Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s Robovan on Thursday night time in the course of the firm’s We, Robotic occasion in Los Angeles. The Robovan might be an electrical, autonomous car roughly the scale of a bus, designed for transporting folks round excessive density areas. It would carry as much as 20 folks at a time and likewise transport items, in accordance with Musk.
“We’re going to make this, and it’s going to appear like that,” mentioned Musk on Thursday night time because the Robovan rolled in the direction of heart stage. That’s about as a lot as Musk was keen to say, and we’re not even certain that a lot is true.
Musk didn’t point out how a lot the Robovan would price, how Tesla would produce it, or when it can come out. Nevertheless, it does look fairly cool.
The Robovan has a retro-futuristic look – someplace between a bus from The Jetsons and a toaster from the Nineteen Fifties. It options silver metallic sides with black particulars, and strips of sunshine operating parallel to the bottom alongside its sides, with doorways that slide out from the center. Inside, there are seats and room to face, with tinted home windows all through. There isn’t any steering wheel, because it’s autonomous.
“One of many issues we need to do – and we’ve executed this with the Cybertruck – is we need to change the look of the roads,” mentioned Musk. “The long run ought to appear like the long run,” he mentioned, repeating an previous line.
It appears much like different purpose-built robotaxis, like these designed by Zoox and Cruise. Solely Tesla’s van is way greater. In China, WeRide has constructed an identical Robobus.
That mentioned, the Robovan confirmed on Thursday is barely a prototype. Regardless of what Musk says, there’s no telling what the actual factor will appear like or when it can really come out.
Tesla had stored the design of the automobiles it launched on Thursday fairly near the chest. The one actual trace we had was from Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day, when the automaker teased a few new automobiles that seemed to be designed for quantity manufacturing: One smaller car that seems now to be the Cybercab, and a bigger one which we are able to now say is probably going the Robovan.
The acknowledged purpose on the time was to provide 20 million automobiles per yr by 2030. That will imply that Tesla wants to extend manufacturing and gross sales by about 15 instances from 2022.
Throughout Thursday’s occasion, Musk didn’t define any plans for constructing new manufacturing amenities or retooling present amenities to accommodate both the Cybercab or the Robovan. He additionally didn’t present a lot in the way in which of timelines for the Robovan, although he predicted the Cybercab would begin manufacturing in 2026 or 2027.