Tesla was founded in July 2003, by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk, J. B. Straubel and Ian Wright joined the company early on and were retroactively allowed to call themselves co-founders.

Nikola Tesla is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

The first Tesla Roadster was delivered in February 2008 to Tesla co-founder, chairman and product architect Elon Musk. The company produced 500 similar vehicles through June 2009.

Level 5 is the dream: Unconditional (that is, no-limits) automated driving, with no expectation that a human driver will ever have to intervene.

Only the tires and wiper blades need regular replacement on a Tesla vehicle. Thanks to a clever braking system that slows mostly by reversing the electrical motor instead of applying friction (which also charges the battery), a Tesla won't need new brake pads anytime soon, if ever. There's also no oil to change, fan belts, air filters, spark plugs, or other parts needed in traditional cars.

In 2013, the Model S became the first electric car to top the monthly new car sales ranking in any country, twice leading in Norway, in September and December 2013 and also in Denmark in December 2015.

To activate the new feature, the driver must press the "Ludicrous" button on the car's settings screen for 5 seconds. This brings up a warning advising that the higher-performance mode will cause "accelerated wear of the motor, gearbox and battery."

The car was codenamed WhiteStar during research and preliminary development. It was officially announced in a press release on June 30, 2008.

Naming the feature "Bioweapon Defense Mode" was seen as a marketing ploy, but after releasing those results, Tesla argued: "Bioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement. You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car."

He led Tesla's first investment round in 2004 and chaired the company's board of directors.