Tesla Robotaxi rumors: butterfly doors, two seats, robovan, and more

Several rumors about Tesla’s Robotaxi/Cybercab are emerging ahead of the event tomorrow.They are talking about butterfly doors, two seats, a robovan, and more. Tesla is set to hold its ‘We, Robot’ event tomorrow evening in Los Angeles. The automaker is now marketing the event as the unveiling of “the future of autonomy,” but it was previously advertised as its ‘robotaxi’, which is also sometimes called ‘Cybercab’. With a little more than 24 hours before the unveiling, more rumors about what Tesla is planning for the event is emerging.

Bloomberg reports that the new “robotaxi” vehicle is going to feature two seats with butterfly wing doors:

Tesla has kept the final design of the robotaxi under wraps, but the vehicle is expected to have two front seats and two doors that open upward like butterfly wings, according to people familiar with the matter.

This would be in line with the image of what was described as an “early robtoaxi prototype” that was published in Walter Issacson’s biography of Elon Musk.

Because Isaacson likely had to get the picture approved, it wasn’t clear how close to the production version this “early prototype” seen last year was.

The report also mentions a possible Tesla Robovan to be unveiled at the event – though it doesn’t seem to be based on strong information:

There’s a chance Tesla also reveals another new car. Some investors believe that Musk will showcase some kind of robovan that can carry a dozen people or more, or be used as an autonomous delivery vehicle.

Musk is also expected to talk about integrating its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) technology in its Tesla Semi electric trucks:

The CEO is also expected to talk about Tesla’s plans to develop FSD for its Semi truck, and how he sees the technology being used to haul cargo, two people familiar said. However, there won’t be any demos of the Semi using FSD at the event, the people said, asking not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak.

Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot is also expected to be part of the event.

Electrek’s Take

No big surprise here. A van would be a good surprise, especially since Tesla is sure to get some criticism for the Robotaxi only being a two-seater, but Tesla has been promising an electric van for years. I think that would be more impactful than one that would rely on Tesla’s solving self-driving first. That’s the hill this whole event is going to die on.

It needs to show Tesla not only meaningful progress toward self-driving but also a clear path to achieving it in the short term.The automaker has already lost a ton of credibility with its (Supervised) FSD program, which was supposed to become unsupervised by the end of every year for the last 5 years, according to Elon Musk.

Now, Tesla plans to launch vehicles “dedicated to self-driving”, likely without pedals or a steering wheel, even though it hasn’t delivered on its self-driving promises on millions of existing vehicles. It’s just not a good look.So I think, the smart money is going to be looking at how Tesla plans to deliver self-driving capabilities to these new vehicles and how that would affect its existing fleet.