Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce a complete new automobile that may perform 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 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 luggage 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 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 the moment 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 will likely 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 would possibly appear like.
These are simply the passenger configuration – we don’t have any pictures of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration seems to be to have important cargo house out there (this might actually be helpful for one thing like an airport shuttle).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that the Robotaxi would have the ability 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 automobile like this might 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 longer term ought to appear like the longer term,” which is actually obvious within the design of the Robovan, which seems to be form of acquainted…
The design of the Robovan is actually fairly out-there, however given Tesla’s historical past with out-there ideas, it’d really 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 automobile will likely be significantly helpful on metropolis roads….
Not like the Robotaxi, Tesla didn’t share a launch date for the Robovan. Whereas Musk mentioned the Robotaxi can 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 a complete household, or a bunch of associates, and so forth.
And including a bunch of 2-seat vehicles 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 got proper now – or perhaps even much less occupancy since you wouldn’t have the occasional 3-5 particular person automobile. Which may even imply extra congestion.
However the Robovan affords the promise of having the ability to carry an precise important variety of individuals, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles is perhaps diminished as nicely as a result of it may run hop-on hop-off routes.
I may actually see this working 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 individuals to and from the seaside 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 any case, Tesla plans to change the world in 6 enormous methods subsequent yr already (Robotaxi, Semi, an inexpensive 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 current ones have been pushed again a number of occasions. I suppose 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 longer term it needs tonight, with parks taking the place of parking heaps in numerous city settings.
Which is all nicely and good, besides that the CEO who offered this imaginative and prescient has not too long ago donated $180 million to a candidate who needs to hurt EVs, and who simply at the moment mentioned he’s “involved” about autonomous autos and would ban a few of them 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 in the course of the evening, past the preliminary pul up. The Robotaxi was no less than driving individuals round, albeit in a closely mapped space at low speeds, reasonably than in an actual world state of affairs with all of the sudden nonsense that comes up.
Humorous factor although, I really suppose the Robovan is perhaps extra attainable 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 house which is less complicated to program for. So it virtually looks as if it may/ought to come before 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, large 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 vital. For sure cities, the place subways or mild rail are unfeasible for no matter motive, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this might be a unbelievable option to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
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