food and water
and oxygen, all the things

that the astronauts need.

Their survival depends on you.

Vehicle on course, on track.

I had my head down.
I was launch chief engineer.

I was looking at the data
and I looked at the video data.

At 137 seconds...

..suddenly the rocket disappears.

And I look up again
and then the rocket is gone.

And I was thinking, where did it go?

And then we see these, these metal
pieces raining down.

And it was it was clear it exploded
or, you know, fell apart in flight.

Caught by surprise while on a
break...

..Elon speaks to the press.

Elon. Elon.

Can you talk for a second?

Yeah...

Sorry.

Jet lagged and everything.

Our goal is to have the most
reliable rocket ever.

Because this is going to be
launching astronauts in a couple

of years so it needs to be super,
super reliable.

All right.

The failure of the rocket launch
is a setback for SpaceX,

but more damaging for Elon
are the stories around Tesla.

Madre.

Now bad news for Tesla motors.

It's now the target of a federal
investigation into why two

of the company's Model S vehicles
have caught fire this year.

A small number of Tesla car fires
has a large effect on a company

trying to appeal to a global
marketplace.

My kids are going to be in the car.
My friends will be in the car.
You guys will be in the car.

We care deeply about making sure
that this is the safest vehicle

in the world.
It's a brand-new car.

Three Model S's have now
caught fire.

Two after hitting debris
and one after the driver hit

a concrete wall.

Nobody was hurt, but what is
getting hurt are Tesla shares.

They've shed about 12% since
yesterday, dragging Tesla's market

cap down by about $3 Billion.

Yeah, no problem.

Elon goes on the offensive to defend
Tesla.

Three fires in these Tesla

vehicles with the most recent
one in the past week.

The headlines are extremely
misleading.

In fact, if fire risk is your
concern, you would have a great deal

of difficulty being in any better
car than the Model S.

I don't... Not at all.
That's not true.

That's a common misperception.

How do you turn around
the image of an electric car?

Our three non-injurious fires got
more national headlines

than a quarter million deadly
gasoline car fires.

That's mad.

What the heck is going on?

Are you quite thin-skinned
about this stuff?

Well...

I mean, I really care
about Tesla and about the Model S

and everything, so it's hard
to be dispassionate about that.

You know, it's a lot
of blood, sweat and tears

from a lot of people.

Frustrated the bad press won't go
away,

Elon repeatedly takes to Twitter.

With five minutes of research, you
can get to the truth very quickly.

Six months after the Falcon 9
explosion, Elon is desperate

for a good-news story.

Today, SpaceX are trying to safely
land its reusable rocket.

A historic first step
towards the mission to Mars.

So far, we only tried to land
on the ships.

And then here we go.

It's the first launch after
this major anomaly where we lose

the whole payload on the way
to the space station.

And it is the first launch
that tries to land on land.

Countdown, we had certain issues
where we needed to make decisions,

is this good or not?

I wanted Elon to decide.

And he was thinking and
I just... I know he was thinking,

and will come to a result.
I just wanted to remind him,

we got one minute left.

As calmly as possible.

Do you see anything on the sensors
that's a problem?

No, right now, nothing.

Go for launch.

And then we decide to go.

Come on, baby.

We see it do the landing burn.

And then we hear this boom
and the boom coincides

with the rocket disappearing.

OK, this is bad.

But mostly bad.

So we looked at the screen
again and there's the rocket.

It's standing up.

CHEERING

It was incredible. That was one of
the best days of my life.

I'm really thankful for seeing
first-hand that humanity can do

impossible things and they are only
impossible until somebody

pulls them off.

Elon is never satisfied, but that is
what makes him who he is.

It's just sitting there.

Look at that. What!

Holy smokes, man.

I think he's an incredible
gift to the world.

He is arguably the best leader
on the face of the planet.

I would take the bad with the good
because if you mess with the recipe,

you might mess with the magic.

His brain is fundamentally
more efficient.

There are times where like I might
think I disagree, but like,

he's probably like, thought
it through in a way that I haven't

thought about it.

If he asked me to jump,
I'm going to ask him how high?

And this is just the
beginning. They're going to Mars.

No!

Oh-oh. Got a new tweet
from Elon Musk.

"I am selling almost all physical
possessions, will own no house."

I think when Elon tweets,
he just goes what's in his mind

at the moment.

Some I understand and some I don't.

And he's described his father
as emotionally abusive.

My father has his serious issues.

My name is Errol Graham Musk.

I'm Elon's father.