Is Tesla ever going to deliver the Roadster to its customers? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who also put down $45,000 as a pre-reservation amount, is asking the same question publicly. Altman, who is at the helm of the world’s most crucial firm spearheading innovations in the field of generative AI, has been eager to get his hands on the car for the last seven years but has only been left disappointed. When he reached out for a refund, he was shocked to find the response, or the lack of it.
Altman has publicly aired his frustration with Tesla over a vehicle reservation he made more than seven years ago, revealing that his attempts to contact the company for a refund were met with a bounced email. The vehicle in question is the Tesla Roadster – the successor to Tesla’s first vehicle, which Elon Musk claimed can accelerate from 0-100kph in 1.9 seconds.
By performance-centric sports car standards, this is fast beyond belief. The Roadster was hailed as Tesla’s flagship electric vehicle, competing with the world’s fastest supercars.
That’s a long waiting period for a car that makes you wait so little to reach 100 kph!
Sam Altman frustrated over Tesla’s false promise
In a post on the X (formerly Twitter), Altman shared screenshots documenting his experience, which began in July 2018. The reservation for the highly anticipated Tesla Roadster, which has seen repeated delays over the years, was prepaid with a $45,000 deposit.
“A tale in three acts,” Altman wrote, sharing confirmation emails and a failed attempt to reach out to the electric vehicle maker.
In a follow-up post to the thread, he further wrote, “I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.”
The screenshots showed Altman receiving a booking confirmation from Tesla back in 2018. However, after facing endless delays, he was eventually disappointed and wanted to cancel his booking. He reached out to Tesla via email but got a notification that the email was bounced. Altman received a “Address not found” error, leading to further disappointment.
Neither Tesla nor the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, who was recently involved in a verbal spat with Altman on X, is yet to respond to Altman’s post. Musk had previously acknowledged that the Tesla Roadster had been suffering delays constantly, failing to uphold its most delayed timeline of 2020. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, Tesla focused its resources on launching the Cybertruck pickup, the Robotaxi driverless ride-hailing service, and the Optimus robot. No updates related to the Roadster have been furnished over the last few years.
Elon Musk diverted his attention on establishing X and xAI as his software ventures, establishing Tesla’s presence in more markets, and doing the same for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.
At this point, it remains to be seen whether Tesla plans on delivering the Roadster to the world’s few deep-pocketed customers, who still hope of getting propelled to breakneck speeds cocooned by Tesla’s most advanced engineering efforts.
