Meet ‘world's first Tesla baby', born in front seat of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle

Maeve Lily was born inside her parents' Tesla car. (Image credit: Facebook)

Maeve Lily was going to be Yiran Sherry and Keating Sherry's second child. Yiran had a long drawn out labour with her firstborn Rafa — a nod to tennis star Rafael Nadal and the painter Raphael — so this time she was prepared for the long haul. The Philadelphia couple were prepping Rafa for pre-school when Yiran's water broke.

Keating helped Yiran get into the car — a Tesla. She had been contracting so fiercely she could barely walk. Once in the car, she crouched on the floor in front of the passenger seat.

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The route to the hospital was choked with rush-hour traffic and Keating put the car on autopilot, which meant he could keep his left hand lightly on the wheel while checking on Rafa in the backseat and swiveling to tend to his wife.

It took the couple 20 minutes to drive from their home in Wayne to a hospital in Paoli and by that time, Yiran had already given birth to her daughter inside the car.

"A pediatrician happened to be standing outside the doors; he summoned nurses, who raced down and cut the umbilical over the car’s front seat. Once the pediatrician said, ‘She’s healthy. Congratulations,’ that was quite the sigh of relief,” Keating said to The Philadelphia Inquirer in an interview.

After that, the nurses at Paoli Hospital began referring to newborn Maeve Lily as “the Tesla baby” and querying Yiran every time they entered her room: “Are you the one who delivered the baby in the car?”

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Such was the fanfare that Yiran and Keating did consider — for one loopy but grateful moment—to change the baby’s middle name to Tess. In the end, they stuck with “Lily,” one of the characters in Yiran’s mother’s name, for the baby’s middle name. But they plan to hang onto the car. “I wouldn’t be too surprised if, in the year 2037, Maeve is getting her permit with that Tesla,” Keating says.