Tesla Motors has held the attention of most car nuts for some time; it is perhaps the leading manufacturer of electric automobiles that work in the real world.  And now, Tesla has gotten hold of YouTube’s head of global communications and public affairs, too.

Ricardo Reyes, who started collecting paychecks from Google in 2007, is set to officially begin working for Tesla in two weeks’ time on September 14th.  He’ll hold the title of "Vice President for Communications" within the company.

It’s a lot easier to embarrass one’s boss than it used to be. You can thank the now dreaded internal leak for that. What was once reserved for water cooler gripe sessions, collective bargaining and, if things went really sour, lawsuits and national media coverage is now instantly public and brutally humiliating.

Record increases in gasoline prices seem to have had an effect; according to a new Yahoo Autos study, 69 percent of American consumers are interested in purchasing an alternative fuel vehicle (AFV).

Facebook’s Social Ads program already has some people upset, and at first glance, new product pages just look like another way in which users might be turned into billboards.  But whether this is or isn’t the case, the pages are already catching on.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have tossed quite a bit of money at Tesla Motors, but they did so as private individuals.  Now there’s word that Google itself could get behind another automotive effort.