Google Co-Founders’ First Tesla Test Drive Was Embarrassing For Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recalled an interesting story from the early days of his company at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting today. He recalled that the first Tesla test drive taken by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin was quite embarrassing for him because a bug was preventing the car from going fast. The bug had actually limited the car to just 10 mph, meaning that the Google co-founders were essentially driving a very expensive golf cart.

Tesla truly arrived on the scene with the Roadster. It had a point to prove: that electric cars could be fun and fast while not being dependent on conventional fuels.

It has built several cars since then. The Model S has done well and the Model X has been well received. Tesla’s first mass-market electric car is the Model 3 which was only unveiled a few months ago and isn’t due to arrive until late next year.

Musk’s company has certainly come a long way since, and he must have countless stories of the trials and tribulations the company faced to get its electric cars up and running.

He remembers giving a test drive in the early days of Tesla to Page and Brin, he has known them for a long time, and some bug spoiled the fun as the hopped in because the car could not go past 10 mph.”Look, I swear guys it goes way faster than this,” he remembers telling them.

Having founded one of the biggest tech companies on the planet, Page and Brin certainly know a thing or two about bugs in prototypes, so despite the “world’s worst demo” as Musk puts it, both put a little investment in Tesla back then.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Electric Cars, elon musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Tesla