Is Elon Musk building staff rollercoasters in Tesla and SpaceX factories?

Another week, another crazy idea from Elon Musk is set to become a reality. This time, instead of electric cars out-accelerating Ferraris and rockets for colonising Mars, Musk wants to install a rollercoaster in his Tesla car factory.

The rollercoaster, which was detailed in an email sent by Musk to his Tesla staff, will propel electric "pods" around the car factory.

It will be "fast and fun", says Musk, and include an optional loop-the-loop route. The rollercoaster will dip in and out of the building and offer a quick way for staff to travel to and from the car parks.

This isn't the first time Musk has flirted with the idea of transporting staff around the building on a rollercoaster, and it looks like the thrilling transport system could be built at Musk's SpaceX factory too.

Musk, who is chief executive of both Tesla and SpaceX, first spoke about installing an office roller coaster during interviews for his biography, written by Ashlee Vance and published in 2015. Having seen other Silicon Valley companies add fun and quirky features to their work spaces, Musk did what he usually does and took things a step forward.

"Everybody around here has slides in their lobbies. I'm actually wondering about putting in a rollercoaster – like a functional rollercoaster at the [Tesla] factory in Fremont. You'd get in and it would take you around the factory but also up and down. Who else has a roller coaster?"

Musk added: "I'm thinking about doing that with SpaceX, too. That one might be even bigger since SpaceX has like 10 buildings now. It would probably be really expensive, but I like the idea of it."

News of Musk's Tesla rollercoaster plans reemerged in a company-wide email sent to employees in late February 2017, published by clean energy blog Electrek. After several paragraphs discussing safety, staff pay and working hours, Musk ended with a section entitled Fun. Here he outlined a "really amazing party" once the Model 3 enters mass production later in the year, and a promise of free frozen yogurt stands "scattered around the factory".

Then came Musk's "personal favourite: a Tesla electric pod car rollercoaster (with an optional loop the loop route, of course!) that will allow fast and fun travel throughout our Fremont campus, dipping in and out of the factory and connecting all the parking lots. It's going to get crazy good."