Tesla is reportedly working on two very ambitious projects: a $25,000 USD (roughly $34,000 CAD) electric car and an autonomous robotaxi.
According to an Axios report quoting Walter Isaacson, the author working on Elon Musk’s upcoming biography, the $25,000 USD electric car is said to have a futuristic design similar to the Cybertruck. The car would reportedly be built on Tesla’s “next-generation” engineering platform, which aims to lower battery costs and improve performance.
The robotaxi, on the other hand, is Musk’s vision of a fully self-driving vehicle that would operate as a cab service without any human intervention. It’s worth noting that companies like Waymo are also working on this.
According to Isaacson, Musk is adamant that the robotaxi would have no mirrors, no pedals, and no steering wheel. “This is the product that makes Tesla a ten-trillion company,” he told Isaacson. “People will be talking about this moment in a hundred years.”
Tesla employees, on the other hand, were initially skeptical about the robotaxi, especially regarding the regulatory approval and the readiness of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.
The team at Tesla kept working on both projects, and Musk was presented prototypes for each, one for the robotaxi and one for the $ 25,000 USD ($34,000 CAD) electric car. “When one of these comes around a corner,” Musk said, “people will think they are seeing something from the future.”
However, as of right now, there is no official confirmation or launch date for either of these projects, and considering the production and delay woes with the company’s Cybertruck, I wouldn’t hold my breath on these coming out any time soon.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: Axios
