Lifestyle
Becoming a Tesla Destination Charging Participant
Last month I shared with you the story of my successful recruitment of a restaurant/brewery into the Tesla Destination Charging program. It was a story I hoped would inspire others to do the same. Some of you asked me questions about what it was like for the business and I was curious myself, so I set out to get answers and hear it from their side.
The long story short? Piece of cake!
How did this all start? Some crazy owner (me) sent an unsolicited email, informed one of the restaurant’s owners of the program and vowed to come for a visit. On Friday, November 27th, that visit occurred. After I left, Mark the owner of Breaker Brewing Company checked on the kitchen and determined he could spare a few moments to contact Tesla’s Destination Charging program and inquire. As with any small, independent business, the biggest question Mark had was how much of an investment joining the program required. His budget for such a non-essential business expense was, in essence, non-existent. Sure he knew they would be on the hook for the cost of electricity for the actual charging, but that nominal amount was not the main concern.
Pretty quickly (Monday or Tuesday of the following week) Tesla responded to Mark’s inquiry. He assumes they checked out the location using mapping software first because right from that first phone conversation, he was immediately informed his location was a good fit. He had provided the address in his first contact and already knew he had an unused parking space along a building where the chargers could be installed.
“We love technology here.”
To be honest, it didn’t take much convincing on my part to get the restaurant on board with this idea. They were really receptive from the beginning and so the rest was smooth sailing. A pair with experience in the engineering field, Mark admitted that he and his co-owner loved technology.
The main questions that he had revolved around their responsibilities. For example, how much up front costs or fees they would be on the hook for, what the program consisted of and whether or not Tesla would assist with getting adequate power to the building where he intended the chargers to be installed.
In order to answer those questions, Tesla instructed Mark to get an estimate from an electrician to run the additional power and install the chargers. Jonathan Katz, Project Manager in the Destination Charging group was Mark’s main contact. One very important thing that Mark wanted to share with me was that from Day 1, Jonathan was phenomenal to work with. His email signature contained a direct phone number which Mark was able to call with questions. Reportedly Jonathan answered every call and reaching out to him never amounted to voicemails or phone tag. He also answered every question, big or small. The same thing applied to the electrician who was hired to do the job. (Praising Tesla for communication is something I don’t see often so this really stood out to me and is a sign of their true commitment to making charging accessible.)
Destination chargers can be found across a variety of hotels, restaurants and shopping centers [Source: Tesla Motors]
The next step in the process was getting an estimate for the electrical work. Tesla had recommended two electricians that were relatively close but not in the same town. Mark asked if he could hire his own because he happened to know of one who was reliable, professional and excellent at fit and finish of his work. Tesla said that it was no problem at all and awaited the estimate. As noted above, the electrician was able to easily contact Jonathan Katz directly to have any questions answered about the process. Once the estimate came in, Mark was ready to get back to Tesla.
The quote was $2,800 for installation of two 80 amp HPWCs including upgrading the building’s service to accommodate that kind of juice. The job also included running the chargers all the way outside the building to the correct placement. When Mark informed his contact at Tesla about the estimate, they confirmed this was within their reimbursement cap so the entire thing would be covered. Breaker Brewery would not have to come out of pocket even one dollar. That made the decision to move forward extremely easy.
Breaker Brewery would not have to come out of pocket even one dollar.
The next part of the process went equally smooth. Tesla had accepted the cost (their cap, which may or may not be negotiable and may or may not be region-specific, was reported to be $3,000) and sent a congratulations email about being accepted into the program. Next Tesla mailed out the chargers, which arrived in about five business days. I am assuming that what made me think this was an ideal location for a destination charger was also noticed by Tesla and thus they accepted the location into the program without any convincing.
The amount of effort and leg work the restaurant had to do to be a part of this program was small. They were required to fill out an application, which was neither long nor complicated. It contained some basic information about their location, business and what they offer. (I’m picturing the wifi and restroom symbols you see on the navigation screen when you touch on a destination charging marker.)
Two Tesla HPWCs installed at Breaker Brewing Company in Wilkes-Barre, PA
Once the chargers were installed and powered up, Tesla had to be informed. At this point the one and only hiccup occurred. For one reason or another, there was a miscommunication that resulted in Tesla not realizing it was done. After some time, Mark reached out to follow up about payment to the electrician. Once Jonathan realized what had occurred, he quickly resolved the issue and sent the payment. Mark estimates that had the miscommunication not occurred, the electrician probably would have only waited 7-10 for payment after completion. It bears repeating that in the case of this installation, everything was reimbursed. The whole job fit into the reimbursement limits and the restaurant had to pay nothing.
Tesla Destination Charging partners [Source: Tesla Motors charging map]
On January 15, 2016, the chargers were powered up. That means in just 49 days (including the Christmas and New Years holidays!) Breaker Brewery went from asking about the destination charging program to having working chargers. It took 3-5 days for their location to show up on Tesla’s destination charging map. I will assume the in-navigation display took the same but did not verify it was showing until yesterday.
Within the first 10 days or so of operation, which included my post about it as well as sharing on both TMC and the Tesla Forums, three different owners called the restaurant to thank them for installing a charger. (The Tesla community doing what we do.) Thus far only one owner has actually charged but Mark hopes to see an uptick as word spreads. Interestingly enough, the chargers have become a topic of conversation for non-Tesla owning patrons of the restaurant. Every Friday and Saturday someone notices and asks about it. There is a general curiosity that I hope will have far reaching implications with Model 3 and beyond. Certainly people want to know they will be able to charge at various locations before even considering the idea of some day owning an electric vehicle. To Mark’s knowledge, no other EV drivers have attempted to charge. I asked this question because I once saw an electric Smart Car pull into a Tesla Supercharger and attempt to plug in.
Some additional questions I asked were:
- What did you have to negotiate? Nothing
- How much did you come out of pocket? Nothing
- How as finance handled? Tesla mailed the chargers and paid the electrician directly
- Was the process easy? Extremely
- What else? I emailed Nissan and GM to see if they have similar programs. No one ever responded.
- Final notes from the owner: I would recommend this to any business!
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory
Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.
Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.
The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.
Tailgate Utility Trackhttps://t.co/PCAYXlFBvS pic.twitter.com/sCV2NVxf1W
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) September 3, 2026
The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.
Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory
Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.
Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years
Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.
Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.
In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.
The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.
But we do need to act much faster than that if people still want to live where the beach is today. We have about 50 years or so to take action, which should be more than enough time for the space satellites to solve any heating problems. https://t.co/xhrVQALwQw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2026
Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.
This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.
A former Vancouver police sergeant with ALS accounts his journey to become a patient for Elon Musk’s Neuralink wireless brain-computer interface technology.
“I’m texting you from my brain right now.” That was the first message Lee Marten sent after waking up from Neuralink surgery, five hours and one migraine after dozens of threads were stitched into his motor cortex.
Marten, a former Vancouver police sergeant, is one of the first Canadian ALS patients to receive Neuralink’s N1 brain implant, and the 26th recipient overall. He tells his story in a first-person account published by Maclean’s.
Marten recounts how he was a healthy, athletic Vancouver police sergeant until April 2022 when symptoms of muscle twitching and balance loss, were followed by a bad fall that broke his leg. He would eventually be diagnosed with ALS in early 2025 at the age of 47. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that progressively destroys the motor neurons controlling voluntary muscle movement, eventually taking away a patient’s ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. There’s no cure, and most patients live two to five years after diagnosis.
He describes the devastation of the diagnosis and how he began preparing for it while connecting with other young ALS patients through a WhatsApp group called Young Guns. Through that group he learned about a Neuralink clinical trial at Toronto Western Hospital and, after a roughly seven-month vetting process (physical assessments, psychiatric evaluation, a final interview with the Neuralink team), was accepted this past April as the trial’s 26th recipient and the first Canadian ALS patient to get the N1 implant. He recounts the May surgery in detail, including the robotic system that stitched 64 threads into his brain, and describes the app, Link, translating his neural signals into cursor control, which he was using within hours of waking up.
Marten walks through what daily use looks like, including weekly “brain training” exercises, a real-time neural-activity display, charging the implant via a beanie-mounted MagSafe charger, and using the implant for emailing, texting, social media, and gaming via a “Magic Box” that connects it to other devices. He also gives brief context on brain-computer interface history and quite candid about Musk, calling him “divisive” but saying he found him “easy to admire.
The piece closes on a heavier note, with Marten seeking to pursue medical assistance in dying as his symptoms progressed, noting that he’ll be able to communicate his final words to his family through Neuralink rather than facing a silent decline. He expresses hope the data from his case will help future ALS patients, even without a cure in his own lifetime.
Tesla Cybercab launch catches NHTSA’s attention who wants to know more
Tesla Cybercab is coming to Asia this month as US service officially begins
