Phase 3 of the trip was attending the Tesla Annual Meeting in Mountain View on Tuesday, June 6, 2017. (Phase 1 is here, and Phase 2 is here.)
Phase 3 – Tesla Annual Meeting 2017
We attended our first Tesla annual shareholders meeting last year (Day One, Day Two). This year, since we were already in the area right before, we decided to attend the Tesla Annual Meeting again two weeks ago.
The previous Annual Meeting trip in 2016 was the central focus of those two days. However, this year’s (2017’s) attendance was the afterthought to other activities that brought us to the area.
The Tesla Annual Meeting is a great place to spot Teslas and other EVs…
As well as cars that hope to be EVs soon.
Some one was part of Luke Skywalker’s squadron.
We figured to boost our charge for the drive home. We want to get home at a decent hour after today’s Annual Meeting.
Tesla spotting in the row that we parked our cars in.
On the way to the line-up, I forgot to get a close up of the Blue S with its trunk open on the right side of the photo above. That’s TMC’s Papa Fox headed out on another Mainland Roadtrip (from Hawaii)
We waited in the shade of the trees before security let us into the event.
And here I am chatting with Papafox from Hawaii.
Chatting with Bonnie as well as Linda and Bill from our home club, the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County.
And the line started to form… Nanette from Tesla Owners Club of Hawaii was with us as well.
And we catch Steve Jurvetson shooting video of the line…
It just gets longer
Better half gets a better picture of me with Linda and Bill.
And finally, the queue to get into the building opens and security lets us through…
The guy ahead of us must have been made of metal, ’cause he should’ve brought a purse with all the stuff he had to empty from his pockets.
The Annual Meeting was held in the same room as last year.
We did get a better seat.
The agenda was relatively brief.
And lots of familiar faces.
And hanging with the Hawaiians
This guy had looked familiar too…
Better view this trip, but not better pictures. Unlike last year when Elon and JB really went “off-book” and kept us entertained at the meeting for several hours. Elon was pretty structured. A lot of it had to do with IR taking and filtering questions the day before via Twitter submissions. There was no in-room queuing for live questions. So, though the IR department let some less serious questions come through, it was all pretty well managed.
No “earth shattering” revelations and even the Model Y tease wasn’t really much. Still, it was a good way to cap the past few days of Tesla and Active E EV activities and we had a good time. When we headed out, and finally caught a photo with the Model S with the Hawaii plate.
Great shot of the Roadster getting its 3rd party netting top. We need to find one of those for the better half’s Roadster.
Our route is plotted into the NAV…
and we’re headed home.
We spot a Zero Motorcycle on our way out of the Annual Meeting.
The Annual Meeting this year let out in the middle of Silicon Valley Rush Hour Traffic… So, that just means more chances to play #EVBingo. Only drawback was I found out about thirty minutes later that some of my friends caught a Model 3 at the Mountain View Supercharger. As usual, it takes the Belgians on a trip to California to get great pictures of the Model 3. 😜 (Thanks again for the DM Martin and for not “rubbing it in”)
“Q: I’m guessing this is not official.
James Bond: Not even remotely.” Meet candidate 007 #Model3 #Tesla pic.twitter.com/ZCiQnonvGl— Tesla Owners Club BE (@TeslaClubBE) June 7, 2017
And what cars did we get to catch on camera? Well, unfortunately, we were only able to catch a couple of #EVBingo cars on this Rush Hour Traffic drive.
This Audi E-Tron was blurry on the camera, but you can make out the outline of the green HOV sticker on the car. It’s the green discoloration on the rear bumper’s right side. (I spotted the car fine with my eyes, but we were fighting traffic here.)
And the other EV Bingo car we captured on camera was the Ford Focus Electric that was a few cars ahead of me in the carpool lane.
So, how did we do around the Bay Area/Silicon Valley (not counting the time waiting for the Annual Meeting, or right after…
| Bay Area | |||||
| Total – 6/6 | Bay Area | On Car Carriers | Total Spotted | Points Per Car | Total Points |
| Tesla Model S | 29 | 2 | 31 | 1 | 31 |
| Chevy Volt | 26 | 26 | 1 | 26 | |
| BMW i3 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 33 | |
| Tesla Model X | 12 | 8 | 20 | 5 | 100 |
| Mercedes Benz B250e | 1 | 1 | 15 | 15 | |
| Ford Fusion PlugIn | 7 | 7 | 2 | 14 | |
| Ford Focus Electric | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12 | |
| Ford C-Max PlugIn | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
| Nissan LEAF | 22 | 22 | 1 | 22 | |
| Fiat 500e | 0 | 7 | 0 | ||
| Kia Soul EV | 1 | 1 | 15 | 15 | |
| Volkswagen E-Golf | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| Toyota Prius PlugIn | 4 | 4 | 3 | 12 | |
| Sonata | 1 | 1 | 15 | 15 | |
| Chevy Bolt EV | 3 | 3 | 15 | 45 | |
| Audi E-Tron | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12 | |
| Zero Motorcycle | 1 | ? | |||
| Totals | 361 |
Tried to get a ruling on Zero Motorcycle, but we didn’t have points. So, that’s 361 before the California Handicap, and 180.5 after the 50% discount for the Bay Area spotting.
Just at the Annual Meeting parking lot and adjacent, supercharger.
| Annual Meeting | |||
| Total – 6/6 | Bay Area | Points Per Car | Total Points |
| Tesla Model S | 53 | 1 | 53 |
| Chevy Volt | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| BMW i3 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Tesla Model X | 37 | 5 | 185 |
| Tesla Roadster | 1 | 25 | 25 |
| Mercedes Benz B250e | 1 | 15 | 15 |
| Totals | 283 |
The total of 283 points, pre-California 50% handicap of 141.5 points. Which means that we have 644 total points (322 post handicap) before we leave the Bay Area/Silicon Valley area. I like to use the Gilroy Supercharger for the spot that we delineate these areas, so past that is between Metro Areas count.
So, we head through, still mesmerized by the progress one really wet year has done for the state’s water levels.
We pass that duck pond again.
Furthermore, driving on the Southbound/Westbound side of this drive gives us better views of the reservoir to see how close to its capacity its been since the wet Winter that we’ve had.
And it wasn’t long until we’re back on Interstate 5 again.
We stopped off at Harris Ranch for a big boost and had a Red, White, and Blue shot… Too bad we drive an S, and not an X, otherwise it would have been a cool Model X Red, White, and Blue shot.
After leaving Harris Ranch, my better half played around with her camera with these great sunset shots.
We were traveling in darkness for quite a bit of that drive back. Not as late as last year’s Annual Meeting, but still a quiet Tuesday evening drive.
| In Between Metro Areas | |||
| Total – 6/6 | Total Spotted | Points Per Car | Total Points |
| Tesla Model S | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Chevy Volt | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Tesla Model X | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Ford Fusion PlugIn | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Ford C-Max PlugIn | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Totals | 39 |
Even though Model S and Model X lights are easy to spot in the dark, we did a decent EV Bingo total of 39 points for inter-Metro travel. We even beat the total for the LA Metro.
Granted, it was really late and we got home just after midnight. But we scored a pathetic 1 Model S spotted on the drive. That’s HALF a POINT after the California discount.
At least we got home at a fairly decent hour.
Lots of bugs gave up its life in this drive… And we’re glad that water restrictions have been eased. ’cause it felt good to clean this car.
If you want to join us on some of our other trips, here’s day one of our cross-country trip from 2015 or last year’s Long Way Round to the Gigafactory which took us to the Vancouver, BC and back.
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