Tesla’s next big product reveal is set to be its long-anticipated Robotaxi, but your ride has been delayed.
The wraps were supposed to come off on Aug. 8, but it was pushed off until Oct. 10 to put a few finishing touches on it, at least according to Elon Musk.
“This is because I wanted to make some important changes that I think would improve the vehicle,” Musk said during Tesla’s second quarter earnings call.
Neither Musk nor Tesla have offered any details on what to expect, including the form of the vehicle, beyond that it will be controlled by an advanced version of the Full Self-Driving system that is currently offered in Tesla’s production models.
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The system doesn’t live up to its name yet, but Musk envisions a future were Tesla owners will be able to rent their vehicles out through a ride-hailing scheme when they don’t need them, theoretically putting millions of autonomous taxis on the road. Tesla will supplant that with its own purpose-designed Robotaxi, which will make up the core of the fleet. Musk said he’d be “shocked” if Tesla couldn’t demonstrate unsupervised driving better than a human next year, but he’s been making similar statements for the past decade.
As for what the Robotaxi will look like, that’s entirely a mystery. No sketches or hints have been released. Given how surprising the Cybertruck was when it first rolled onto the stage in 2019 with the same styling that made it into production, your guess is as good as ours. So we thought we’d ask someone that might have some insider information.
Musk also owns the social media platform X and has been touting the capability of the Grok generative AI system it makes available to premium subscribers. Grok trains on a variety of data inputs including X posts and “user interactions.” Given the close ties between Tesla and X, we thought if anyone had an idea of what the Robotaxi will look like, it’s Grok.
We asked it to create a Robotaxi image several times and each one was unique, although there was one unexpected design feature that kept popping up.
The least creative result looks like a combination of a Model Y and Model X with a large pod attached to the roof. Grok doesn’t explain its work, but the device looks like it is meant to be a sensor array like those used by the autonomous cars built by Waymo and Cruise. Given Tesla’s insistence that Full Self-Driving only needs cameras to operate, it was an odd choice. Or maybe not.
One of the other cars featured a more original design with a sleek black body that has dramatically flared fenders, but also a roof-mounted pod, suggesting Grok thinks this is a key component. It’s small rear half-doors don’t speak to maximized taxi functionality, however.
The pod also appears on another white car that features a windshield that extends nearly down to the bumper, very exposed tires and an oddly-shaped body that tapers up to what looks like a pretty useless cargo area with windows.
Two other attempts do away with the pod, but continued the exposed tire theme. One has opaque doors while the other looks like a futuristic horseless coach.
Given the disparity of these designs and a few more that we took a look at, perhaps Grok is as in the dark as the rest of us, but that pod raises a lot of questions. Where did it learn about that sensor pod idea? Why hasn’t anyone at Tesla told it about the camera thing? Does Elon even talk to Grok?
We’ll see just how close Grok got on Oct. 10, unless the Robotaxi’s arrival gets delayed again.