Largest Tesla Parade — GuinessWorld Record Attempt
By: Electric Motoring W Dave Clark
Tags: Guinness World Record, Electric Vehicles, Tesla, Parade, Electric Car

On Saturday, December 12, 2020, hundreds of Tesla vehicles of every model ever produced by Elon Musk’s company, gathered in metro Atlanta, GA attempting to break the world record for the largest Tesla Parade ever. The record-holder was 145 vehicles accomplished in Beijing, China on January 15, 2017.

Planning for the world record attempt started months in advance by Miles Through Time Automotive Museum founder, Sean Mathis whose museum has over 100 years of automotive history, memorabilia, art, and unique historical exhibits located in Clarkesville, GA. But the event was bigger than just attempting to break the world record, it was also raising funds to assist in saving kids from human trafficking by donating 100% of the proceeds from raffle ticket and merchandise sales to Operation Underground Railroad.

The morning of the record-breaking attempt saw more than 300 Tesla’s gather in the Windward Parkway Park and Ride in Alpharetta, GA where each was provided a numbered window sticker that would track the total vehicle count, then parked until all participants were had arrived.

During the pre-event processing, social distancing was strictly observed and all participants were wearing masks to ensure the safety of everyone during these COVID-19 times.

Many well known, YouTube and Twitter Tesla enthusiasts attended the event, including Kim and her family from the It’s Kim Java channel, Brian from the i1Tesla channel, and Rafael from the TesLatino channel. The regional Tesla clubs were also well represented by the Tesla Owners Atlanta and Tesla Owners Tennessee.

Once all were ready to go, instructions were supposed to come via the official Tesla Record Live page, but the volume of people trying to access created technical issues. However, due to the pre-planning communications and well-documented outlines of how the event would be conducted, all participants had the needed information on how the event would unfold.

The plan was for all cars to leave the staging point and travel down a local road in an attempt to break the record before going on to the post-drive celebration. Guinness has specific guidelines in order to break the world record, which included:

All vehicles must stay in a single-file line for the entire 2-mile duration of the attempt Maintain an approximate 2 car-length distance at all times Do not exceed 15mph Ensure vehicle number decal is clearly visible on top left windshield

Video cameras were set up all along the parade route to record and document the official record-breaking attempt. Georgia State and local police officers provided an escort and closed the roads and intersections to ensure all Tesla vehicles would stay together along the entire 2-mile parade route, and 11-mile caravan down the GA400 highway to the Westin Atlanta Permiter hotel in Sandy Springs, GA for the post-drive celebration.

Luckily, I was able to participate in this world record attempt with my 2018 Tesla Model 3 with my wife as co-pilot. We were car number 079 and were in the front 1/4 of the pack during the parade and caravan. From what I could see, most participants were able to stay together as needed for the 2-mile parade. Once on the highway, it was a unique experience to see a major highway in Atlanta stopped of all normal traffic and see only a single file line of Tesla’s for as far as I could see both in front and behind me. There were a few instances of abrupt panic stops but for the most part, it was uneventful.

Later on, in talking with other participants, I heard of a few vehicles that unfortunately didn't fare as well and had a minor fender bender due to those quick stops and as the tail end of the caravan was no longer benefiting from the closed highway, so regular traffic started intermingling with those attendees.

During the post-drive celebration, in support of preventing human trafficking, a check was presented to Operation Underground Railroad for nearly $8,200 by Sean Mathis.

The final number of Tesla’s that made the Guinness World Record attempt was 340 vehicles. It will be several weeks before Guinness provides a decision on if the attempt was successful based on their strict criteria.