With co-founder J.B. Straubel, who gave me the keys and let me drive out of the Tesla HQ.
Here is the video… and it was such an incredible experience, driving out through the proud employee ranks, all shooting photos and cheering…
If the electrification of the automobile is inevitable, I’d be okay with it if the Model S is the harbinger, as opposed to the Leaf, Mistubishi I or anything like those.
Congrats! Must be a real honour, taking delivery of the very first Model S.
If you are allowed to do so, please keep us up to date on the range 🙂 very curious!
Drive safe!
Can’t believe I still have a year of waiting ahead :-/
Awesome! Congrats Steve! I remember chatting with you at the Model S premiere three years ago outside the SpaceX factory as that driveable prototype whizzed by every few minutes. What a great time.
So what are the last several digits of your VIN? Did the Founders’ cars get their own VIN sequence or are they part of the overall VIN sequence with the Signature and general production cars?
Hey Steve now that you no longer need the Roadster we’ll be happy to take it off your hands!! LOl!
Sweet! And you chose Texas A&M’s colors… a little reminder of your roots in Texas, perhaps?
Awesome… You may never have to buy gas again but I hope soon you won’t be buying coal and natural gas either.
Three solar arrays at home certainly help. And as the grid moves toward sustainability over time, the EV footprint will improve with age.
Will do on the review. Thanks y’all.
The smooth acceleration is still so surreal, now with a quiet interior. It just leaps off the line (this is the performance configuration which does 0-60 in 4.4 seconds). And the internet connectivity sparks the imagination (google satellite map detail of where you are driving with real time traffic, album art lookup from music samples from any source, and there are many – radio, satellite, thumb drive, and internet access to the world’s radio stations as well as Slacker Radio for personalized stations
@Doug_Dirac_Delta – I remember that party well. The Founder’s Series VIN ends with F00001
How’s that Tegra-powered infotainment system working out? And the Tegra-powered instrument cluster?!
That is one truly great car.
@Steve Jurvetson Last night re-listened to that audio clip of the chat we had at the party (with a little bit of Franz at the end).
Observations from three years later:
There was no iPad yet, so we talk about the 17" touch screen wrt the iPhone.
We talk about the concept of a cloud connected car like it’s something new.
We mention haptic feedback in the display. A minor feature from which Tesla has since walked away.
Projected delivery by the end of 2011. Missed by only 6 months, which is pretty amazing considering they didn’t even have a factory yet. (The then VP of Manufacturing had assured me that the would-be plant would be somewhere in SoCal.)
Amazing how they got this together in only a few years!
Steve, it looked like you nearly hit that bicycle while driving out of the factory. If you ding the car, I’ll be happy to take it off your hands. I’m just sayin’…
I love that color. good choice 😉
if I see you around the bay area, I’ll honk an ‘HI’ out in morse code. then again, you may not be in one place long enough to hear it complete.
It is a wonderful time for all of you! The first of anything is great but the first of the best is exhilarating!
Steve, has anyone said told you how much you resemble Pete Campbell from Mad Men? you do!
Congrats on the delivery! This car is magnificent
@fhashemi Haha there is some resemblance. I always think of DFJ when I hear Don Draper.
blush. I think Elon is clearly the XX man. He went to great pains to secure http://www.X.com for his banking startup that combined with Confinity to become PayPal… and a second X showed up in SpaceX…
Thanks y’all…. but MadMen’s Pete is such a skeezball… =)
P.S. My little video rolled into the NBC coverage from the 6pm news last night.
…and fast forward to today… an amazing review in Road & Track
"The Model S isn’t just the most important car of the year. It’s the most important car America has made in an entire lifetime."
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