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[suspenseful music]

[Elon] This is a difficult
thing that we're doing.

It's a hard thing,
it's a new thing,

and you know, I'd hope
that you would cheer us on.

[dramatic music]

[Mission Control] Three,
two, one, and lift off!

[rocket roaring]

[Elon] I think this is
a really good milestone

for the future of space flight.

You know, I think it's another
step towards the stars.

[Narrator] Elon Musk is not
your average tech billionaire.

He's one of the most
intriguing entrepreneurs

in business today.

The man behind PayPal
is taking on the giants

of the aerospace and
motor industries,

along with the oil corporations,

the energy utility
companies, and winning.

[Ashley] Elon Musk
is a visionary,

someone who comes along
perhaps once a century,

who is actually changing
the way we function

and the way we
look at the world.

Back then,

people were still afraid
to buy books online,

so putting together a
financial services suite

on the internet was a
rather revolutionary idea,

and that company turned
out to be PayPal,

the online payment service.

It's one thing to run a company

that's worth a billion dollars.

Elon Musk has four.

My personal ideology is
kind of split right now

between trying to be helpful
on Earth related stuff,

which is sustainable energy,

and then trying to
advance space technology,

so we can establish a
self-sustaining city on Mars.

From AI, to disrupting
the car industry,

to SolarCity.

I mean how many
other people can say,

I have my own rocket company?

Not many.

- In terms of space,
Elon has completely changed

how we think about everything.

When you look at
what SpaceX has done

with their reusable rockets,

we are seeing science fiction
of the 1950s coming to life.

Rockets land as they
always were meant to do.

It's really trying to land
on a postage stamp there.

[Doug] Astonishingly difficult.

So, Mars does beckon.

I am very convinced

that this is gonna
happen in my lifetime.

- If you look
at Tesla alone,

has changed the way
that automobiles

will be forever in the future.

He has truly broken
down the wall

that was impossible to break,

and now we're in
a situation where

all of the big car companies

are switching massively
to electric cars,

and that is a revolution
done by one man.

[Sarah] He's almost like
a real life Iron Man

in what he's doing.

There's a lot more
that will happen

before his story is over.

So, I think we just get
to watch, and be excited,

and see what comes next.

A lot of people think that
successful entrepreneurs

are just happened to be in the
right place at the right time

with the right product
or right service.

That's untrue.

Why are they not
content with $25 million

when they sell
their first company,

then go on to a second company
for another $50 million,

or a third company when they
fail and go into another one.

Serial entrepreneurs are driven.

They're psychologically driven,

and it's usually to do with
something in their childhood.

[Narrator] Elon Reeve Musk
was born in Pretoria in 1971,

the son of a Canadian mother
and South African father.

Elon grew up in South Africa,

and he had a very
unfettered upbringing.

He has said that he was
raised basically by books

and occasionally nannies.

His mother and father
have two other kids.

They're, he has a younger
brother and sister,

Kimball and Tuska, but it
seemed like Elon didn't have

a lot of adult supervision.

He said that he was basically
out there building explosives,

and learning about conduction
with very little supervision.

He had a passion
for engineering,

and obviously physics
and the sciences as well.

[Narrator] Musk attended
Waterkloof Primary School,

and after his parents divorced,

nine year old Elon went
to live with his father.

Elon at one stage
in his childhood,

after his parents divorced,

says that he felt sorry for
his dad living by himself,

so he opted to go and
live with his dad.

That, he later called
a huge mistake.

He's been on record saying,

he didn't have a great
relationship with his father.

He's notably said some really,

really hard things
about his dad.

It sounds like it was a
really awful situation.

His father was an engineer,

and Elon says that a lot
of his engineering nous

came from his father,

and his father had some
issues according to Elon,

but what he did have
was a very incisive

engineering background.

As disturbing as
Elon's relationship

with his dad seemed to be,

Elon's relationship with his
mother appears to be very good

and went from
strength to strength.

I think his mother is probably
the ultimate optimist.

She's lovely.

She's really something.

[people chattering]

Open the New York Times,
there's Maye, it's great.

I've been modeling
for 50 years, ha!

So, you just have to just
keep on going, and be nice,

and available, and be surprised

when you suddenly become
mother of the bride,

and then grandmother.

Elon's Mom has been
very supportive of him

over the years.

She's constantly
outspoken on Twitter

telling us the wonders of Elon,

and she's clearly
very proud of him.

Maye Musk is an
incredible woman.

At something like 69,

she's called an "It
Girl" by Vanity Fair.

She's an in-demand model
who's doing campaigns

for big major brands
all over the world.

She's one of the most
glamorous older women

you will ever see.

Despite the fact that Elon
says he tried repeatedly,

again and again and again

to try and repair his
relationship with his father,

at this stage he's
just given up,

because he doesn't believe
his dad is capable of change.

He's talked openly
about how as a child

he spent a lot of time alone.

He says he can still remember

the sound of an empty house,

footsteps far off
in the distance,

and he never ever
wanted that again.

[suspenseful music]

My own view is the really
stellar entrepreneurs,

their life experiences
particularly in childhood

are the determinant of
their success later on.

If you look at their early
childhood experiences,

you will find a number
of adverse events.

Substantial adverse events
like school bullying,

or being rejected.

These events drive you, you
now need to prove something.

You wanna gain control
of a world again,

you didn't have control
of when you were younger,

and moving toward a top job,

being an entrepreneur,
being a CEO, gives you power,

gives you strength,
gives you control,

the thing they never had
when they were younger,

so I think that's a driving
force in many entrepreneurs.

[melancholy music]

[Narrator] Elon Musk attended

Bryanston High
School in Pretoria,

where he thrived academically.

He had quite a tough upbringing.

There are some reports
of bullying as well.

You know, any child that
shows that sort of intellect,

and interest might come under
the glare of the bullies.

He was even hospitalized
after one particular fight.

He was a nerd.

He was bullied at school.

There was one point he was
even knocked unconscious.

You know, it wasn't obvious

that he was a marketing
genius at that point.

[ref whistle blows]

Elon took on wrestling classes,

and a bit of judo in an
attempt to compensate

with a bit of added physicality,

and then he grew
up a little bit,

got a growth spurt,
got a bit taller,

and really took the
bullies head on.

[suspenseful music]

[Narrator] After spending
three years at Bryanston High,

Elon attended Pretoria
High School for boys.

Elon attended Boys High
from 1986 until 1988,

which is the year
he matriculated.

He excelled in science,

and he also excelled
in computer studies.

He, in fact, got a
distinction for both science

and computer studies in 1988.

As I do recall his grades,

'cause I have them
in my mark book,

and he was definitely
top of the science class.

I've taught many
boys over the years,

and Elon did stick in my mind.

You know, I can't tell
you where every boy sat,

but I can remember Elon

sitting at the back
of the classroom

getting on with his work.

He wasn't one of the boys

that wanted attention
all the time.

We always take a lot of
pride in all of the boys,

but from a personal
point of view

having taught Elon science,

I'd like to think that
I made a small input

in his formative years.

I've read would
like to go to Mars.

I'm hoping he'll do
that a lot sooner,

but Star Trek style so
he can invite me there.

[upbeat music]

[Narrator] Elon Musk
was always different.

His entrepreneurial
ventures started early.

In 1984, a science fiction
inspired tech success

gave a hint of his future

when he sold his first
commercial software.

[Jeff] He started working on
computers at the age of 10,

working very hard,
and being very clever

in developing programs.

He develops a video
game called Blastar.

He famously sold this to
a PC magazine for $500.

Elon was asked about

what sets him apart
from other people,

and he himself said,

there were things that were
very obvious to him growing up

that other people
didn't understand,

how conduction works,

how light and wires make
a light switch go on,

things that to him were
immediately clear and obvious,

whereas other people
didn't automatically,

especially when they're like 14,

understand what was going on.

He played a lot of chess,

and as a result of that was
always sort of thinking ahead.

In chess you play to
think moves ahead.

So, even when he was younger,

he was looking at ideas for

what might make a good
business in the short term,

and then what could be part
of a grand plan further on.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] After graduating
from high school,

Musk briefly attended the
University of Pretoria

before deciding to
leave South Africa.

The story of Elon Musk's
wealth and his rise

is tied up in part with
the American dream.

It was always ingrained to him

that South Africa wasn't
where he was going to achieve

the ambitions he had.

He wanted to be in America.

He wanted to be a
part of that scene.

Initially he couldn't
go directly to America.

He actually had to
go through Canada.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Elon spent
two years studying

at Queen's University
in Ontario.

He funded his own degrees
in Canada and the US

by getting scholarships
and working part time,

so he didn't have a huge
amount of money behind him.

He has a famous university
paper where he talks about

wanting to conquer different
areas of the world,

and those included the
internet, space exploration,

solar energy,
artificial intelligence,

and brain learning
interfaces as well.

[ethereal music]

Elon Musk married his
childhood sweetheart.

They met at university.

Her name was Justine and she
was absolutely beautiful,

and on their first date

they were supposed to
go out for ice cream.

She actually said yes, and
then basically ditched him,

and went off to do
some studying instead.

He didn't take no for an answer.

He pursued her.

He continued to pursue her,

and even after Elon left

the university he
attended with Justine

and moved to Horton
Business School,

he still sent her
roses regularly.

When Elon Musk is
interested in you,

I think he comes on
like a steam train

or an electric
steam train perhaps,

but Elon Musk is unstoppable.

He sees what he wants,

and he does everything
he needs to do to get it.

He's like that in business
and he's like that in love.

[Narrator] Having
completed degrees

in business and physics,

in 1995 Musk abandoned
the PhD at Stanford

and headed for Silicon Valley.

He famously dropped
out of his third degree

at Stanford University in
California after just two days.

And, he had launched a company

with his brother
Kimball called Zip2,

and it was effectively a
form of online Yellow Pages

that he sold to
newspapers at the time.

And, he struck lucky when
the company was bought.

They actually ended up
selling it to Compaq,

for about $307 million,

when he was only 27 years old.

He made about $22
million back then,

which is wonderful,
an awful lot of money,

but in typical Elon style,

he recycled half of that
into his next venture,

and which eventually
ended up becoming PayPal.

[suspenseful music]

[Narrator] Having disrupted

the traditional paper
advertising industry with Zip2,

Musk's next venture took on
the global financial market.

So, he worked to setup a company

called X.com,

which is the precursor
to what is now PayPal.

X.com was supposed to be

a full services financial
services business.

So, it sounds sort
of archaic now,

but back at the time
putting together

a financial services
suite on the internet

was a rather revolutionary idea.

He had one internet
win under his belt.

So, it was not
especially challenging

to bring on new engineers,
or new business people

who wanted to work on something

that seemed very exciting

with someone who had
already won already once.

So, that was a big
feather in his cap.

It was, I think,
more challenging

to persuade outside investors
that it was a good idea,

'cause they were not
swayed by one win.

It was not enough to buy public
opinion in Silicon Valley.

The jury was still sort of out

on whether he was genius
or crazy or just a big ego,

or how it was all
gonna play out,

but he invested
$10 or $12 million

of his own money into X.com,

so we didn't need a whole lot
of money right off the bat.

He sort of took
care of all of that.

[Narrator] Musk
was revolutionary

in his strategy at X.com,

gifting new customers
cash rewards,

and creating peer-to-peer
payment systems.

My initial impressions
were just that he was

very focused and very passionate

on what he was about to do.

It seemed very clear early on

that Elon was not playing by
the standard book of life,

or business, or anything else.

So, I was just gonna
be along for the ride.

At the beginning Elon
wasn't easy to read at all,

mostly because you
just had no idea

how he was going to
react to anything.

I had no experience with someone

who thought the way that he did,

or talked the way that he did,

or had as much confidence
about what he was doing,

and in himself as he did.

It was so foreign to me as
someone who grew up in Iowa,

or maybe it's
foreign to everyone.

I don't know.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] PayPal was voted

one of the 10 worst
business ideas in 1999.

Elon Musk was instrumental

in the company's focus on
a global payment system,

which would change the
course of the internet.

People probably know
him mostly from PayPal.

That's when he really first
came to public consciousness.

PayPal was how are we
going to turn finances

into an online transaction?

How are we gonna make it easy?

How are we gonna make
it more efficient?

It sounds sort of obvious now,

but back then people were still
afraid to buy books online,

so asking them to put all their
financial data in one place

was not a solid proposition.

The goal of the company
that we were building

was always trying
to do something

very positive for humanity,

and he was thinking about
space, and solar panels,

and all of that way back then.

So, we knew that this was
sort of a stepping-stone

on the way to grander dreams.

[Narrator] PayPal soon became

the online payment
system of choice,

from a few thousand users,

multiplying to more than
a million within months.

The person to person
payment side of things

took off so quickly, we were
gaining traction like crazy,

and then the online auction
market took hold of it,

and it blew up into
this huge thing.

We were adding tens of thousands

of new accounts every day,

which at the time was
fairly unprecedented.

Elon was very hands-on in
all aspects of the company.

It was his money after all
that we were all playing with.

So, I think when it's your
money on the table, you have,

it's in your best interests

to be very involved
in all the details.

[car honks]

Everyday was a new
sort of fire, right?

Everyday something
was burning down

that needed to be addressed.

We had a customer
service nightmare

where soon after
launching the service,

we had thousands and thousands
of emails in the queue,

because people
didn't understand,

again, the early
days of the internet,

they didn't understand how
to get their money out.

And so, they would
freak out, and call in,

or email like 12
different times.

So, we have two million
emails in the cue

and we only had 10
customer service people

dedicated to dealing with that.

And so, we really had no idea
what we were going to do.

Customer service was enormously
expensive in California.

And so, I said you know
this is gonna sound crazy,

but I have a huge extended
family in the Midwest.

I could train them all to
do customer service at home.

Elon laughed at first, and
then a couple of hours later

came back and said all
right, get on a plane.

So, I went out and taught
10 of my family members

how to do customer
service from home,

and then my sister
ended up hiring

12 stay at home parents in
a small town in Nebraska

who started all
working from home.

And they were so good
that we ended up building

a customer service center
in Omaha, Nebraska,

which now employs 1800 people,

and that turned out fantastic.

We went from zero to a
hundred people in six weeks

out in Omaha,

and that was probably the
most challenging thing,

but we were a little
short of options, so.

[laughs]

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Led by his
passion for perfectionism,

determination, and
a heroic work ethic,

Musk has succeeded in markets

that were previously considered
impossible to conquer.

[Julie] He's always had higher
expectations for himself

than he did for other people,

so he pushed himself
very, very hard.

There's a lot of pressure on him

because he has a
lot of expectations,

a lot of responsibility

to his shareholders, to the
capital that has sourced,

to his staff, his colleagues,

so there's a lot of demands.

So, you can't just
say you know what?

This is all good and great.

I'm just gonna take
six months off.

Why, because I've got 20
billion, so it's okay.

No, it doesn't work like that.

As the stakes get higher,

and the more people
that get involved

there's more pressure
on that front,

but I think he looks
at it, and turns away.

What drives Elon, what
pushes him, I don't get it,

but he's making
changes in the world,

because he doesn't
ever stop and rest.

He just keeps going.

Elon Musk is famous for his
work ethic, which is nonstop.

I think he has two modes,
and there's stop and go.

He works around the clock

and he expects everyone
else to do the same.

Elon was up all hours
of the night working.

He would send emails at
midnight or 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.

and just be very
focused on some problem

that we were trying to solve.

If you hear stories from
SpaceX in the early days,

people were really struggling
to keep pace with him,

but that's how he works,

and if you can't keep
pace, you're out the door.

I thought he was a good boss.

It's sort of infamous now

that he runs through
PR people very quickly,

but at that time, I thought
I was just gonna be like,

a normal PR person. [laughs]

And so, Elon wasn't really
gonna have any of that.

He expected a lot of his people,

but we all expected
a lot of each other,

and that's how you get it done.

In the culture of startups
the expectation is

that everybody is
working all the time.

You get there at 9:00
or 10:00 in the morning

and not leave
until 9:00 or 10:00

or maybe after that at night.

And Elon was definitely working
until midnight every night.

That was just what we
did, and it was exciting.

Rarely did anyone complain
about that kind of thing,

'cause you really felt like
you were changing the world.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] By the year 2000,

Musk had married Justine Wilson.

He was always
pining for Justine,

and he was still in
Canada at that point.

And so, it was lovely
when she came down.

The couple did suffer a
tragedy very early on.

Their baby boy was
10 weeks old, Nevada,

when he died suddenly of SIDS.

It was beyond difficult for
both of them to cope with.

Justine immediately sought
IVF, and fertility help,

and went on to have five boys,

one set of triplets and
one set of twin boys.

So, very quickly they went from

having no children
to having five.

Justine has written
extensively about

how it caused a strain
in the marriage,

as it might do, as it would do,

but this tragic event of
losing their infant son

unfortunately didn't
draw the couple closer,

but rather was the
beginning, perhaps,

of what ultimately
would pull them apart.

[Narrator] As PayPal flourished,

boardroom troubles dogged Musk.

An internal disagreement
with the Board

resulted in Elon being
ousted from his own company.

There was a time
when Peter Theil

and Elon were co-CEOs at PayPal,

but there were certain
differences in opinion

about the technology and
the branding of the company

that led to the vote of no
confidence to oust Elon.

And Elon unfortunately,
was in South Africa.

I had just spoken with
him on the phone that day,

and he's like how bad is it?

I'm like oh, it's not that bad.

And then that night I went
home, and I was laying in bed,

and I started realizing and
started putting together

all the pieces of who I
had seen in the office,

and what was happening,

and at about 10:30 at night
I sat straight up in bed,

and I'm sure I said some
swear word at the ceiling.

I got up, and I went
back in the office,

and sure enough
everybody was there,

and that was when
they were doing it.

They were talking to
the Board on the phone,

and ousting him, and I
tried to call to Elon,

and he was on a plane,
and I couldn't get him.

I couldn't get him
until the morning,

and by then it was too
late, it was already done.

I'm sure there was quite a
bit of unhappiness early on,

but he really handled
it marvelously.

[suspenseful music]

[Narrator] Musk left PayPal,

but as the largest shareholder,

remained in an advisory role.

His next windfall
arrived next 2002,

when eBay bought PayPal,

leaving him wealthy
beyond belief.

That was where Elon

started to make
some serious money.

He cashed in about
$165 million wonderful.

What was amazing is he
plowed almost all of it

into these new
business ventures.

He didn't put any
aside for himself,

didn't think of sort
of personal gain,

in short term at least.

A lot of us would've
just retired.

He made the money in PayPal,
he could've just stopped,

and you know, bought a place
in the south of France,

and said I'm retiring,
I'm 28, and be done,

but he ended up starting

three other billion
dollar companies.

[dramatic music]

- He took $100 million
and put it into SpaceX,

$70 million ended
up going to Tesla,

and about $10 million
going to SolarCity.

Most people would
say $165 million,

I'm set for life.

That's it, where's the beach?

Let's go.

Not Elon, and I have a
lot of respect for that.

[Emcee] Ladies and gentleman,

-please welcome Elon Musk.
-[audience applauding]

[Narrator] In 2001,

Elon established
the Musk Foundation,

delivering solar energy
systems to areas of the world

struck by natural disasters.

He also pledged to give away

at least half of his
wealth to philanthropy.

A lot of people think

that entrepreneurs
are driven by money,

and that's why they're
serial entrepreneurs.

They wanna make more and more.

Really after you
make $50 million,

you need to make more money?

Not really, that's
not a good driver.

They are not driven
by money at all.

He's aware of it no doubt.

If you've got $20
billion floating around,

I'm sure you would've noticed,

but I don't think that's
the main driver for him.

I really don't.

I think he's got
a bigger vision,

beyond this little
thing called money,

but money helps him
execute the dream,

so it is a necessary thing.

It's certainly not the pursuit
of money at this point.

I think he realized we're here,

and it's more
interesting to spend time

doing something that you find
meaningful in your heart,

and that's what he's doing.

It's almost like a drug.

When you've done one
successful thing,

you wanna the other one,

you wanna come up with a new
vision and keep learning.

It's just a way of being.

He would be bored on the beach.

[Julie] It has to be a very
big world changing goal

for him to get up
in the morning.

That's just the way he's wired.

So, I don't expect that to stop.

I think it actually
is gonna make

a difference to the world

if we transition to
sustainable transport

sooner rather than later.

We're not doing this because
we thought it was like

a way to get rich or anything.

Like I said, I thought maybe

a 10 percent chance of
success at the beginning.

I thought I would just lose
all my money, and I almost did.

So, it's not like it was,

I came very close to
losing everything.

[suspenseful music]

[Operations] Falcon 9
has cleared the tower.

[Narrator] Having
conquered cyber space,

Musk's next mission would
focus on outer space.

In 2002, he launched one
of the most revolutionary

businesses of our time,

focused on shaking up
the space industry.

The pivotal breakthrough
that's necessary

to make life multi-planetary is

a fully and rapidly
reusable orbit-class rocket.

This is a very
difficult thing to do,

because we live in a planet,

where that is just
barely possible.

In the last 12 months or so,

I've come to the conclusion
that it can be solved,

and I think SpaceX is
going to try to do it.

We could fail.

I'm not saying we are
certain of success here,

but we are going
to try to do it.

He had already been
talking about energy

and transportation and space.

I was like why space?

He's like space is cool.

Alright. [laughs]

No one thought he
could do what he's done

when he first set out
to achieve his goals.

I mean this random South African

coming along in the 2000s

and saying he wants
to build a rocket

that can land itself
back on the ground,

can take things to orbit

for 10 times cheaper
than anyone else.

He was laughed out the
room in most places.

They kind of
ignored him at first

and then he kind
of put his money

where his mouth was literally.

He famously went to Russia once

to try and buy some
rocket engines off them,

and he got laughed out
of the country basically

by their engineers,

so he came back to the US
and he built his own rocket.

We were still used to
NASA, space equals NASA,

but when Elon Musk
started to experiment

with these new rockets,

we realized that
Elon Musk and SpaceX

is a serious space player.

[Astronaut] Everything
looking good

for the beginning of
today's space walking tasks.

[Narrator] The first three
SpaceX launches failed,

which sparked skepticism
in many investors.

[Mission Control] The
vehicle on course on track.

And, we appear to have had
a launch vehicle failure.

Space flight is a
tricky business.

I mean, it is
definitely difficult,

and I think we forget
that sometimes.

We see launches and
landings as routine.

It's a huge amount of energy
and dangerous substances,

and that work is very hard.

Look where we are today.

The critics have been silenced.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Just one year
after founding SpaceX,

Musk invested in Tesla Motors,

an electric car manufacturer

aiming to produce a
power-packed zero polluting car.

Over the next several years,

Tesla would take the
lead in a niche market.

Our goal was to really
to try to create

the best car in the world
in order to show that

an electric car can be
the best car in the world.

Because a lot of people

have this perception that
electric cars are compromised,

that there are issues
with electric cars,

and then if you buy electric,

it's because you have some
sort of electric fetish.

What I think is
incredibly important

is to break that perception
and show that indeed

the electric car can be
better than any gasoline car.

Cars were always a big deal.

He had the F1 McLaren show up

very early on in the X.com days,

and there was a Jaguar
very soon after that,

and he liked them all very much,

anything that was rare,
expensive, and cool.

If you look at the revolution

that's almost upon
us in electric cars,

Tesla was there first.

-There's been
various attempts

to bring in electric
cars, which have failed,

because big car giants
didn't want them to succeed.

Elon knew nothing
about electric cars

when he started out,

but recognized that
there was a problem there

that needed to be solved,

and he just bulldozed
his way through it.

I'm really excited by
the fact that we've got

a zero emission sports car
that can go head-to-head

with a Ferrari and
a Porsche and win.

This is what's truly disruptive,

a tech guy coming
into the car space.

Elon doesn't look
at it as a car.

It's a piece of software

with a little bit of
hardware attached to it.

The driving
experience in a Tesla,

everybody is raving about it.

[Test Driver] It was awesome,
it was unbelievable,

the acceleration was
out of this world.

It was like a roller coaster.

I felt like I was
gonna fly or something.

It's quick, it's silent,

but also with Teslas
it's the technology,

the fact that they
update themselves.

I had a Tesla for a while and
I'll come out in the morning.

Software update
as your phone does

and you get stuff on your car

that you didn't have
the previous night.

You can actually move your
Tesla out of a parking spot

with your smartphone.

So, it's just incredible.

For somebody who's a
car fan and a tech fan,

then Tesla do really
tick a lot of boxes.

The future is electric.

In the future we won't
be filling up for petrol.

Elon has understood
that for a decade.

Already you're seeing
countries across Europe,

France, the UK,

who are saying they're gonna
ban the sale of petrol cars

in the next 10, 20 years,

and that's pretty
much thanks to Tesla.

[Elon] In the face of massively
declining oil prices

I think it actually
becomes more urgent

that the auto manufactures
transition to electric

and put a huge amount of effort

behind their electric
vehicle programs.

What's amazing is how the
rest of the auto industry

is sort of following.

They had this lithium-ion
cell technology

that other companies
really couldn't match.

-There isn't a car
company in the world

who isn't looking at
an electric vehicle.

There's probably not a
car company in the world

who hasn't taken a Tesla apart

to see what's going
on underneath.

At Tesla we've open
sourced our patents,

so we're trying to be
as helpful as possible

for the advent of
electric vehicles

and we've also said that
our super charge network,

we're happy to have other
car makers use that network.

We're really doing
doing everything we can

to accelerate the advent
of sustainable cars.

I mean, now we know that
GM and Land Rover have said

they're gonna start
doing electric cars

in the near future,
just electric cars.

There's so many things
that Tesla has done first,

which has got every other
car maker around the planet

looking, thinking yeah,

we've got to do like
that haven't we?

The fundamental problem
is the rules today

incent people to create carbon,

and this is madness, and
whatever you incent will happen.

We need to send a clear message
to the negotiating teams

and to the politicians
that this time

there needs to be
significant change.

[Narrator] An essential part

of Elon Musk's tale of triumph

is how close he came
to complete disaster.

By his own admission, 2008 was
the worst year of his life.

His companies were battered
by the economic meltdown.

Three failed launches left
SpaceX hanging in the balance,

and Tesla was on the
verge of bankruptcy.

Elon was widely
assumed to be finished.

He certainly has
his ups and downs,

and believe me it has been
lots and lots of ups and downs.

He seems to have the
media on his back

almost permanently,

but that seems to be the
price of his success.

In the early years, it really
came down to a knife edge,

as to whether or not
SpaceX was going to make it

whether or not it was
going to go bankrupt.

He was having to allocate
resources and money

between Tesla and SpaceX in
order to keep them going,

and it came down to
having to borrow money

from friends and family,

and bear in mind this is
a man who made millions

off a software sale earlier.

Elon Musk he has had
plenty of failures,

failed rocket launches,

and you have to go through
this learning curve.

[Julie] With the early
rockets and all of that

he didn't seem to
understand that

the chances were they
were going to blow up,

but sometimes through
your greatest failure,

you make your greatest
steps forward.

He just keeps going,

he keeps pushing the boat out.

It is just an
insatiable appetite

to just keep going
whatever happens.

Yes is yes,

maybe is yes,

and a no is just a delayed yes.

There were a million
places along the way

where he could have
stopped or been derailed

or decided to go buy that
island and just sit on it,

but he didn't.

They're risk takers,
they love it.

They live to be
on the knife edge.

Failure is expected.

Entrepreneurs don't
expect necessarily

to succeed all the time,

which is a characteristic
that makes them successful,

because when they do fail,

and all entrepreneurs do
because they take risks,

they just brush it off.

They have this phenomenal
bounce back factor.

Unlike other people who get
absorbed by the failure,

and get stymied,

and they can't do
anything else for a while,

he can cope with failure.

And to be able to bounce back,

and then go into another
venture without blinking an eye

is what it's all about.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] With his companies
on the brink of collapse,

doom was averted
at the last minute.

Tesla was saved by investors

and SpaceX was awarded a
$1.6 billion NASA contract.

The SpaceX team is incredible.

They are really
pushing the boundaries

in terms of where we're going
forward with exploration.

I think humans are
naturally driven to do this,

and this is really
the beginning I think

of human beings leaving
low Earth orbit.

I certainly plan on
being around to see that.

In 2010, Elon launched
his Dragon spacecraft

to the International
Space Station.

SpaceX became the first company

to dock a private
spacecraft with the ISS,

which was at the time amazing.

[Josh] This is Mission
Control, Houston,

official hatch opening time

for the SpaceX
Dragon Spacecraft.

Every bit of adrenaline in my
body released at that point.

It's such an extremely
intense moment.

Anything could have gone wrong,

and everything went
right fortunately,

so I felt, I feel very lucky.

[Josh] Don Pettit giving
the thumbs up there,

as well as the rest of the crew.

Elon Musk is developing
a track record

of delivering on
what he says he will.

So, he already has
developed reusable rockets.

He is supplying
the space station.

The next stage will
be to have versions

of his Dragon Spacecraft
that are human rated.

So, he's actually
delivering on his promise.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] After his
marriage to Justine

had unraveled into divorce,

Musk began dating British
actress Talulah Riley.

According to Justine,
her divorce was finalized

and six weeks
later she found out

Elon was married
to someone else.

It was an extremely
quick courting.

He met her, courted her,
and then asked her to marry.

They went on to have
a very wonderful,

but also very
tempestuous relationship.

They married, they
divorced, they remarried,

they announced a divorce and
they called off their divorce,

and then put the
divorce back on.

It's very difficult
to keep track

of Elon and Talulah's
ups and downs.

They ended in a very
amicable fashion

and even now Talulah says
never, never say never.

They could still end
up back together again.

[upbeat music]

[Narrator] Over the
next several years,

Tesla would take the lead
in the electric car market.

Under Elon's leadership,
the company is heralded

as the great American
auto industry

success story of the century.

This is kind of crazy
but I just learned,

I was just told that,

the total number of
orders for the Model 3

in the past 24 hours
has now passed 150,000.

[cheering]

His concerns about climate
change and sustainability

is what's behind all of this
push towards an electric car,

not just a fancy Tesla,

but also a mid-range car
that for $35,000 or less

that everybody can drive.

When the Model 3 was launched,

there were something like

400,000 people who
put money down.

That's unheard of
in the car industry.

You might have
some waiting list,

but to wait that long for
a relatively affordable car

is something we
haven't seen before.

You can see the line
has been building up

ever since we got here,

so, it's like a never ending
line and some tourists

actually came up to me
and asked what this was.

And then I said it was Tesla
and they knew about it.

Tesla famously
doesn't advertise.

I don't think it needs to.

There's such a buzz
about the brand.

Things were on
track to be able to

meet the Model 3
production timing

in the middle of next year,

and really excited
about what's happening.

Tesla's value is something

that has a lot of people
scratching their heads,

the fact that it's a company
that's not making money,

but yet it has a, a huge value.

If you look at the
revenues to market cap

of the car maker Honda and
the value to revenue on Tesla,

Honda would be trading
at about 0.5 times.

Tesla would be trading
about 7.4 times today.

So, Tesla is obviously
valued a lot more

given the little revenue
that it produces.

Why?

Because there's a lot of
goodwill in the stock,

and that's because
Elon has a fan club

in the investment community.

And that access to
capital, that good will,

that brand if you like
is wonderful for Elon,

because that does allow him
to get on with other things,

such as The Boring Company
or his AI ambitions

or whatever else crazy
frontier driven ideas

he comes up with next.

The reputation Tesla has as
much to do with the product

as the guy that's
running the company.

Frankly, if the cars
weren't any good

people wouldn't buy them,

but they are good, they
are technology leaders,

and that's what really
gets the following.

The fact that there's
a guy like Elon

running the company as well
is the icing on the cake.

The general public
really appreciate

that sort of candid approach

to how he's running
his companies.

What keeps me
intrigued about Musk

is that if you look closely,

you can see his signature in
the products that he makes.

So, for example, the Tesla
sound system goes up to 11.

It's a reference to Spinal Tap.

The Ludicrous Mode,

the warp speed that
you get on the screen

when you unlock an Easter
egg for extra performance.

It's those little details

that car companies
don't normally do

but Tesla just has a
bit of fun with them.

It's not yet like Knight Rider,

because the car doesn't
talk back at you.

You can't have a
conversation with it,

but when it comes to
autonomous technology,

Tesla is certainly one
of the leaders out there.

If people want
electric cars, fine,

but you see through
electric cars comes what?

Driverless cars.

Now, when you see
some of the things

that have happened
with driverless cars

and you see how computers
can go wrong, well you know,

I'm not sure I would want
to be in driverless car.

People are quite keyed off

over the whole
autonomous vehicle thing.

I think maybe people have
this like image of like,

robot cars run amok.

It's really not
anything like that.

All of that would apply to,

the software goes through
extreme levels of validation

before a customer ever sees it.

So, there's all
sorts of nonsense

about people being used
as human guinea pigs.

You know, it's basically

advanced driver's
assistance at this point,

and in fact we use
the name Autopilot,

because that's what that's
what's used in an aircraft,

but the presumption in aircraft
is that the pilot must,

you know, pay
attention and be alert

and be ready to take
over at any time,

not that the pilot can
then go, go to sleep,

or you know walk away
from the cockpit.

[car engine revving]

[Narrator] Musk is confronting

some of the world's
biggest challenges head on.

Through Tesla, he intends to
reduce our use of fossil fuels,

while simultaneously
attempting to revolutionize

the energy industry.

A key part of his aim

is to change not just
energy consumption,

but energy production.

Elon is the Chairman
of SolarCity,

one of the largest producers
of solar power systems

in the United States.

People in a remote village
or an island somewhere

can take solar panels, combine
it with the Tesla Powerwall

and never have to worry about
having electricity lines.

Electricity lines are not

the most pretty
thing in the world.

So, being able to
have this solution

just works wherever you are.

The fact that it's
wall mounted is vital,

because it means you don't
need to have a battery room.

It means that a normal
household can mount this

on their garage or on the
outside wall of their house

and it doesn't take up any room.

You could actually go if you
want completely off grid.

You can take your solar panels,
charge the battery packs,

and that's all you use and
the cost of this is $3500.

[audience cheering]

Oh wow, the grid,
it's actually zero.

[Elon laughs]

This entire night has
been powered by batteries.

[audience cheering]

With The SolarCity Company
as now part of Tesla.

Elon is trying to
make solar panels

more attractive to
the mass market.

They launched their new
solar roof technology,

whereas in the old days
solar panels would be

big, black, bulky squares

that you'd put out on
your roof or your garden.

Now people going to
have solar panels

embedded into their roof.

[Narrator] Tesla's
lithium-ion battery

installed in South Australia,

led to a massive
drop in the cost

of backing up the
region's power supply.

The system powered
by wind turbines

reduced the price of power
outages by 90 percent.

They are taking the
surplus electricity

that's being produced
in Australia,

and storing it and putting
it back to the grid.

I think their latest
estimate suggests

they're making up to a
million dollars a day

in the electricity
they're storing,

which is pretty impressive.

That came from a bet that
he made over Twitter.

So, it was an
Australian businessman,

and they were discussing
about the feasibility

of making a city
run on solar power.

And a bet was
issued to Musk about

can you do that
in this much time,

and he went, I'll take that bet.

[keyboard keys chattering]

He put the batteries in place,

had it up and running
within the time scale,

all for a billionaire's bet
and that's what came of it.

We have reached an agreement

with Tesla Motor Company

subject to legislative
review and approval,

that will enable Tesla to
build the world's largest

and most advanced
battery factory,

right here in the Silver State.

[audience cheering]

Why do we even call
it the Gigafactory?

It's because, it's
actually gonna be,

it's not just gonna be

the biggest lithium-ion
battery factory in the world,

but it will actually
be bigger than the sum

of all lithium-ion
factories in the world.

So, it's difficult to
quite describe in words,

but it's a heck
of a big factory.

[audience cheering]

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Since
the Dragon launch,

Elon Musk has continued to
make history with SpaceX.

When the Falcon Heavy rocket

launched in February 2018,

it heralded the start
of a new space race.

[rocket engines rumbling]

[Phil] This is a big deal.

This is kind of the Super
Bowl of rocket launches.

Elon Musk and his
team just proved

that the Falcon Heavy works,

which puts us now in a
completely different realm,

what we can put into deep space,

what we can send to Mars.

[Narrator] Lifting off
from the same launch pad

that sent the crew of
Apollo 11 to the moon,

the mission
represented a new era

in the progress of space flight.

[majestic music]

The launch of the
SpaceX Falcon Heavy,

it was significant for so
many reasons scientifically.

I mean it's the most powerful
rocket we've seen launched

since the Saturn V, which
took humans to the moon.

[Neil] It's one
small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

We are entering a new
era of space exploration,

which is extremely exciting.

Sort of the continuance
of the dream of Apollo.

I was on the Space
Coast for the launch.

I haven't seen it that
busy there since 2011

when the space shuttle launched

and landed for the final time.

It really has started to
capture people's imaginations

about space exploration.

It was a great achievement
by a private company

to create and
successfully launch

one of the biggest lifting
rockets ever in history.

It's the third largest
rocket ever to be launched.

We had the Apollo Saturn V,

and of course we
had the shuttle.

The Falcon Heavy is
that order of magnitude.

It is a seriously big rocket.

The Falcon Heavy
can carry 64 tons.

That's a lot, I
mean it's a truck.

It's the equivalent
of a 737 jetliner,

filled with passengers,

filled with baggage,
filled with fuel,

lifting that up and
sending it into space,

and not just sending
it into space,

sending it beyond
low Earth orbit,

sending it beyond the moon,
sending it beyond Mars.

This launch will also have
political implications

in my view,

because the American
government is preparing

and budgeting for
NASA's rockets,

but the fact that Elon
and SpaceX have now proven

they can successfully
launch the Falcon Heavy,

which will probably have a
cost at about a $100 million,

that's about 10% of
the NASA rockets,

so they are budgeting about
a billion dollars per launch.

That's a significant
cost saving,

and that is what a
private enterprise can do

when you put the right
person at the helm

and you give him a chance
to execute his vision.

In order for us to

really open up access to space

we've got to achieve full
and rapid reusability,

and being able to do that for
the primary rocket booster

is gonna be a huge
impact on the cost.

Now this will still take us a
few years to make that smooth,

and make it efficient,

but it's, I think it's
proven that it can work.

[suspenseful music]

[rocket engine roaring]

[Narrator] Of all
Musk's innovations

developing reusable rockets
could be the most radical.

We thought it was
more likely than not

that this mission would work,

but still probably, you know
one third chance of failure.

The Holy Grail for space

is to have a totally
reusable launch system.

So, to actually see the
SpaceX Falcon rockets

launching its
spacecraft into orbit

and then coming back down

and performing a
pinpoint accurate landing

on a floating platform at sea,
that is pretty astonishing.

It's quite a tiny target.

It's really trying to land
on a postage stamp there.

Just to put it this way,

you get on an airplane
and you fly somewhere,

you wouldn't dream of
throwing that airplane away,

so why do we do the
same with space rockets?

That's what SpaceX is trying
to do and they're succeeding.

They're leading the
way at the moment.

Elon is getting
people to question

why NASA is still building
any rockets at all.

They think if SpaceX can do it,

why do we need to buy
a comparable rocket?

We can just buy
that one off them.

Inside the Falcon Heavy
rocket was a plaque

with 6,000 names of all
the SpaceX employees

that worked on the project,

and that just shows
that he's willing to

really value the people
that work for him.

Elon Musk's aspiration
is to eventually

put all of his efforts

into developing
far larger rockets,

which can still launch
payloads into Earth orbit,

but also be capable of
taking human rated spacecraft

into deep space, i.e. Mars.

You have like a 10 to
20 year horizon here

when you want to go to Mars.

-I wanna enable--
-SpaceX.

I wanna enable large
numbers of people

and cargo to go to Mars.

So, it's not sort of
about me personally

want to make a
journey back to Mars,

I mean that would be
nice on a personal level,

but I do think it is important

that we as a species
of this civilization

are on a path to become a
true space ranked civilization

and a multi planet species.

[Narrator] Musk aims to launch

a mission to Mars by 2022.

Elon Musk's ultimate
goal is to have humans

permanently living
and working on Mars,

a Martian colony you could say.

Mars is very special.

It has a sky and
it has landscape

and large amounts of frozen
water and it has seasons,

so there are a lot of
similarities to Earth.

The atmosphere is much thinner

than the Earth's atmosphere,

but you've got carbon and
then you've got oxygen,

so you could potentially use

what's on Mars's
atmosphere as resources.

It's a very terrestrial
environment.

It appears to be a home
from home but is it?

It is possible in our lifetime

to send a rocket
to Mars, manned,

I do think that's possible.

Do we wanna do it?

Do we wanna pay for it?

That's a different question.

There's a lot of questions,
there's a lot of hurdles,

but as long as
Elon doesn't break

the fundamental laws of
physics we can do it.

Mars is reachable and I'm
sure we will devise the means

by which we can live there,

but there are many
questions and challenges

before that can be achieved.

So, let Musk say
he's gonna do it,

because he probably will.

If he maintains this
momentum, I see no reason

why he shouldn't be landing
spacecrafts on Mars.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] Elon Musk's
evolvement with design,

engineering and critical
technical decisions

is unique amongst his peers.

Believe me, Elon is just
as smart on engineering

as he is on the money side.

Even in the earlier
days of Tesla and SpaceX

he could easily have said,

let me put in some
of my cash in there,

and we'll put some
clever technical people,

and I'll just run it,
I'll be the manager,

I'll be the CEO or
whatever, uhn-uhn.

To actually be able
to get so involved

in the engineering
side, that's amazing,

but that's what he did,

because deep down
he is an engineer.

I would say he approaches
engineering and business

in much the same fashion,
it's a puzzle to be dissected,

and then the pieces put
back together in some way.

At his heart, the
man is an engineer.

I think that's where
his first love is.

He'll be walking around SpaceX,

and will talk to the employees,

and then will quiz them on
things like thrust vectors

or aero dynamical design,

not typical of CEO behavior.

I think the engineering
came more naturally

because the engineering part

is a more rational approach.

He sort of struggled early on

in the CEO role of his
two early companies,

but certainly we've seen
that he just learned

and grew from that, and
so I think you know,

he's sort of the whole
package at this point.

I don't think too many
people would argue with that.

Some entrepreneurs are more
socially skilled than others,

but they're not necessarily
socially skilled,

because they're too focused.

You see, if you're a
socially skilled human being,

then you're sensitive
to everybody around you,

but that may prevent you
from actually getting on

to achieve your objective,

and they have
objectives in mind,

and they are
ruthless in the sense

of trying to achieve
that objective.

Not ruthless in the way they
treat other people necessarily,

just in making sure that
they're on their own timeline

to achieve that objective.

[upbeat music]

I had made an
enormous PR mistake,

and it had landed on the front
page of the New York post,

and it was bad, like it
was mortifyingly bad,

and when I went into
tell Elon about it,

you know, he was very,
very angry with me,

and the things that he said,

the thing that he said
that stuck with me was,

Julie, perception
becomes reality.

It was the only time
that he was really,

really angry with me
that I can remember.

And the fact that
he didn't fire me,

I think just points to
him being a nice guy.

One of the things I find
so fascinating about Elon

is that in the midst of all
his acumen and business sense

he does interviews where
he tears up and even cries

talking about how he
wants to find the one.

It's not easy being Elon.

It sounds amazing,
it sounds glamorous,

and it no doubt is
also a lot of fun.

He's having a ball executing
his engineering dreams.

The flip side of that comes
with the personal side,

it ain't easy.

Elon started dating

a very famous celebrity
actress who was at the time

at war with her
ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Like, I don't know
what it is about Amber,

but men who fall
in love with Amber,

they fall hard for Amber.

So, everyone was very
curious, in the showbiz world,

to see who Amber would
end up with next,

and when we saw she
was with a billionaire,

who had this kind of baby face,

there was a lot of interest
in finding out more.

The breakup between
Elon and Amber

was very painful for Elon,

and he very
characteristically I suppose

is very open with
people and journalists

about how much he was hurting.

At one stage, in a very
high profile interview

he did with Rolling Stone,

he actually asked the journalist
who was doing the story,

do you know anybody you
could set me up with?

Is there anybody you
know I should date?

For a billionaire guy, who
is like, let's be honest,

decently good looking,
to be out there talking

about how he wants to
find a nice girlfriend,

it's just something you don't
see come along very often.

He's fairly an open book.

So, if they had been
spending some time together

and the journalist had earned
his trust in some capacity,

it wouldn't surprise me at all.

I mean, he definitely wears
his heart on his sleeve.

I would say he's a
big softie underneath.

I mean Elon is so
honest and vulnerable,

and I think that's
why people find him

so incredibly endearing.

There are a lot of
technological dreams

that Elon Musk would
have for himself

over the next two decades,

but I think as much as
he wants all of that,

I think Elon Musk would
like to be happily in love.

[electronic dance music]

[Narrator] Musk continues
to invest in the future.

In 2013, he outlined a
potential world changing plan

for a transportation system

that could reshape the
way humanity travels.

Elon Musk came up with an idea.

He published a white paper
on this vacuum transport,

but let it go.

He said I'm not
gonna do this myself.

What I'm gonna do is open
up to third party companies

that want to develop
it themselves.

The Hyperloop project
is of huge interest

in terms of the world
of transportation,

the idea of going from San
Francisco to Los Angeles

in the time it
would take to drive

from San Francisco to
the edge of San Francisco

is fantastic.

It's a vacuum tube,
where all the air

is sucked out of the
tube, and you send a pod

containing passengers
through the tube.

There's no friction,
there's no air resistance,

because the pods are
levitating on magnets.

-The technology is sound.

We can travel faster in a
vacuum, there's no friction.

They want to get up to speeds

about 500 to 700 miles an hour.

Elon's idea is that tubes
could connect major cities,

and you could travel in
one of these passenger pods

and travel from, say,
L.A. to New York

in a matter of half an hour.

When he was talking
about it the first time,

we all thought oh well
this time he might have,

he might have lost
it a little bit,

or it's a little bit too
ambitious or too crazy,

but, as with many other of
Elon's ideas, watch that space,

because before you know it,

and actually ahead of schedule,

this thing is actually
becoming reality.

The speed we can put these
tunnels out is dramatic,

how fast it can all happen.

So, I think a lot of the
world will be connected.

We'll be moving cargo in 2019.

We think we can have passengers

safely being transported
in Hyperloop by 2021.

[Narrator] Elon Musk
is a leading voice

on the potential of
an AI apocalypse.

He has declared that
digital super intelligence

is the most serious threat

to the survival
of the human race.

To offset this, he
launched Neuralink,

aimed to developing safe

and beneficial
artificial intelligence.

[Per] The dangers of AI,

are the end of the human
mind as we know it.

You're dealing with something

that is fundamentally going
to be smarter than you.

It's gonna learn on its own,

so how do you stay ahead of it?

That's something that Musk
is paying close attention to.

His main concern is that,

if AI becomes too smart
and too important,

then why do you need humans?

We kind of become obsolete.

The very worst nightmare

that a Hollywood horror
movie could come up with

is as nothing compared
to where we're heading

and heading so fast.

[dramatic music]

When AI has the
ability to think,

to come to conclusions, and
to make judgments, et cetera,

just like the human mind,

does anyone think they might
just be the slightest chance

that through that alone, AI
could take the planet over?

If they do become self-aware,

how are we gonna control them?

Who's gonna control
the controllers?

It's a scary prospect.

What is its potential
to take over everything?

You know what its potential
to take over everything is?

100 percent, it's
the end of humanity.

When software rises up
and becomes all powerful,

where are we gonna look to?

We're gonna look to
the titans of industry

to provide a counterweight.

Elon is ideally placed to
be the sort of counterpoint

to this software early vision.

I mean it's interesting

that he's also looking
into AI himself

with open AI and Neuralink.

When I hear Elon Musk
talking about the fact

that AI revolution is
humanity summoning the demon,

absolutely it is,

but then founding and opening
company called Neuralink

to connect AI to
the human brain.

I mean that contradiction
is so extraordinary,

I don't know the
thought processes

that must be going on there.

Neuralink is a direct response

of Elon's concerns to
AI in the first place.

The fact that he thinks
AI might surpass humans

in terms of its
mental capabilities,

it makes sense that he would
try and develop technology

using computers in
tandem with our biology.

I think that Elon
Musk wants to use AI

as a tool for
augmenting our self,

and not a tool for
replacing our self.

I think he's saying if
you can't beat them,

become superhuman
and then beat them.

Brain computer interfaces
could help people

in two different ways.

So, one way would be
to restore capabilities

for people with disabilities,

and another application would

be to go beyond our limitation.

And so, for example
we could think

about controlling a computer
just with our thoughts

without moving any muscle,

and that's the core
function of a BCI,

a brain-computer interface.

There are a lot of
different scenarios

in which you could
apply this technology.

We are talking about critical

decision making in the military,

in a warfare scenario,
or in the health sector.

So, whenever we talk
about hybrid humans,

or human and
machine, or cyborgs,

we are all talking about
the same thing I think,

which is using technology
to augment our capabilities

and that's it.

[Narrator] Musk's skepticism

about the potential
risks of AI technology

has led to a public clash
with Mark Zuckerberg.

I am optimistic about
the future of AI.

I think that AI
is going to unlock

a huge amount of
positive things,

whether that's helping to
identify and cure diseases,

to help cars drive more safely,

to help keep our
communities safe,

are there going to be
issues along the way?

Of course there are.

No technology comes
out fully formed,

and we need the pioneers to
be able to go work on this

and get to the
state that we want.

I do think it's very healthy

that we have such
technology giants

fighting it out publicly,

so that we can all form
an opinion about it.

It's a spectator sport
now for the rest of us.

Mark Zuckerberg sees
Elon as a naysayer

and someone who's trying to
stop the development of AI.

I can see both sides
of the argument.

I'd probably slide slightly
with Mark Zuckerberg

in the sense that I think we
will be able to control AI

enough to keep humanity safe.

I wouldn't bet against Elon.

You know if Elon thinks
that AI is gonna take over

and eventually decide

that us irrational
humans are unnecessary,

I would trust him.

You know, he hasn't
been wrong about a lot.

The debate is either it's a
good thing, we must do it.

It's a bad thing, but we still
must do it in another way.

We should stop
doing it immediately

before the line is crossed
where humanity is no more.

We need policies.

We need to start thinking,

what is a good application
of BCI and what is not.

We need to be the
one with the control,

being able to push a button,

and disable the
AI at any moment.

Artificial intelligence
can generate

quite successful content,

however, rather than
replacing humans,

I'd prefer to see
us working together.

We both bring unique skills
and talents to the table.

There's gonna be a difference

between what's doable
and what's acceptable,

and this is something that
Elon is not gonna decide,

this is not something
that Mark Zuckerberg

is not gonna decide.

This is you and I
and everybody else,

and hopefully that
will be translated

eventually into a legislation.

[suspenseful music]

[Narrator] Elon Musk's assertion

that we're likely to be
living in a simulated reality

has popularized a theory
debated by philosophers,

and now gaining supporters
in Silicon Valley.

Elon Musk has said

that we're living in some kind
of computer, 3D simulation.

I don't know if that
means we're in The Matrix,

or some kind of a matrix.

And you know, as as bizarre
and crazy as that sounds.

Elon has been saying
bizarre and crazy things

that turned out to be
true for a long time now,

so, I would say um, maybe.

Well, you never know do you?

Well, disprove it,
we can't disprove it.

We could be of a
lower intelligence,

and there could
be another species

far, far, far more
intelligent than us

and they're almost
playing God with us.

It sounds ridiculous to
say something like that,

but we don't know much.

We've barely left
our own planet.

I felt like what
he was saying was,

that this is not base reality.

And so, I would agree
with him on that front.

You get labeled crazy
because you're pushing

the boundaries of
what people expect.

He's coming at it from a
scientific perspective,

but that idea, that there's
only one true reality,

and this isn't it, is
actually the underpinnings

of all the ancient
religions of the world.

All of those point to exactly

the same thing that he's saying,

so I'm with him.

I've been saying in my books,

for a lot longer than Elon Musk,

that we live in the equivalent
of a massively advanced

virtual reality computer
game, in the end.

And when you look at the
evidence, it is overwhelming,

certainly immensely compelling,

and this is why
not just Elon Musk,

many scientists now are
coming out and saying,

actually it does look like that.

Ultimately for me it seems

to be a bit of an
in-proveable theory.

I mean how are we going to prove

that we're living in a
simulation, I don't know.

Don't discount his wacko ideas,

because suddenly they do pop
up in one shape or another,

but I'm not sure
about that one, heh.

I think we need to see more
meat on the bone on that one.

I think it's interesting that

Musk is able to put
something like that out there

and show that what
others might consider

a bit of a ridiculous thought,

or might be worried about
being ridiculed for,

he's actually giving
serious thought to,

and I think what Musk
is always looking to do

is to foster a discussion.

[horns honking]

[Narrator] Inspired
by frustrations

of sitting in a traffic jam,

Musk's solution was
The Boring Company.

In 2018, the company was
selected to build a high speed

underground transportation
system in Chicago.

I would like to thank the
Mayor and the Mayor's Office,

and the city of Chicago
for having the faith

to bet on The Boring Company.

We think we're gonna really
be very good at boring.

[audience laughing]

You could almost say that
Elon has the Midas touch,

because when he started
The Boring Company,

which is really about
boring under the Earth

as opposed to being dull,

he actually started selling
baseball caps online

before he did anything else,

and literally made
a million dollars.

You know, this is a guy
who everything he touches

turns to gold.

He's kept us all interested

because he's
started tweeting out

offers of hats
and flamethrowers.

We were all interested to see

what was gonna happen with it.

This is a difficult
thing that we're doing.

It's a hard thing.

It's a new thing.

And you, know I'd hope that
you'd cheer us on for this,

you know, because if we succeed,

it's gonna be a great
thing for the city,

and if we if we fail, well,

I guess me and others will
lose a bunch of money.

[epic music]

Elon Musk is one of the great

engineering minds of our time.

He is one of the
greatest business leaders

and entrepreneurs of our time,

and he is one of the great
visionaries of our time.

Elon will be remembered
as one of the guys

who was unafraid
to say, what else?

I think his greatest achievement
is inspiring humanity

to think bigger,
to dream bigger.

In a world where there's
so many problems,

isn't it nice to have a
positive story occasionally?

We're all sort of just
sitting back and watching

what's gonna come out next.

[dramatic music]