Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce an entire new car that can perform completely as a driverless car. 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 acquired 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 social gathering, and there have been numerous 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 as we speak we noticed the primary glimpse of what the ultimate model would possibly really feel like, because it pulled up and emptied a number of occupants in the course of 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 pictures on its web site to see what the inside of the van would possibly seem like.
These are simply the passenger configuration – we don’t have any pictures of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration seems to have important cargo area obtainable (this might definitely be helpful for one thing like an airport shuttle).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Robotaxi would be capable of 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 car like this could possibly be helpful for shuttle routes that want frequent pickups (like airport or pupil 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 longer term ought to seem like the longer term,” which is definitely obvious within the design of the Robovan, which seems sort of acquainted…
The design of the Robovan is definitely fairly out-there, however given Tesla’s historical past with out-there ideas, it’d truly come to fruition in a state considerably like this.
Nevertheless, 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 car will probably be notably helpful on metropolis roads….
Not like the Robotaxi, Tesla didn’t share a launch date for the Robovan. Whereas Musk mentioned 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 buddies, 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 car occupancy as now we have proper now – or perhaps even much less occupancy since you wouldn’t have the occasional 3-5 particular person car. Which may even imply extra congestion.
However the Robovan presents the promise of having the ability to carry an precise important variety of folks, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles could be decreased as nicely as a result of it may run hop-on hop-off routes.
I may definitely see this operating on any variety of smaller shuttle routes that may profit from frequent pickups. There’s a summer season shuttle the place I grew up in California which simply runs folks to and from the seashore to assist alleviate parking points, and this is able to be excellent 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 any case, Tesla plans to change the world in 6 enormous methods subsequent yr already (Robotaxi, Semi, an reasonably priced EV, next-gen Roadster, unsupervised FSD, and Optimus), and now now we have 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 suppose no less than Robovan can’t be pushed again, if it doesn’t have a date but to start with.
Humorous factor although, I truly assume the Robovan could be extra doable than Robotaxi from an autonomy perspective, as a result of these kinds of autos 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 nearly looks as if it may/ought to come earlier than Robotaxi, which might want to primarily be SAE stage 5 succesful (whereas a set route would definitionally be stage 4).
And if it does occur (once more, massive grains of salt right here), the extra mass-transit-focused nature of that is extra thrilling to me than Robotaxi. Now we have to chop congestion and sprawl, so having autos that may assist to allow that is fairly useful. For sure cities, the place subways or gentle rail are unfeasible for no matter motive, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this could possibly be a improbable method to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
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