Elon Musk took an embarrassing Tesla test drive with Google's cofounders - the car would only go 10mph

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google Larry Page and Sergey Brin

REUTERS/Chip East

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin

The first ride that Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin got in Tesla's electric car wasn't too thrilling.

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That's because the car could only go ten miles per hour.

As Tesla CEO Elon Musk recounted at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, a bug in the car's systems prevented the vehicle from going any faster when the two Google founders hoped aboard.

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This was around the time that Tesla was building a completely new set of electronics for its early prototypes, switching from an analog computer that controlled the motor to a digital version.

Here's how Musk remembers the incident:

I remember in the early days giving a test drive to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, whom I've known for a long time, and there was some, like, bug in the system, and dammit, the car would only go 10 miles an hour. And I was like "Look I swear guys it goes way faster than this."

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Luckily for Musk, the Google cofounders were not too put off by the slow ride. In fact, Page and Brin went on to become early investors in Tesla: "They were kind enough to put a little investment into the company nonetheless, despite the world's worst demo," said Musk.

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