FX Sets the “New York Times Presents” Documentary Film “Elon Musk’s Crash Course”
FX’s acclaimed documentary film series The New York Times Presents returns Friday, May 20 with its latest feature, “Elon Musk’s Crash Course.” The film will premiere at 10 p.m. PT simultaneously on FX and Hulu.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has claimed since 2015 that, for Tesla, technology for self-driving cars is essentially a “solved problem,” and made outlandish claims about Autopilot capabilities. But a New York Times investigation reveals the quixotic nature of Musk’s pursuit of self-driving technology, and the tragic results. Drawing on first-hand accounts, the film traces how Autopilot has been a factor in several deaths and dozens of other accidents that Tesla has not publicly acknowledged. It details pressure Elon Musk put on government officials to quash investigations and features inside stories from several former Tesla employees, who speak out against Musk for promoting a self-driving program that they believe was perilous.
Elon Musk made his name, and fortune, taking bold risks and betting on the impossible, but the story of his pursuit of self-driving has put Musk on a crash course with both the business realities and technology’s limits. Yet, even after years of unfulfilled promises, Elon Musk continues to double down on his Full Self Driving service, once again, with questionable results.
The feature hails from Producer and Director Emma Schwartz and features the work of The New York Times Reporters Cade Metz and Neal Boudette.
The New York Times Presents, a series of standalone documentary films powered by the unparalleled journalism and insight of journalists at The New York Times, is produced by The New York Times and Left/Right, a Red Arrow Studios company. Among the series’ acclaimed features are “The Killing of Breonna Taylor,” “Framing Britney Spears,” “Controlling Britney Spears” and “Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson.”
Executive Producers are Ken Druckerman, Banks Tarver, Mary Robertson, Jason Stallman, Sam Dolnick, Stephanie Preiss and Esther Dere. Dere also serves as the Showrunner of The New York Times Presents. Liz Day is Supervising Producer, and Rachel Abrams is Senior Producer.
The New York Times Presents is produced by the same team responsible for the FX and Hulu docuseries The Weekly, which won four News & Documentary Emmy Awards, an Overseas Press Club award, and its reporting on how a predatory lending scheme had corrupted the taxi industry in New York and elsewhere was part of a body of work that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
With more than 1,700 journalists who have reported from over 160 countries since 2019, The Times publishes about 150 pieces of journalism each day, including exclusive reporting on topics ranging from politics to culture to climate to sports to business. The New York Times Presents will continue to tell those stories in a visual and unforgettable way.
About FX
FX, a division of Disney General Entertainment, is a multiplatform brand that develops, produces, commissions and markets original programming for Hulu and the FX and FXX linear channels in the U.S., and Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other international territories. The FX brand mark appears above the title across its entire slate of originals. Over the past two decades, FX has been responsible for some the most-critically acclaimed and award-winning shows on television. Some of the brand’s current and legacy titles include the dramas American Horror Story, American Crime Story, The Americans, Damages, Fargo, Justified, Nip/Tuck, Pose, Rescue Me, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy; the comedies Archer, Atlanta, Better Things, DAVE, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows; and a growing slate of docuseries and documentary films.
