Elon Musk, who recently topped Forbes’ billionaires list again and is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, continues to attract attention for his wealth and polarizing views, including support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. His Tesla factory near Berlin made headlines after a March 4 works council election left the plant non-unionized; Germany’s largest union accused Tesla of intimidating staff. Ahead of the vote, Musk warned that union influence could jeopardize the plant’s expansion, which employs around 10,000 people.
Filmmaker Andreas Pichler, whose new documentary “Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment” is screening in German cinemas, describes Musk as “a declared opponent of any kind of union organization in his companies,” seeking total control over working conditions.
The film investigates how Musk pressed ahead with promoting Tesla’s self-driving technology despite safety concerns raised by the company’s own experts. It interweaves interviews with whistleblowers, former employees fired after raising alarms, and victims of Tesla crashes.
One whistleblower featured is Lukasz Krupski, who leaked about 3,000 customer complaints to the German newspaper Handelsblatt in 2023. Those reports described autopilot-equipped Teslas accelerating on their own or braking suddenly, causing crashes. Krupski says he tried to raise these issues internally but was met with pressure, threats, harassment and eventual dismissal.
The documentary also follows the Benavides family from Florida, who pursued a lengthy court battle after 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon died in a crash involving a Model S Tesla. Refusing to settle, the family won a landmark verdict in 2025: a federal court found Tesla 33% liable and ordered the company to pay $243 million. Tesla’s bid to overturn the decision was rejected by a federal judge in February 2026; the company plans to appeal. That case has encouraged other victims to pursue legal action, though many proceedings are still pending.
Beyond safety controversies, the film examines Musk’s political and personal evolution—from a Democratic supporter during the Obama years to a vocal ally of Donald Trump—and probes his motivations. It portrays a “messianic” streak in Musk’s rhetoric and his stated mission to establish a self-sustaining city of one million people on Mars by 2050. Musk has argued that technologies developed for Tesla, including AI and autonomy, are relevant to building robots and systems needed for colonizing Mars. In this framing, accidents during development are seen as negligible trade-offs on the path to a perceived greater good.
The documentary also highlights Musk’s advocacy of a form of transhumanism—merging human consciousness with artificial intelligence to avoid human obsolescence—which Pichler warns appeals to many who believe technology can solve all problems. Critics argue that centering grand technological goals risks sidelining the immediate human costs.
Edited by: Brenda Haas
