There is fast wifi and headphones if you don’t feel like chatting. “You don’t want to peak too early,” he reasons, sucking on a free carton of coconut water. Julius is not bothered by the less rock’n’roll aspects of travelling to Vegas in a Tesla. (Stephanie has.) Julius talks about his last Tesloop trip to Vegas, when he shared the car with Mariah Carey’s DJ, Suss One. Whitney, off to Vegas for a weekend of shows and “all you can eat crab leg buffets”, nods matter-of-factly and asks if Stephanie has tried the shamanic “frog poison cleanse”. I had worried that this trip might be a bit worthy, but 10 minutes into our 278-mile drive, our “pilot,” a pro inline skater, “hemp activist” and musician, is talking about a recent ayahuasca ceremony in Joshua Tree (ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic plant medicine from the Amazon that induces visions). “People in LA have always been willing to try new stuff, and now it’s really paying off,” he says with a smile. Sonnad, too, is optimistic – even given a new president who doesn’t seem too down with the eco world. (Tesloop’s first 2015 Tesla Model S has now done more than 250,000 miles.) It has also signed a technology agreement with Goodyear: the tyre giant is curious about the performance of electric cars over huge distances. This month Tesloop announced that bookings had increased to the point at which the company was covering all operational expenses. Tesloop started with one leased Tesla Model S, which normally does the Las Vegas drive, and now also has three model X SUVs in its fleet. It was a bold publicity blast for his fledgling company and his father, Rahul, helped raise much of the investment. He was planning to use them for two return journeys to Palm Springs each day and one return trip to Las Vegas. It’s clean and green and by far the safest way to travel by car.”Īt a Tesla Motors shareholders’ meeting in 2015 (he purchased one share for $210 to get in) he stood up and pointed out to Musk that Teslas weren’t being used over long distances. Sonnad sums it up: “Tesloop is a new kind of road trip. I feel like we’re going to blast off!” Julius adds. “I feel like we could drive under water in this thing,” exclaims Whitney. The Model X can carry six passengers (as opposed to three in the Model S sedan), so we have plenty of room. Stephanie has three passengers: Whitney, an accountant in her 30s Julius, an events organiser off to Sin City to celebrate his birthday with friends and me. “Basically,” she says, “your pilot doesn’t have to use their hands or feet while driving on the highway today!” She talks about the “radars,” “sonars” and “front-facing cameras” that allow the car to accelerate, brake and steer for itself. I’ve heard that a Teslas drives itself, and as we get in the Model X (more like a falcon than a shark, thanks to De Lorean-style doors that open upwards) a figure from the Tesloop office appears on an iPhone on the dashboard.
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