Back in September, Tesla announced it was planning to create upscale convenience stores for its supercharger stations around the country. It was all pretty vague, but this weekend, Elon Musk got a little more specific. Specifically, he’s thinking there should be roller skates while you charge.
Tesla’s chief technology officer J.B. Straubel told attendees at the FSTEC restaurant conference a few months ago that, “People are coming and spending 20 to 30 minutes,” at the charger stations. “They want to eat, they want to have a cup of coffee, and they want to use the bathroom.” Reports from the conference said Straubel showed off some designs that looked like a convenience store. He told attendees that Tesla has “already been working with restaurants,” on the concept.
But according to Musk’s tweets this weekend, the first location to expand on Tesla’s slightly eerie charging stops is going to have a lot more going on than microwave burritos and big gulps.
But he wasn’t stopping there. Responding to a commenter who asked that there be popcorn available, he said, “Of course. And an outdoor screen that plays a highlight reel of the best scenes in movie history.” When another reply came in suggesting that Tesla drivers be able to order from a Tesla touchscreen, Musk responded, “Good idea. We can just have the menu pop up as soon as you put the car into park.”
Yes, it sounds like Musk is being a little too eager to please and just throwing ideas at the wall. But, if the Boring Company has taught us anything, the guy tends to follow through on ridiculous ideas. There’s something oddly appropriate about a retro-future drive-in with roller skating where you would charge up your electric car. And if he went all-out with an actual roller skating rink, that’d be kind of sick, but he probably just means that wait staff would be on skates.
Would there be any money in it? Maybe in LA. I can’t see this being Tesla’s big plan for overhauling its supercharger stations around the whole of the US. The publicity of Elon Musk trucking around on roller skates delivering food to Teslas would probably be well worth it. I’m still not totally sure what a “rock restaurant,” is but I’m guessing it’s like a Sonic. We’ve reached out to Tesla for clarification and to ask if it has any further details to share. We’ll update this post when we receive a reply.
[Twitter]