Tesla first revealed plans to develop a totally autonomous robotaxi in 2016, however whereas the mission was talked about a number of instances since, the EV maker by no means teased its self-driving automobile.
Happily, we now get an thought of how the Tesla robotaxi appears to be like like, or at the least the idea model of it, from Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography.
An idea picture of Tesla’s robotaxi was included within the ebook titled “Elon Musk,” and it was rapidly uploaded and shared on social media. The picture was seemingly positioned initially of a chapter devoted to the upcoming self-driving automobile.
Described as a “Robotaxi Idea,” the automobile appears to be like futuristic and would not resemble something Tesla has launched thus far. The illustration exhibits a coupe with a hatchback design with two butterfly doorways. The automobile seems to have three wheels – two on the entrance and a coated wheel on the rear.
The opened doorways supply a have a look at the inside, which options two seats however no driving controls in anyway – no steering wheel, no pedals. We’re not fully certain the automobile even has a dashboard seen from this angle. It does seem to have some cargo area behind the seats, although.
In fact, the million-dollar query is whether or not Tesla’s robotaxi will truly appear to be this. Whereas it is not simple to seek out a solution, it will be fairly uncommon for the EV maker to supply such an in depth preview of an upcoming automobile that is so essential for the corporate.
That mentioned, a photograph of Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhausen surfaced on X (previously Twitter), exhibiting the designer subsequent to a picket mannequin of a small automobile that appears rather a lot just like the Robotaxi Idea. The picture is from a phase on CBS referred to as “Walter Isaacson on the unstable Elon Musk” – see timestamp 4:09 on the video embedded on the high of this web page.
Similar to the Robotaxi Idea featured in Isaacson’s ebook, the picket mannequin options two seats, no steering wheel or pedals, and a few cargo area behind the seats. The picture suggests Tesla has constructed a Robotaxi Idea, however that does not essentially imply it should produce it as is.
For those who look carefully on the picture, the background options two posters that appear to painting the Robotaxi Idea. They are not very clear, however they appear to indicate two completely different variations of the automobile, one with three wheels and one with 4 wheels.
Is Tesla engaged on two variants of its robotaxi or are we wanting on the robotaxi and Tesla’s promised $25,000 EV? We’ll simply have to attend and see.