MixedThe TimesAt its best—when charting this historic pivot by a leading industry—Insane Mode (named after an accelerator button in a Tesla car) is an energetic account of an exciting period of innovation. It is also a good reminder of the power of entrepreneurial drive and markets. However, McKenzie worked for Tesla in public relations, so he writes as a supporter of the vision. McKenzie takes his father for a spin in a Tesla and speaks of his spellbound awe at what is, in the grand scheme of human existence, just a nice car. This is a tech book, so inevitably there are too many descriptions of product launches and PR events at which fans cheer their self-mythologizing heroes. Do we really need to know what color chinos these silly titans are wearing when they unveil a new phone or car? ... There are long detours into China too ... the reader must endure descriptions of companies and Chinese entrepreneurs we have never heard of ... The Chinese section does remind us that, for all the talk of China’s success, insurgent capitalism, as personified in Musk the American immigrant, is rooted in intellectual freedom and the liberty to be noisy, awkward and disruptive.
