Tesla is building a showcase vehicle-charging station in Los Angeles that combines cinema and a 24-hour restaurant.
“The charging station is part of the electric vehicle industry’s efforts to re-imagine gas stations by turning them into a multi-faceted experience,” wrote Ariel Zilber in the New York Post. The Post capsulized the idea as 1950s movie “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons.’”
The building under construction (architect art above) looks like a retro 1950s diner in the art deco motif presumably conceived to generate publicity, as well as to juice up run-down batteries in EVs. The facility will have slots to charge 32 cars and two big screens. Apparently, the idea is to run movie clips continuously not screen entire films.
The EV charging initiative is yet another example others trying to grab movie magic. For example, Taco Bell restaurants crafted a TV commercial campaign to parody horror film trailers. Elsewhere, artificial intelligence outfit Perplexity imitated the film trailer format for a commercial video to sell its AI service. Perplexity is an “answer engine” that employs AI.
The NY Post article adds: “The idea was first proposed by [Tesla chief Elon] Musk in 2018, when he wrote on X about his ambition to build an old-school drive-in movie theater next to a diner at one of his Supercharger locations. ‘Major new Supercharger station coming to Santa Monica soon! Hoping to have 50’s diner & 100 best movie clips playing too. Thanks Santa Monica city!’ Musk tweeted in April 2021.” However, now the structure is now being built in a nearby a trendy neighborhood inside the city of Los Angeles.
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