The Tesla CEO jumped into the defense of his company after the Netflix movie appeared to make a thinly-veiled jab about his luxury cars.
With a star-studded cast, a thrilling plot and a thinly-veiled jab at Elon Musk, what’s not to love about Netflix’s new apocalyptic movie?
Leave the World Behind has been receiving rave reviews from viewers after it dropped on the streaming platform on Friday (8 December).
Among all the madness that goes on as a catastrophic tech blackout erupts, one particular scene has stuck in the minds of film fans – which involves a massive pile-up of Tesla Model 3 on the only exit route the characters have. Take a look here:
Parents Amanda (Julia Roberts) and Clay (Ethan Hawke) are trying to escape the madness going on at their rental home in Long Island and plan to head to a relative house in New Jersey.
But to get there, they have to drive through New York City, where even more tech chaos is unfolding.
The couple bundle their two kids Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie) in their Jeep Grand Cherokee with the idea of hightailing it out there for safety.
But the brood runs into what appears to be a huge traffic jam on route, only to realize it’s actually a queue of crashed cars – which are all Tesla Model 3s, and empty.
It turns out the luxury self-driving motors are all effectively committing suicide as the mass power outage unfolds, which Amanda only realizes when she spots another one heading straight for the family car.
It’s safe to say it’s put quite a negative spin on Elon Musk’s autopilot feature in his expensive vehicles, which is touted as a ‘safe and convenient’ driving option.
The Tesla CEO has obviously caught wind of the fact the roadside graveyard scene in Leave the World Behind seems to critique his company, so he shared a response to it online.
Replying to a snippet of the film shared in a post on X by Netflix, the tech tycoon wrote: “Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!”
Musk seemed tried to reassure Tesla owners that their motors won’t turn on them during an apocalypse, despite what Leave the World Behind may have led you to believe.
But some people pointed out he kind of misunderstood the scene, as the problem isn’t powering the car and getting it to start – it’s the fact you can’t get it to stop.
Thank god Julia Roberts was on hand with some admirable driving skills to quickly steer her on-screen family to safety.
