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Saturday, January 25, 2025

Tesla is testing a goofy camouflaged Robotaxi prototype forward of reveal


Tesla is gearing up for its October 10 Robotaxi unveiling, which is able to happen at Warner Bros. Studio, and it’s at present working a fleet of (regular) automobiles across the lot to map the realm.

However one of many automobiles, photographed late yesterday by so much worker, stands out – and it stands out as a result of it appears to be a heavily-camouflaged model of the heretofore-not-seen Robotaxi.

The photograph was taken and first posted by u/boopitysmopp on reddit. It exhibits an oddly-shaped, brilliant yellow car on what appears to be like to be the Warner Bros. lot, main in entrance of a one other Tesla. It appears to be passing by the costume division and heading within the route of “Warner Village,” a pretend road of suburban homes.

The yellow coloring appears to be like to be automotive camouflage pasted onto the car, together with extra items of bodywork to obscure the form of the car physique. As a substitute of going with camouflage of zebra-like line patterns like automobiles typically do, Tesla appears to be like to be having some enjoyable with it and making fairly a cartoony-looking car.

Whereas the photograph was taken at evening from a distance, so it’s considerably noisy, we will nonetheless inform somewhat bit from it.

u/boopitysmopp additionally stated that the rear finish had a Cybertruck-like taillight that went throughout the entire rear of the automotive, however that they didn’t get an image of it. They had been additionally requested if there’s a steering wheel, they usually responded that they couldn’t inform. Though, by boosting the publicity of the photograph, there does appear to be one thing like a steering column within the neighborhood of the driving force’s seat.

General, the camouflaged prototype does look so much just like the idea render we’ve seen of the Robotaxi, which we used for the featured photograph of this text. The final form with the low nostril and swept windshield/rear finish are all roughly seen within the camouflaged car.

There’s a massive boxy… factor within the again, however that appears like form of like Tesla bolted a field onto the again of the car simply to make it look completely different.

It additionally appears to be like smaller than the automotive following behind, although it’s arduous to inform from the angle of the photograph. Rumors counsel that the Robotaxi will likely be a 2-door, 2-seat automotive, and a smaller dimension would match with this. u/boopitysmopp described the car as “tiny,” which inserts with this commentary.

The ultimate prototype – if what’s beneath the camouflage is certainly the model that Tesla intends to disclose – in all probability doesn’t look precisely just like the idea render, from what we will see. For instance, the rear finish may very well be flatter, as soon as you’re taking away the boxy form within the again… however a few of the common traces appear to be there.

(Frankly, it appears to be like like if the field had been eliminated, it would appear to be a Ute, that are common in Australia. However that appears like it could’t be proper, given the idea and intent of the car…)

The camouflaged Robotaxi additionally has surprisingly darkish wheels, and it’s robust to determine the design from the photograph. Maybe the automotive was simply transferring on the time (although it’s at a cease signal, and the one behind is just not transferring), or perhaps the Robotaxi’s wheels look fairly strong, similar to the idea drawing above.

Is {that a} LiDAR bump? (*in all probability not)

One other function the noticed prototype sports activities is a small bump close to the middle of the roof, on the high fringe of the windshield. Whereas this might be a visible artifact or a part of the camouflage, it may be a “LiDAR bump” – which might be very fascinating certainly.

There are numerous methods for automobiles to include LiDAR into their designs, however one of many common strategies is to go along with a bump on the high of the windshield, considerably paying homage to the bump of a taxi signal. Putting the LiDAR up excessive will increase visibility as in comparison with placing it down low within the bumper.

If it’s a LiDAR bump, this may be an enormous departure, provided that Tesla has persistently stated through the years that LiDAR is just not vital for autonomous operation. Tesla has at all times centered on both vision-only or vision-plus-radar, at all times taking the place that LiDAR sensors are costly overkill.

It will additionally maybe put into query whether or not the remainder of Tesla’s automobiles, which Tesla has been saying have the {hardware} to be able to full self-driving since 2016, will ever truly acquire that promised functionality. Tesla has been backing off from these guarantees (which it nonetheless made and owes to its prospects) recently, probably lastly seeing a lifeless finish for imaginative and prescient… however that is extremely speculative, provided that the “bump” within the photograph might be nothing in any respect.

However, one factor we do know from this: Tesla is testing one thing like a Robotaxi, at Warner Bros., the place a number of folks with cameras work, so we anticipate to see extra alongside these traces, maybe in full daylight, quickly sufficient.


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