Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce an entire new car that may 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 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 couple of potential “Robovan.” We talked about this briefly earlier than the occasion in our Electrek watch social gathering, 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 lately.
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 throughout the occasion.
We didn’t get a lot details about the van, besides that will probably be able to carrying 20 individuals, 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 may appear to be.
These are simply the passenger configuration – we don’t have any pictures of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration appears to have important cargo area out there (this might definitely be helpful for one thing like an airport shuttle).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that the Robotaxi would be capable of 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 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 definitely obvious within the design of the Robovan, which appears form of acquainted…
The design of the Robovan is definitely fairly out-there, however given Tesla’s historical past with out-there ideas, it would really 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 car might be notably 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 out there 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 deliver an entire household, or a bunch of mates, and many others.
And including a bunch of 2-seat automobiles to the street 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 proper now – or possibly 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 provides the promise of with the ability to carry an precise important variety of individuals, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles is likely to be lowered as effectively 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 will profit from frequent pickups. There’s a summer time shuttle the place I grew up in California which simply runs individuals to and from the seashore to assist alleviate parking points, and this could be excellent for that. Or how concerning 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 enormous methods subsequent yr already (Robotaxi, Semi, an reasonably priced EV, next-gen Roadster, unsupervised FSD, and Optimus), and now we’ve yet one more unreleased product so as to add to that pile. And most of these current ones have been pushed again a number of instances. I assume no 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 varied city settings.
Which is all effectively and good, besides that the CEO who offered this imaginative and prescient has just lately donated $180 million to a candidate who needs to hurt EVs, and who simply at the moment stated he would ban autonomous autos from the street 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 throughout the night time, past the preliminary pul up. The Robotaxi was no less than driving individuals round, albeit in a closely mapped space at low speeds, quite than in an actual world state of affairs with all of the surprising nonsense that comes up.
Humorous factor although, I really assume the Robovan is likely to 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 simpler to program for. So it virtually 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, massive 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 autos that may assist to allow that is fairly necessary. For sure cities, the place subways or mild rail are unfeasible for no matter motive, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this may very well be a implausible approach to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
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