Tesla has broken ground on the site of its planned futuristic diner with a drive-in theater and Supercharger station.
Yes, it sounds like that crazy project is actually happening.
This project has been in the works for a long time. In 2018, Elon Musk said that Tesla planned to open an “old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles.” It was yet another “Is he joking?” kind of Elon Musk idea, but he wasn’t kidding.
A few months later, Tesla applied for building permits for “a restaurant and Supercharger station” at a location in Santa Monica. However, the project stalled for a long time, apparently due to local regulations.
Nevertheless, Tesla still moved forward with a Supercharger at the location, but it had to move the diner project to Hollywood. Last year, Tesla filed the construction plans with the city, giving us the first look at what the automaker intends to build.
We learned from the filing that it will be a semi-circular two-story diner with 29 Supercharger stalls and two movie theater screens. Using the plans, Architectural modeler Ed Howard created some renders, as seen below.
After a year without much activity, Tesla has secured a building permit and has broken ground at the site. Food robotics and automation expert Ottomate posted pictures (behind a paywall) on Substack.
The images show that Tesla has destroyed the existing buildings at the site, which used to be a Shakey’s Pizza, and started to build foundations for the new restaurant.
It’s not clear if Tesla plans for this to be a unique location or if the automaker intends to replicate the concept at other Supercharger stations as it expands amenities around its charging infrastructure.
Kimbal Musk, brother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a director on Tesla’s board, is a restaurateur with his own chain of restaurants. It is possible that Tesla could leverage his expertise to develop a restaurant division around its extensive Supercharger network.