"Drive-In" definition used loosely (Tesla LA Diner/Drive-in)

[Ryan Gallagher]

I'm surprised i'm only just hearing about this. But i'm neither a Tesla owner nor live in LA. And the fact i'm not sure it even meets the definition of a "drive-in" movie theatre is probably another reason why.

Perhaps without getting too political (oh my god that will be hard), what do ya think of the Tesla Supercharger station concept (nearing completion, now hiring) that sells itself as a Retro Diner and also Drive-In Movie Theatre (with two screens no less on a sub block size lot).

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-la-d...ive-in-screen/

Here is an alternate opinion piece:
https://gizmodo.com/i-hate-the-tesla...ool-2000516627

Plenty more Diner related posts on that telsa-fan news blog:
https://www.teslarati.com/?s=Diner

Personally: It's very unclear if programming will include feature length films. The two LED walls are undoubtedly not DCI compliant, and in one other interview I found the original "concept" was just to show "The 100 best movie clips of all time"... essentially using film as decoration, a homage to film and drive-ins, but offering neither. It really seems like just a restaurant concept dressed up in vibes and aesthetics borrowed from certain eras when both diners and drive-ins were popular.

It also feels like a financial loss as a standalone business model, basically a Tesla and Supercharger marketing stunt, cause unless the diner business were permitted to take a larger cut of the charging fees, I can't comprehend how they could afford the power bill for the massive daytime brightness needs of the two "Screens", let alone their limited vehicle/person capacity relevant to if they were going to attempt licensing features (on blu-ray).

Although if they do, this might be the first example of a Direct-View drive-in concept, which is interesting at least in the one way we have discussed in other threads, no need for acoustic transparency. Can't say I've ever seen a drive-in layout where two or more screens compete so directly for attention though. I would hope feature bookings (perhaps private events) elected to use one screen only, or play the same film on both? Although it feels pretty hard to privately book this, does the whole charging aspect go offline for public vehicles for the event? If it doesn't, do they also get to watch/listen to your movie choice? That doesn't sound very "private" by definition.

All I know is they better have decent security in this charged climate. Their LED displays are pretty exposed, and it doesn't take much to damage pixels and modules. It would be entirely too easy for protesters to vandalize and degrade the intended visual experience on the regular. If they use real neon accents, that too! But that is not why I posted, just curious about opinions of this hybrid concept. To me it just feels like any hollywood theme eatery that happens to play clips or films as background, just super-sized.

[Ryan Gallagher]

As with most things, there are nuggets of valid ideas, it's just the execution that feels a bit excessive. Provided EVs reach a massive enough adoption and reach a class of people that can't afford or have no place to install a charger at home:

Charging stations combined with traditional urban or highway drive-in eateries (a la "Sonic") seems like a value add for the connected food business.

Charging station sections of larger traditional drive-in movie theatres seems a workable draw if we reach a point where one only needs to charge once a week for all one's driving needs. Would it support opening entirely new drive-in movie theatres? Unsure, we are probably not there yet. If the location was right it could just be a massive charging station during non film hours.

But trying to do all of the above in a relatively small urban footprint feels like just marketing.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Seriously, if Tesla doesn't concentrate on making their cars more practical to own across the country, then they are finished just because they neglected to do so, not to mention their sales is already about zip for other reasons I'm not getting into here. Last winter in Chicago and Milwaukee was a mess for Tesla owners because of the lack of Charge Stations. This issue actually made national news. Many Tesla owners got out of work after a major temp drop only to find they did not have enough charge left to drive home. And to boot, there was a two hour wait on the chargers that were there. So, many nearly dead Tesla's were towed to the next closest charger, only to find the exact same situation taking place. The owners were, needless to say, very unhappy. Some no doubt have already gotten rid of them as they said they were going to do. Now if you travel around out west, particularity in the route 80 or Las Vegas spectrum. There are Tesla Fast chargers just about every where, including a couple of diesel powered fast chargers, that kinda kill the reaso0n to even own an electric car. Now that is just plain stupid. Once you leave Nevada and head to Utah, or north to Idaho, all that stuff disappears. So it's looking to me like they are hurting themselves more than anything else in that regard. Truthfully, the support infrastructure is just is not out there yet across this country to support a lot of electric cars.