Elon Musk recently announced that Tesla’s robotaxi will be unveiled in August. Apart from that detail, the vehicle is largely shrouded in mystery.
Now we know at least one thing about it. Well, maybe.
Tesla’s Robotaxi Plans
Elon Musk has for years said that autonomous Teslas would someday be able to act as driverless taxis. That future is still most likely a ways off.
During Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Musk off-handedly called the forthcoming autonomous vehicle “Cybercab.”
“And as we’ve announced we’ll be showcasing our purpose-built robotaxi, or Cybercab, in August,” Musk said on the call.
Was that just him messing around, as he so often does? Or was it actually what Tesla will call the driverless vehicle? So far, that’s not clear.
The name would fit in with Tesla’s existing nomenclature. Of course, Tesla sells the Cybertruck pickup. It also hawks other cyber-themed merchandise, like CyberBeer and the CyberHammer, all of which have the same brutalist, cyberpunk design as Tesla’s truck.
The name would make sense given what we already know about the robotaxi’s styling. Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk’s biographer, reported last year that the robotaxi will bear a resemblance to the Cybertruck.
“When one of these comes around a corner,” Musk said upon seeing a model of the robotaxi, according to Isaacson, “people will think they are seeing something from the future.”
Musk dropped some new details about Tesla’s plans for a ride-hailing business during the conference call too. He said that the automaker plans to operate a fleet of self-driving taxis and that Tesla owners will be able to add their cars to the service as they please. Of course, that bold vision depends on whether Tesla actually can succeed in creating an autonomous car. It hasn’t managed that yet.
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