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Instagram Account Parodies Parking Lot Woes Plaguing Tesla's Bay Area Offices

A company known for its vehicular ingenuity grapples with the age-old conundrum: Where do I park?

If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, these photographs convey an absolute mess.

Auto manufacturer Tesla routinely makes headlines for its cutting-edge technology. Last week, it even surpassed General Motors as the United States’ most valuable car company.

But on Tuesday the company got some unflattering attention for its overcrowded employee parking lots in Fremont and Palo Alto.

Tesla employs 6,000 people, according to the Daily Mail, but they have to squeeze their cars into 4,500 spaces – often with rather alarming results, as documented by its employees on social media.

The parking nightmare has sparked its own Instagram account: @teslaparkinglot.

Followed by more than 10,000 people, its 134 posts chronicle Tesla employees’ desperate efforts to park. Any space is game, and traffic laws have been relegated to myths, with cars parked diagonally in straight parking spaces and occupying spots reserved for motorcycles and drivers with disabilities.

One image – titled “smart mini collaboration. pun intended” – shows two compact cars jammed into a single parking space. Vehicles have also been photographed hanging over curbs and medians.

Other pictures exhibit rows upon rows of cars, all of which are squashed tightly together, begging the question: How does anyone get out?

Many drivers have parked their cars just a few inches away from neighboring ones, but some appear to have gotten into fender benders trying to force themselves into unavailable spots.

Even bicycle riders don’t seem to fare better. Photographs show they have been mounted on top of one another due to a shortage of space.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is aware of the problem and is said to be working on a solution.

A Tesla spokesperson said the company offers alternative transportation options to decrease the number of cars that need to be parked. Toward that end, it offers shuttles, subsidizes public transit expenses, partners with ridesharing and car-pooling companies, and incentivizes biking to work. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKqaeb6gAMF/
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