Way back in 2018, Elon Musk tweeted he planned to open an “old school drive-in, roller skates and rock & roll restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles.” It was another one those “Is he serious?” ideas, but like his Not A Flamethrower, Elon was being serious.
Unlike the Not A Flamethrower, the drive-in theater diner Supercharger station is taking “Elon time” to make. But it looks like it’s finally becoming a reality.
The original plans had Tesla applying for building permits for a restaurant and Supercharger station in Santa Monica. However, the project got stalled due to local regulations. Tesla ended up abandoning the idea and just put up a normal Supercharger station at that location.
A new location for the project was secured in Hollywood earlier this year, and Tesla filed the construction plans with the city last month. The plans gives us the first look at what the world’s most valuable automaker intends to build. Architectural modeler, Ed Howard, used the submitted plans to create some renderings of what the Supercharger drive-in could look like. Check it out.
The construction plans calls for a semi-circular two-story diner with 30 Supercharger stalls and two movie theater screens. Mr. Howard took some liberties for things that weren’t in the plans, like calling the diner Milliways. For those who don’t know, Milliways is the name of the restaurant at the end of the universe from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There are a bunch of other Easter eggs in the renders. See if you can spot them all.
The original Santa Monica plans called for an old school diner, but that was updated to a futuristic design with a retro look for Hollywood, and I think Mr. Howard reflected that brilliantly. The renders are accurate down to the bamboo walls that will be used to separate the station from the rest of the block.
There’s no solid timeline on when Tesla will open the diner or what kind of food the diner will serve. However, I have a feeling the the two theater screens will be showing Spaceballs and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a continuous loop.
