Model X 9/29 Launch Event Preparations [w/ photos] and Some Predictions

On Saturday afternoon, I stopped by 901 Page Avenue to check out X Launch Event preparations. It's a huge empty factory/warehouse type building that Tesla leased after Solyndra failed.

Based upon what I saw, and what occurred at the Model S Delivery Event, this is what I think is going to happen:

1. Founders will receive their X's at the factory in the morning or early afternoon (to make the evening news) as part of a Tesla employee celebration. The media will be there, and so will Gov. Brown. He met with PM Modi yesterday in San Jose, and will be attending the Chinese National Day Reception in San Francisco Tonight, so he's probably going to stay at a hotel in the City and will be able to attend TSLA's X event as he did the S.

2. The media will be taken on X rides on the Factory test track.

3. According to the attendance confirmation email, we will park at the intersection of "A" and "B" streets, NOT in the huge 901 Page Ave parking lot.

CORRECTION:

Upon further map analysis, I just realized the "901 Page" sign I saw when I drove to the large parking lot is actually at the corner of Kato Road and "A" Street:

https://goo.gl/maps/fQStwDS1AQp

Therefore, we'll be parking in this lot so they can't use it to give us X rides unless part of it is cordoned off, or they just use Kato Road.

4. A shuttle bus was already parked there on Sat.

5. Large sections of the old parking lot were being smoothly re-asphalted on Sat. afternoon when I was there.

6. #3, #4, and #5 indicate that the Parking Lot will be part of a Model X Rides track, probably to show-off AutoPilot. There is also a paddock area at the NW of the building. This is consistent with the 'D' event in Hawthorne.

CORRECTION: Since most of the lot will be used for guest parking, any X rides will probably be on Kato Road.

7. Inside the building (what I saw driving by a huge open door) are numerous large temporary trees (probably fake?), and many portable outdoor gas lamps. I think the design will include an artificial forest (green) motif. I think there will be numerous X's inside the well-lit venue, at least one in each exterior color, and all interior options and seating configurations on display. Sigs will be able to configure there if they wish.

8. It's going to be another great Tesla party! :biggrin: We should all wear badges with our TMC handles.

Russ

PS. If I have time to go out later today, I'll swing by to check out final preparations. Tomorrow I have an appt. so will definitely drive by and update everyone. Personally, I'm really excited. I'm the type of vehicle buyer that is really geeky (former consulting s/w engineer) and reads everything I can get my hands on before I buy/lease. I usually know much more about the vehicle than the salesperson does. In this case, the sponging process dragged on for 3.5 years, during which time we were later teased by "mule sightings" and many of us experienced analysis paralysis on TMC. All will finally be revealed tomorrow!

Another prediction of mine is that we will see 3rd party Apps on the X's 17" touchscreen that run in a walled garden Linux VM. At least I hope we do!

These four photos (for reference) were taken a week ago on Sept. 21st before the major preparations began:



These 24 photos were taken on Saturday afternoon:



IMHO, Tesla would have had to obtain bids from the paving contractors in advance, who have to schedule the job. I don't think the Model X Launch Event was dreamed-up right before invites went out. Some people at Tesla were planning and knew all about it when Sig's called to inquire so they could make advance travel arrangements. They problem was they had a lockdown on all X information to reduce the Osbourne Effect as much as possible.

bollar said:

Nothing says "green event" like fake trees and gas heaters!

Click to expand...

I didn't park and walk up to the large door since I didn't think that would be appropriate, and I wanted to save the "surprise" factor for myself and others. Hopefully, the trees I saw at a distance inside the dark space are living ones in large pots and not Disneyland-type! We may need the extra oxygen they generate Tues. night since the place will be packed. :biggrin:

Someone PM'd and asked for more info about 901 Page Ave. Here it is:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2015/06/11/exclusive-tesla-snaps-up-former-solyndra-building.html

Executive summary:

• Page Technology Center
• more than 500,000 SF!
• Tesla's largest Silicon Valley growth since Tesla Factory (bought from Toyota) in 2010 during Great Recession for pennies on the dollar
• Last remaining vacant building from the Solyndra bankruptcy
• Tesla's email: "901 Page, located conveniently down the road from the Tesla Factory, gives us the space to expand our manufacturing and build more engineering labs as we buildup production."

It's located directly behind a 200,000 SF building leased by Elon's cousin company, Solar City, earlier this year. I read somewhere (or perhaps it was speculation) that Tesla intends to move Tesla Energy activities here to take advantage of the geographical proximity and free-up space in Tesla Factory for future production expansion (Model 3 sedan and CUV, new roadster, and hopefully a Tesla pickup truck someday to encroach into the F150 market).

donv said:

Unless they were doing that work anyway...

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Good point -- this might be a coincidence, but the fact we're not going to park here tells me it will be used to give short rides. They have a history of doing that at the very first prototype Model S Factory Event, and the "D" event in Hawthorne last fall. In this case, with so many Signature reservationists who will be there that have been invited to but haven't configured yet, in many cases because of the lack of full product disclosure, it seems like the obvious thing for Tesla to do IMHO.

speedmind said:

I'm very positive something like this is what's going to happen (my quote from a previous post in another thread):

Click to expand...

I just corrected part of my OP:

"... 3. According to the attendance confirmation email, we will park at the intersection of "A" and "B" streets, NOT in the huge 901 Page Ave parking lot.

CORRECTION:

Upon further map analysis, I just realized the "901 Page" sign I saw when I drove to the large parking lot is actually at the corner of Kato Road and "A" Street:

https://goo.gl/maps/fQStwDS1AQp

Therefore, we'll be parking in this lot so they can't use it to give us X rides unless part of it is cordoned off, or they just use Kato Road.

4. A shuttle bus was already parked there on Sat.

5. Large sections of the old parking lot were being smoothly re-asphalted on Sat. afternoon when I was there.

6. #3, #4, and #5 indicate that the Parking Lot will be part of a Model X Rides track, probably to show-off AutoPilot. There is also a paddock area at the NW of the building. This is consistent with the 'D' event in Hawthorne.

CORRECTION: Since most of the lot will be used for guest parking, any X rides will probably be on Kato Road..."

I still think we'll get X test rides (fingers crossed), and the paddock area in the back of the parking lot will be used to wait for them, except now they will be using Kato Road. The only reason they won't be able to give us rides would be if they haven't been able to produce enough vehicles yet besides Founders to do so. However, there's always those "test mules"! :biggrin: