Tesla held its Robotaxi occasion tonight to introduce an entire new automobile that may operate solely 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 get together, 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 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 images 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 images of the cargo configuration but. Though the passenger configuration seems to be to have vital cargo house out there (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 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 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 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 would truly come to fruition in a state considerably like this.
Nonetheless, 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 probably 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 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 convey an entire household, or a bunch of buddies, and so forth.
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 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 might even imply extra congestion.
However the Robovan provides the promise of having the ability to carry an precise vital variety of folks, and with its bigger capability, deadhead miles is perhaps diminished as properly as a result of it might run hop-on hop-off routes.
I might definitely see this operating on any variety of smaller shuttle routes that might profit from frequent pickups. There’s a summer time shuttle the place I grew up in California which simply runs folks to and from the seashore to assist alleviate parking points, and this could 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 change the world in 6 big methods subsequent 12 months 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 assume not less than Robovan can’t be pushed again, if it doesn’t have a date but to start with.
Humorous factor although, I truly suppose the Robovan is perhaps 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 as if it might/ought to come ahead of 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. We now have to chop congestion and sprawl, so having automobiles that may assist to allow that is fairly useful. For sure cities, the place subways or gentle rail are unfeasible for no matter purpose, a mid-size electrical shuttle like this might be a incredible strategy to clear up the roads.
Now, let’s see if it ever occurs…..
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