A video that purportedly reveals Tesla’s electrical van prototype is doing the rounds on social media, with the uploader claiming that it reveals a brand new Tesla people-mover designed for The Boring Firm.
If the car within the video uploaded on Twitter by Las Vegas-based content material creator Jacob Orth (by way of Electrek) is certainly a Tesla prototype – it does characteristic the corporate emblem on the steering wheel – it seems to be in a really early improvement stage. It options a big glazed space and it seems like an autonomous shuttle bus.
The car has a complete of 12 seats, together with one for the motive force. It is laborious to identify if it has any wheels mounted beneath the flat ground. Orth describes the car as a “secret Tesla van prototype designed for Elon Musk’s Vegas Loop.”
To some extent, the van-like passenger car does resemble an idea unveiled by The Boring Firm in 2017 as a preview for a 12-passenger car designed for its Las Vegas Loop system.
Whether or not that is the actual deal or not, it have to be mentioned {that a} Tesla electrical van, minibus, or robotaxi has been talked about for the primary time by the EV maker again in 2016, within the Tesla Grasp Plan Half 2.
On the time, CEO Elon Musk talked about two new segments Tesla was trying to electrify: heavy-duty vans and “excessive passenger-density city transport.”
Whereas the previous materialized in December 2022 within the type of the Tesla Semi, the latter continues to be within the works (presumably). Elon Musk has additionally talked about Tesla planning to make an electrical minibus primarily based on the Mannequin X earlier than, however that mission did not change into a actuality.
Then there have been talks about Tesla making a van-like passenger car for Musk’s The Boring Firm. The tunnel at the moment makes use of Tesla Mannequin Y and Mannequin X automobiles, however the firm has mentioned prior to now that it might construct a 12-passenger car for the LVCC Loop. Not too long ago, there have been rumors that Tesla has been constructing a prototype for The Boring Firm.
Is it the car within the video? We won’t affirm its authenticity since Tesla doesn’t have a PR division, but when that is the actual deal, we anticipate to see extra of it within the coming weeks and months.
In any case, if a content material creator had this stage of entry into what we assume is a extremely restricted space, it in all probability means he additionally had the corporate’s blessing to shoot and distribute the video.