Brian Dear, founder and president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico speaks at Tuesday’s Rotary Club of Los Alamos meeting at Cottonwood on the Greens, Photo by Bob Hull
BY LINDA HULL
Vice President
Rotary Club of Los Alamos
Brian Dear, the founder and president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico, spoke at the Rotary Club of Los Alamos on November 9. Dear described the state’s steadfast resistance to the “maverick” car company, Tesla’s perceived threat to auto dealerships, and the political reasons it has taken almost 15 years for New Mexico to secure its only Tesla service, sales, and distribution center. This center, which opened in September, is located in the former casino at the Nambé Falls Travel Center, along the frontage road next to Arby’s and not far from Buffalo Thunder. By negotiating with Nambé Pueblo, a sovereign nation, Tesla was able to open within the borders of New Mexico.
Dear remarked that although he is not employed by Tesla, like many other Tesla owners, he is impressed by the company’s exploration in so many areas of innovative development. Its “disruptive” nature poses a “fundamental existential risk to economic and political power enjoyed for decades by numerous 20th century industries including Big Oil, legacy automakers, and the franchise auto dealer industry.”
For more information about the Tesla center or to schedule a test drive, please call 505-428-4722 or email santafe_ordersupport@tesla.com. The center is open Monday-Saturday, 10-7; Sunday, 12-6.
Brian Dear established the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico (TOCNM) in 2015 “not as a car enthusiast club but as an advocacy group pushing to change a state law that banned Tesla from owning or operating a service center or store anywhere in the state.” The club now has almost 600 members. Before moving to New Mexico that year, he and his wife lived in La Jolla, California where Dear was founder or co-founder of various Internet start-up companies going back to the late 1980s. In addition to being a long-time tech entrepreneur, he worked for decades researching the never-before-told story of the real origins of social computing, in a book published by Knopf/Doubleday in 2017 as The Friendly Orange Glow, the Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture. From time to time Dear mentors other tech start-up founders. He is also one half of a musical duo which plays in various venues around Santa Fe.
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos meets in person Tuesdays, 12:00-1:00, in the Community Room, Cottonwood on the Greens, at the golf course. A Zoom option is available by contacting Linda Hull, Rotary Club vice-president, 505-662-7950. Hull is also happy to provide information about the Club and its humanitarian service.