Just a little story I wrote this morning.
In the year 2064
'All this just to go 400 km', the tech mused as he looked at the insides of the old battery. He was the owner and sole employee of Teslas to go, part of a cottage industry keeping the old classics on the road. The company specialized in updated electronics and power cells. The tech liked to bring the old ones back to life. As amazing as the new models were, the old ones had such charm in their antiquated way.
The one he had in the shop today was real special: A 2014 Model S. 'You started it all', he thought, 'After the roadster showed it could be done, the Model S came and turned everything upside down'.
The Model S was still a relatively common sight. Popular at car shows and a few were even still used as drivers. This one had been bought new by the current owner's uncle when the now owner was 10. He'd told the tech that at the time he considered it the most amazing car ever. The tech, being 25, had a hard time imagining a time when a simple Model S was considered amazing. They were beautiful early examples of modern cars. But still... antiques.
The uncle drove the car several decades before parking it when his eyesight got bad. After some time he gave it to the nephew who had been so fascinated by it as a kid.
By then the car had deteriorated somewhat. The nephew brought it to a restoration shop that had done a nice job bringing it back to what it must have looked like back in 2014. Crisp, straight, body lines. Gleaming chrome. They had done a brilliant job duplicating the 2014 paint job, giving it that slight imperfection they had back then. Orange peel, they called it.
Now the car was with Teslas to go for the final part of the restoration. The tech had already finished replacing the old touchscreen and processor with modern retrofits. The screen looked original until you turned it on.A nice thing about this model was it had a “classic mode” that emulated the quaint original graphics. The tech had to smile when he looked at them.
Last step was to replace all those old bulky battery cells with a modern power cell.
The Model S used the battery case as a stressed chassis member so the old case had to be retained. The compact new cell looked positively lost in the giant old case.
He had the robotic helper lift it in place under the car and fasten it.
Disconnecting the shore power he had used for screen diagnostics he flipped over to the new power cell. The display lit up; “Rated range: 1856 km”.
'Not bad', thought the tech. The new cell was just a little standard 3B, hardly what one would call powerful. But it was compatible with the original inverter and motor which this car retained. That made it an easy and inexpensive, and thus popular, retrofit.
Before letting the owner know to come and get the car the tech did a test drive. He stopped at one of the ubiquitous charging stations and made sure the classic car was now compatible. The station successfully did a handshake with the new power cell and announced a complete recharge from drained could be done in less than a minute.
'I'll be sad to this one go', he thought as he pulled back into the shop.'As obsolete as you are, you're still a blast to drive'.
Soon the owner would pick up his car. He would go to car shows and show it off to neighbors. He'd pretend it was 2014 again, he was 10 years old and his uncle had just bought the coolest car in the universe.
In the year 2064
'All this just to go 400 km', the tech mused as he looked at the insides of the old battery. He was the owner and sole employee of Teslas to go, part of a cottage industry keeping the old classics on the road. The company specialized in updated electronics and power cells. The tech liked to bring the old ones back to life. As amazing as the new models were, the old ones had such charm in their antiquated way.
The one he had in the shop today was real special: A 2014 Model S. 'You started it all', he thought, 'After the roadster showed it could be done, the Model S came and turned everything upside down'.
The Model S was still a relatively common sight. Popular at car shows and a few were even still used as drivers. This one had been bought new by the current owner's uncle when the now owner was 10. He'd told the tech that at the time he considered it the most amazing car ever. The tech, being 25, had a hard time imagining a time when a simple Model S was considered amazing. They were beautiful early examples of modern cars. But still... antiques.
The uncle drove the car several decades before parking it when his eyesight got bad. After some time he gave it to the nephew who had been so fascinated by it as a kid.
By then the car had deteriorated somewhat. The nephew brought it to a restoration shop that had done a nice job bringing it back to what it must have looked like back in 2014. Crisp, straight, body lines. Gleaming chrome. They had done a brilliant job duplicating the 2014 paint job, giving it that slight imperfection they had back then. Orange peel, they called it.
Now the car was with Teslas to go for the final part of the restoration. The tech had already finished replacing the old touchscreen and processor with modern retrofits. The screen looked original until you turned it on.A nice thing about this model was it had a “classic mode” that emulated the quaint original graphics. The tech had to smile when he looked at them.
Last step was to replace all those old bulky battery cells with a modern power cell.
The Model S used the battery case as a stressed chassis member so the old case had to be retained. The compact new cell looked positively lost in the giant old case.
He had the robotic helper lift it in place under the car and fasten it.
Disconnecting the shore power he had used for screen diagnostics he flipped over to the new power cell. The display lit up; “Rated range: 1856 km”.
'Not bad', thought the tech. The new cell was just a little standard 3B, hardly what one would call powerful. But it was compatible with the original inverter and motor which this car retained. That made it an easy and inexpensive, and thus popular, retrofit.
Before letting the owner know to come and get the car the tech did a test drive. He stopped at one of the ubiquitous charging stations and made sure the classic car was now compatible. The station successfully did a handshake with the new power cell and announced a complete recharge from drained could be done in less than a minute.
'I'll be sad to this one go', he thought as he pulled back into the shop.'As obsolete as you are, you're still a blast to drive'.
Soon the owner would pick up his car. He would go to car shows and show it off to neighbors. He'd pretend it was 2014 again, he was 10 years old and his uncle had just bought the coolest car in the universe.
