If Elon Musk has his way, you could soon be able to stop off at a Tesla-branded 1950s-style diner to charge your electric vehicle while eating American comfort food served by a humanoid robot.
So suggested the far-right tech tycoon on his social network X on Monday when he floated the idea of expanding Tesla’s newly-opened Los Angeles restaurant into a nationwide network.
“If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes,” said Musk. “An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging!”
Musk, currently estimated to be the world’s richest person, has a long history of making ambitious promises for new services or products that never actually pan out.
Still, at least one Tesla diner is now open for business on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, featuring 32 fast charging stations, balcony dining, and two 45-foot LED movie screens that sync to the sound system in Tesla cars.
At a pre-launch event on Saturday, patrons were even served popcorn by a prototype of Tesla’s ‘Optimus’ robot — albeit probably remotely operated by a human worker, as was the case when Tesla demonstrated the bots last October.
“This will become normal in a few years,” Musk claimed.
On Monday, Musk also said he would open a second diner at Starbase, the south Texas launch complex run by his rocket company SpaceX.
The idea of a Tesla diner has been in the works for years, with Musk describing it in August 2023 as “Grease meets the Jetsons with Supercharging”. The food is classic American diner fare: burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes and fries.
Tesla has suffered a drastic worldwide drop in sales and profits this year due to increasing competition from more affordable brands and political blowback from Elon Musk’s alliance with President Donald Trump.
After donating more than $291m to Donald Trump and other Republicans in the 2024 election cycle, the mogul personally took a chainsaw to federal government departments as effective head of DOGE.
Since then, Musk’s acrimonious and very public split with Trump has done little to improve the company’s share price, which dropped as low as 42 per cent from the start of the year before recovering modestly.
