Nikola Tesla Day

Nowadays, the word “Tesla” is synonymous with the electric vehicle company. And that, friends, is an entirely different conversation.

Long before I knew about Elon Musk—or even Nikola Tesla himself—I was introduced to the possibility of electric vehicles through science fiction.

I was about thirteen or fourteen years old when I wandered into a comic book and game shop near Alderwood Mall and picked up a copy of Steve Jackson Games’ Car Wars. The description on the back of the box hooked me immediately. It promised high-speed duels on the freeways of the future, where players designed their own vehicles, equipped them with weapons and armor, and battled to become road aces.

When I opened the box, I noticed something interesting during vehicle creation.

You had a choice of power plants: gasoline or electric.

That seemed almost ridiculous to me.

The game was set around the year 2070, where gasoline had become scarce and expensive enough that electric vehicles often made more sense. But this was the 1980s. We grew up idolizing Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes, and every loud American V8 imaginable. Even our dystopian futures were powered by gasoline. Mad Max 2 proved that if the world ever fell apart, you’d still want a supercharged muscle car.

Electric cars?

That sounded like pure science fiction.

Then something funny happened.

I compared the cardboard vehicle counters from Car Wars to my collection of Micro Machines and realized they were almost the same scale. With Dad’s help, I modified the turning key, pulled out some graph paper, and started designing our own road maps and arenas. Before long, I had friends over for what became our newest favorite game.

Looking back, I realize that Car Wars wasn’t just introducing me to a game.

It was introducing me to an idea.

Fast forward nearly thirty years.

On June 22, 2012—my sister’s birthday—the Tesla Model S debuted. I remember seeing photos online and thinking how incredibly cool it looked. Sleek. Modern. Entirely electric.

And almost instantly, my mind tumbled back to those afternoons playing Car Wars.

What had once seemed like a far-fetched game mechanic had quietly become reality.

I said all of that to say this:

None of it would have happened without the man whose name eventually found its way onto the hood of those cars.

Today, July 10, we celebrate Nikola Tesla Day, honoring the Serbian-American inventor and engineer born on July 10, 1856. His pioneering work with alternating current (AC), radio technology, electric motors, and wireless power transmission laid the foundation for the modern electrical world we often take for granted. His innovations helped make large-scale electrification possible, including the groundbreaking hydroelectric project at Niagara Falls in 1895.

It’s funny how life works.

Sometimes science fiction inspires science fact.

Sometimes childhood hobbies become lifelong interests.

And sometimes the greatest inventors influence our lives long before we ever learn their names.

Oh… and don’t even get me started on the Christmas morning I unwrapped what I thought was a LEGO set, only to discover a Science Fair 75-in-1 Electronic Project Kit instead. Looking back, that probably deserves a story all its own.

Happy FriYAY, y’all.