Will maverick entrepreneur and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, enter the restaurant business? It definitely looks like he has set the ball rolling in this direction. The electric vehicle manufacturer has filed for a new trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
According to the 27th May filing, the company plans to introduce restaurant services, pop-up restaurant services, self-service restaurant services and take-out restaurant services. USPTO noted that the application is “awaiting examination” and will be reviewed by an attorney approximately three months after the filing date, or Aug. 27.Â
Electrek, which reported this story, noted that the company has recently applied for trademarks for the word and company stylizing of Tesla. The USPTO application features a drawing of Tesla’s iconic ‘T’ logo, which would be trademarked for use by the restaurants.
This is not a spur of the moment decision by Musk – he has been tweeting about it for more than four years. In 2018, he had tweeted “Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA near the 405.” Later, he added that there would be an outdoor screen that “plays a highlight reel of the best scenes in movie history” and a touchscreen menu to order food from. The same year, an official application for a building permit was filed with the city of Santa Monica.
In 2017, JB Straubel, who was the company’s CTO stated at a FSTEC conference that the company might move into the restaurant business. The idea was simple – to transform the company’s EV charging stations into full-service convenience stores, which would also serve food. Tesla has already attempted an abbreviated version by creating lounges like the one at its Kettleman City, California Supercharger station.
Earlier this year, Musk once again alluded to his plans when a Twitter user shared a picture of a “savage line” outside of one of the company’s supercharger stations in Santa Monica, California. Musk replied that a new Supercharger station was coming to Santa Monica soon, adding that he hopes to have a “50’s diner & 100 best movie clips playing too.”
