Month: October 2011

I visited the Tesla Store on Santana Row back in April when they opened and took a ride in the Roadster Sport. I returned to the store yesterday to pick up my order check out the Model S, Tesla’s first sedan. They’re saying that deliveries will begin next summer.

It’s a good-looking car, and more comfortable to sit in (and get in and out of) than the Roadster. The interesting part for me was hearing about the electronics system. Some of my mental notes, which may or may not be accurate:

• 3G provider unannounced, but “probably Verizon or AT&T, because who else is there?”
• You can create a WiFi hotspot from the 3G connection
• Navigation maps are from Google, and the data is live from the Internet
• 4 USB ports for hooking up your various devices
• System is Linux-based, and there will be apps available. One example: Netflix, so you can “watch while the car charges.”
• Remote control/monitoring features will be available via an iPhone app. Other platforms could be supported as well via the API that will be released.

This has been a sad time. Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday. Tonight, I learned that a friend, also an Apple employee, was killed in an accident a month ago. I was just talking about him at lunch today.

Skip Haughay and I met at the opening of the Apple Store in the Christiana Mall in Delaware in 2004.  In the summer of 2006, Skip and I coincidentally both began contract work at Apple and Google, respectively. He told me about when he first passed Steve Jobs in the hallway. Steve had a tray of food. Skip’s boss noticed that he was in shock from the sighting of his idol, and simply explained, “He needs to eat too.” A few months after Skip started working with Apple on a project basis, I got this email:

Hey Wysz:

Call me.  You need to talk to Apple's newest iPod software engineer.

Skip

We began our full-time positions with the companies on the same day. We didn’t hang out much, but we’d occasionally email each other extremely dorky messages whenever Apple or Google was in the news. He continued to be a complete Apple fan, and would excitedly send me quick notes with pictures from launch parties or even the latest poster in the main lobby. One subject line read, “Look at this new t-shirt! This company rocks!” He hosted me for a couple of lunches at Apple, and I had him over to lunch at Google. He was excited to see the dogs that people brought to work.

He absolutely loved horses and Apple, so I’m pretty sure he was living his dream. I took this picture of Skip and Woz when we went to a Segway Polo match in San Francisco.

If you were close to Skip, feel free to send me an email. I have a couple more pictures I can share.