So what's next for Tesla? Company founder and CEO Elon Musk has publicly stated his desire to make a more affordable EV plus cars that (mostly) drive themselves, and new hire Doug Field is in position to lead that charge. Joining Tesla as the Vice President of Vehicle Programs, he will be "responsible for driving development of new vehicles."

We'll have to wait and see what those new Teslas look like, but his resume immediately shows why Musk is interested in someone with his experience. Field began his career as an engineer at Ford and later served as the CTO of Segway before moving over to Apple in 2008, where he's been the VP of Mac Hardware Engineering leading development on the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and iMac.

We were able to contact the driver quickly and are pleased that he is safe. This was a significant accident where the car was traveling at such a high speed that it smashed through a concrete wall and then hit a large tree, yet the driver walked away from the car with no permanent injury. He is appreciative of the safety and performance of the car and has asked if we can expedite delivery of his next Model S.

How can Consumer Reports give a car a 99 out of 100 rating, call it "the most practical electric car we've ever tested" and still not give it a "Recommended" rating? Because of how that rating gets decided. Basically, when CR tests a vehicle, it also needs more reliability data over time to assign that famous "Recommended" rating. That time has now passed, and the Tesla Model S is, indeed, recommended.

The update comes in the new Consumer Reports Annual Auto Reliability rankings, where the Model S has been added to the "Models that now have sufficient data" list. The data combines CR's in-house tests with subscriber survey data with, CR says, 1.1 million vehicles. There were only 600 Model S EVs in that data pool, and CR says the 2012 models were holding up better than the 2013 models. The problems that drivers reported included "wind noise, squeaks and rattles, and body hardware (including the sunroof, doors, and locks)."

Tesla Motors' Supercharger Corridor, which runs from San Diego to Vancouver, is now open for business. It enables the Model S to quickly recharge for free at a variety of locations along the West Coast of North America. At least six of those locations are already installed, and Tesla says "more than 99 percent of Californians and 87 percent of Oregon and Washington owners are now within 200 miles of a Supercharger." Company head Elon Musk says the West Coast leg of the supercharger network is just the beginning: "East Coast Supercharger network should be complete in a few months." A handful of locations already exist in the Northeast.

The newly opened West Coast network follows Interstate 5 and US Highway 101, enabling passage across long stretches for folks otherwise tethered to a wall charge. Two demonstration vehicles are taking a 1,750-mile journey from San Diego to Vancouver (read: a PR stunt) using solely Superchargers for power along the way.