Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce an entire new automobile that can operate completely as a driverless automobile. However along with the Robotaxi, it additionally unveiled one other robo-vehicle – an autonomous van that can be utilized for both 20-person mass transit or for cargo hauling duties.
The “We, Robotic” occasion was primarily anticipated to concentrate on the upcoming 2-seat Robotaxi, with an anticipated replace on Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robotic.
We bought updates on each of these, with Robotaxis shuttling passengers across the Warner Bros. backlot the place the occasion was held, and Optimus robots serving drinks and handing out goodie baggage to attendees.
However one other rumor was a few potential “Robovan.” We talked about this briefly earlier than the occasion in our Electrek watch get together, and there have been varied rumors for years, with Tesla supposedly making a 12-passenger van for Boring Co. tunnels and seeing a leak of a peoplemover prototype in recent times.
And at the moment we noticed the primary glimpse of what the ultimate model may really feel like, because it pulled up and emptied a number of occupants through the occasion.
We didn’t get a lot details about the van, besides that it is going to be able to carrying 20 folks, or even be able to carrying cargo. The configuration we noticed was the people-carrying model, and Tesla has put up a number of images on its web site to see what the inside of the van may appear to be.
These are simply the passenger configuration – we don’t have any images of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration appears to be like to have vital cargo area obtainable (this might actually be helpful for one thing like an airport shuttle).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Robotaxi would have the ability to get the price of transport right down to round 20 cents a mile, however that the Robovan would take that even additional, right down to 5-10 cents a mile.
A automobile like this may very well be helpful for shuttle routes that want frequent pickups (like airport or scholar shuttles), for municipalities that don’t have sufficient ridership for a traditional 80-passenger bus, and naturally for metropolis last-mile supply in a cargo configuration.
Musk additionally repeated his line that “the long run ought to appear to be the long run,” which is actually obvious within the design of the Robovan, which appears to be like sort of acquainted…
The design of the Robovan is actually fairly out-there, however given Tesla’s historical past with out-there ideas, it would truly come to fruition in a state considerably like this.
Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a change in floor clearance. It appears uncertain that the maybe ~1-2 inch floor clearance on the demo automobile will probably be significantly helpful on metropolis roads….
In contrast to the Robotaxi, Tesla didn’t share a launch date for the Robovan. Whereas Musk stated the Robotaxi could be obtainable within the subsequent two years, he gave no date for the Robovan.
Electrek’s Take
One factor that the Robotaxi has been criticized for is its variety of seats. Whereas 2 seats is sufficient for lots of driving duties, you’re not going to have the ability to convey an entire household, or a bunch of associates, and many others.
And including a bunch of 2-seat automobiles to the street does nothing to cut back congestion, as a result of we’ll nonetheless find yourself with about the identical common automobile occupancy as we’ve proper now – or perhaps even much less occupancy since you wouldn’t have the occasional 3-5 individual automobile. Which might even imply extra congestion.
However the Robovan provides the promise of with the ability to carry an precise vital variety of folks, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles is likely to be lowered as properly as a result of it might run hop-on hop-off routes.
I might actually see this working on any variety of smaller shuttle routes that may profit from frequent pickups. There’s a summer time shuttle the place I grew up in California which simply runs folks to and from the seaside to assist alleviate parking points, and this is able to be good for that. Or how in regards to the new electrical shuttles at Zion Nationwide Park.
However like each Tesla promise, this one must be taken with a grain of salt.
In spite of everything, Tesla plans to change the world in 6 large methods subsequent 12 months already (Robotaxi, Semi, an inexpensive EV, next-gen Roadster, unsupervised FSD, and Optimus), and now we’ve one more unreleased product so as to add to that pile. And most of these present ones have been pushed again a number of instances. I assume at the least Robovan can’t be pushed again, if it doesn’t have a date but to start with.
And we solely noticed it pull up and park, it didn’t shuttle folks round through the evening, past the preliminary pul up. The Robotaxi was at the least driving folks round, albeit in a closely mapped space at low speeds, somewhat than in an actual world state of affairs with all of the surprising nonsense that comes up.
Humorous factor although, I truly assume the Robovan is likely to be extra attainable than Robotaxi from an autonomy perspective, as a result of these types of automobiles usually tend to run a set route, and thus can have a extra restricted operational area which is less complicated to program for. So it virtually looks as if it might/ought to come prior to Robotaxi, which might want to basically be SAE stage 5 succesful (whereas a set route would definitionally be stage 4).
And if it does occur (once more, large grains of salt right here), the extra mass-transit-focused nature of that is extra thrilling to me than Robotaxi. We now have to chop congestion and sprawl, so having automobiles that may assist to allow that is fairly vital. For sure cities, the place subways or gentle rail are unfeasible for no matter purpose, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this may very well be a unbelievable approach to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
