Electric Adventure

I did the coolest thing today.

I recently made friends with a nice couple, Heidi and Patrick, that had met my family in Canada and who now live in the Bay Area. Heidi also happens to be an engineer at Tesla Motors, the company that's making the Tesla Roadster, the new high-performance, 100% electric car that will be selling for $100,000 when it goes on the market next year. And she arranged for me to get a test ride of one of the prototypes!

It. Was. Awesome.

I'm pretty much a moron when it comes to cars, so I can't really explain much about the mechanics or technology, but I can say that they are really cool looking, especially underneath! :) You know how the bottom of a normal car has all sorts of crap hanging from it? Well, the underside of the Tesla is completely flat. Also, where the gas cap would normally be, instead there's an outlet where you plug in the charger for the (huge) battery pack.

Note: For obvious reasons, I wasn't able to take detailed photos of the car's features, but the company's Web site has a great gallery of pics.

Getting into the very low seat wasn't much different from my experience trying to get into a kayak a few weeks ago.

It's also a bit disconcerting how quiet the car is. Another engineer, Phil, took me out for the ride (the header pic is a vanity photo op only), and when he backed us out of the building, it seemed like we were just in neutral rolling backwards.

During the ride, I got to experience one of the main selling points of the car—its ability to go from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds! Phil hit the figurative gas as we were going up a ramp onto the freeway and I immediately grabbed the door handle and uttered a mild profanity. :) But the acceleration was actually very smooth. Phil began explaining to me how it all worked (something to do with “linear torque”), at which point I simply began nodding politely. (See moron comment above.)

We were on the road for about 15 minutes, and I had a blast the whole time. Even though I'm not a car person, I'm really fascinated by scientific innovation of any kind, and it was just so amazing to have a chance to experience this cutting-edge technology that's going to be the model for where all our cars are (hopefully) headed.

The other point I want to make is that this particular adventure came about because of an earlier, perhaps less obvious, one. You see, I'm actually a very shy person and can find it uncomfortable to meet new people unless there's a mutual friend there with me. So I was actually pretty nervous going to meet Heidi and Patrick (and their adorable 3-year-old son, Dexter). But by taking a chance and making myself go out of my comfort zone, I didn't simply get to have a fun ride in a cool car, I ended up making two really nice new friends. And that will last for a whole lot longer than 15 minutes!

Comments

[Geoff Williams]

Hi, Elizabeth,

I'M JEALOUS! Like you, I'm not a car person--my wife knows how to change a tire, while I know how to call AAA. But it's kind of like you got to drive in a time machine today(I hope so, anyway). The sooner we get rid of gas cars, the better.

[Anne Murphy]

You look amazing in that car! What a blast!