The first time I saw a Tesla in Boulder I nearly rear-ended it. I’ve been on the lookout for them ever since.

That was four years ago. At first, I’d see the all-electric car every two or three months. Now it’s two or three a day. So I finally called up the Boulder County Clerk and asked just how many Teslas are registered in Boulder County. As of July 14, it was 1,585. By now there are probably a lot more.

Who are these people? To find out, I went to the Tesla supercharging station in Boulder, just east of Trader Joe’s. (For geezer alumni like me, that’s just south of the old Arapahoe Chemicals plant site, which is now Target.)

I hung out for about an hour. There were always four or five cars charging.

So how did Tesla owners — many of whom are CU alumni — like their rides? They all said: “I love it.” 

And for lots of different reasons. 

Kyle Liss (MMus’21), who lives in Westminster with his wife, saves $150 a month on gas commuting to his teaching job in Frederick. 

Brian Cairns (Comp-Sci’09; MS’11), who works at Google, likes the autopilot. He said it takes 10 to 20 minutes to top off his batteries with the supercharger. “I’ll just sit here until I finish my burrito,” he said. 

Jack Ursetta (AeroEngr’18) and Monica Maly (IntPhys’18) had just returned from Breckenridge in a Model Y, Tesla’s latest model. 

“It’s super smooth,” Jake said. “It actually handles like a sports car. It doesn’t drive like a hatchback, that’s for sure.”

“I love the instant torque,” said Saber Boudjada (MCDBio’14), who’s driven a Tesla for three years. He said it costs “five bucks to [charge] from dead.”

I called Sean Mitchell, president of the Denver Tesla Club, who has about 225,000 miles on his Model S, which he bought four years ago. He said three years ago the club had 75 members. Today it has 1,500. 

“It reminds me of the early days of Apple computers,” he said. 

Bruce Comstock (Econ’66) — my former CU roommate and now-retired hot air balloonist extraordinaire, who lives in Ashland, Oregon — has been driving a Tesla Model 3 for about a year. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds. 

He said: “I’m really glad I got it, because it means I’m connected with the future of automobiles.”

Will 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds shut down a gazillion Boulder Subarus? As Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions. Especially about the future.” 

But a shift certainly seems like it’s here.

Disclosure: Paul Danish owns Tesla shares. 

Photo courtesy Denver Tesla Club

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Snow-capped Rocky Mountains greeted all who commuted into Boulder from the US 36 highway or the 18-mile bikeway, which opened early last year. As the spring semester draws to a close, traffic along the highway will increase significantly for CU Boulder graduation ceremonies The main commencement ceremony will occur in Folsom Field Friday, May 12 beginning at 8:30 a.m. 

Photo by Casey A. Cass 

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Helping drivers learn of real-time deals, Danny Newman (Aero’ex’01) created an app that will appear in 4 million Ford vehicles next year.

Imagine you’re driving to work and want to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel on the way. Push a button, tell your car computer and it will respond with a nearby deal, along with directions. As you’re walking into a grocery store, you get a text message telling you about a discount on one of your favorite products. On vacation with the family, you’re pinged with special offers at local museums and attractions.

This vision of the future is becoming reality, thanks to Danny Newman (Aero ex’01), the 31-year-old co-founder of Roximity, a rising star in the fast-moving mobile app market. Launched in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Roximity sends customized, time-sensitive, location-based offers to a user’s cell phone or car computer.

Ford was so taken with Newman’s idea that it will install Roximity in the voice-activated SYNC dashboard computer of more than 4 million of its cars in the next year.

“We’ve been thinking about location-based marketing for a long time,” says Newman, a creative force who does some of his best work between 2 and 6 a.m.

But the idea wasn’t technically viable until September 2011 when Newman’s team cracked the code and won the Ford SYNC App Developer Challenge at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. They had only 24 hours to develop a working prototype of Roximity before delivering a one-minute pitch.

“It’s the holy grail everyone has been talking about,” he says.

Unlike such established companies as Groupon, Roximity users can control how often they receive deal alerts and can tailor offers to their particular interests — anything from sporting events and arts to restaurants and clothing. Co-founder Austin Gayer notes, “It’s not prepaid. That’s one of our big differentiators.”

Roximity already offers deals from more than 10,000 merchants in 150 cities. Newman and Gayer also are working with other auto manufacturers to integrate the app and are talking to major national and international brands about product deals.

“He’s an idea person, but he’s unique in the sense that he’s also very technically capable,” Gayer says of Newman. “When he has an idea he can execute it. He can implement a prototype and meet and articulate that with a potential brand.”

In other words, Newman isn’t going to run out of gas anytime soon.

“I love being able to have an idea and make it happen,” says Newman, who owns a design and development firm with Gayer and has several other business ventures under his belt. “I really just like creating cool new things.”

Photo courtesy of Glenn Asakawa

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