Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce a complete new car that may operate solely 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 give attention to the upcoming 2-seat Robotaxi, with an anticipated replace on Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robotic.
We received 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 celebration, 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 at this time 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 through the occasion.
We didn’t get a lot details about the van, besides that it will likely be able to carrying 20 individuals (although the above images present solely 14 seats), 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 would possibly seem like.
These are simply the passenger configuration – we don’t have any images of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration seems to be to have important cargo house obtainable (this might definitely be helpful for one thing like an airport shuttle).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Robotaxi would be capable to get the price of transport all the way down to round 20 cents a mile, however that the Robovan would take that even additional, all the way down to 5-10 cents a mile.
A car 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 standard 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 seem like the long run,” which is definitely obvious within the design of the Robovan, which seems to be 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 stunned to see a change in floor clearance. It appears uncertain that the maybe ~1-2 inch floor clearance on the demo car can be notably helpful on metropolis roads….
In contrast to the Robotaxi, Tesla didn’t share a launch date for the Robovan. Whereas Musk mentioned the Robotaxi can 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 carry a complete household, or a bunch of associates, and many others.
And including a bunch of 2-seat automobiles to the highway does nothing to scale back congestion, as a result of we’ll nonetheless find yourself with about the identical common car occupancy as we’ve got proper now – or possibly even much less occupancy since you wouldn’t have the occasional 3-5 individual car. Which may even imply extra congestion.
However the Robovan provides the promise of having the ability to carry an precise important variety of individuals, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles may be decreased as effectively as a result of it may run hop-on hop-off routes.
I may definitely see this working on any variety of smaller shuttle routes that might profit from frequent pickups. There’s a summer season shuttle the place I grew up in California which simply runs individuals to and from the seaside to assist alleviate parking points, and this might 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 spite of everything, Tesla plans to vary the world in 6 big methods subsequent yr already (Robotaxi, Semi, an reasonably priced EV, next-gen Roadster, unsupervised FSD, and Optimus), and now we’ve got yet 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 not less than Robovan can’t be pushed again, if it doesn’t have a date but to start with.
Tesla additionally confirmed a imaginative and prescient of the long run it needs tonight, with parks taking the place of parking heaps in numerous city settings.
Which is all effectively and good, besides that the CEO who introduced this imaginative and prescient has lately donated $180 million to a candidate who needs to hurt EVs, and who simply at this time mentioned he’s “involved” about autonomous automobiles and would ban a few of them from the highway if he wins. Odd horse to hitch your self to, actually.
As for the Robovan, we solely noticed it pull up and park, it didn’t shuttle individuals round through the evening, past the preliminary pul up. The Robotaxi was not less than driving individuals round, albeit in a closely mapped space at low speeds, reasonably than in an actual world scenario with all of the sudden nonsense that comes up.
Humorous factor although, I truly assume the Robovan may be extra potential 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 house which is simpler to program for. So it nearly looks like it may/ought to come prior to Robotaxi, which might want to basically be SAE degree 5 succesful (whereas a set route would definitionally be degree 4).
And if it does occur (once more, huge grains of salt right here), the extra mass-transit-focused nature of that is extra thrilling to me than Robotaxi. We’ve to chop congestion and sprawl, so having automobiles that may assist to allow that is fairly essential. For sure cities, the place subways or gentle rail are unfeasible for no matter cause, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this may very well be a incredible technique to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
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