Elon Musk again shared another Tesla project that makes us think “is he joking?” But it’s apparently still another project just as real as sending his Tesla Roadster to space.
Tesla’s CEO is talking about building a retro drive-in restaurant at a new Tesla Supercharger in Los Angeles.
The move comes as Tesla has been pushing to have more amenities at its Supercharger stations.
Tesla recently launched a new type of larger Supercharger station with 40+ connectors, lounges, and restaurants.
The automaker tries to build its Supercharger stations around businesses like cafes and restaurants in order for drivers to have something to do while their vehicles are charging, but with Tesla’s new bigger stations, the concept is evolving.
Like we reported in our exclusive look at the first of Tesla’s new type of Supercharger station with 40 stalls between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Tesla built a lounge with a cafe for owners on the site of the Supercharger and they are even planning to reserve a section to allow food trucks to come into the station.
That first station came online in Kettleman City last year.
After that station was completed, Tesla Co-founder and CTO JB Straubel went to the Foodservice Technology Conference Trade Show (FSTEC) to talk about how Tesla Superchargers are becoming more like convenience stores and they are working with companies in the food industry to improve the experience.
Within this context, Musk’s announcement of a drive-in restaurant makes more sense:
Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2018
There was some confusion on Twitter about a movie drive-in or a restaurant drive-in with carhops, but it actually sounds like it’s going to be both:
Of course. And an outdoor screen that plays a highlight reel of the best scenes in movie history.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2018
Musk is even talking about a digital in-car menu that would pop-up when you arrive at the location:
Good idea. We can just have the menu pop up as soon as you put the car into park.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2018
He is apparently talking about building the project at a new Supercharger location in Los Angeles near the 405 highway.
Electrek’s Take
It’s not the first time that Tesla explored offering more services to owners while they are charging at Superchargers.
At some point, Tesla was working to offer a car wash service at Superchargers.
Other services like that will certainly start to make a lot of sense as the use rate of stations increase and each location starts to have a captive customer base for 15 minutes to an hour with up to 40 customers at a time. There are certainly many business opportunities there.
So far, Tesla has mainly used this to convince owners of existing businesses to allow them to install their Superchargers on their property, but it’s not unbelievable that Tesla would start being more involved in the business itself as its fleet grows.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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