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Tesla is testing a goofy camouflaged Robotaxi prototype ahead of reveal

Tesla is testing a goofy camouflaged Robotaxi prototype ahead of reveal admin one
14 September 2024
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Tesla is testing a goofy camouflaged Robotaxi prototype ahead of reveal

Tesla is gearing up for its October 10 Robotaxi unveiling, which will take place at Warner Bros. Studio, and it’s currently running a fleet of (normal) cars around the lot to map the area.

But one of the cars, photographed late yesterday by a lot employee, stands out – and it stands out because it seems to be a heavily-camouflaged version of the heretofore-not-seen Robotaxi.

The photo was taken and first posted by u/boopitysmopp on reddit (edit: the user has now deleted their account). It shows an oddly-shaped, bright yellow vehicle on what looks to be the Warner Bros. lot, leading in front of a another Tesla. It seems to be passing by the costume department and heading in the direction of “Warner Village,” a fake street of suburban houses.

The yellow coloring looks to be automotive camouflage pasted onto the vehicle, along with additional pieces of bodywork to obscure the shape of the vehicle body. Instead of going with camouflage of zebra-like line patterns like vehicles often do, Tesla looks to be having some fun with it and making quite a cartoony-looking vehicle.

 

While the photo was taken at night from a distance, so it’s somewhat noisy, we can still tell a little bit from it.

u/boopitysmopp also said that the rear end had a Cybertruck-like taillight that went across the whole rear of the car, but that they didn’t get a picture of it. They were also asked if there’s a steering wheel, and they responded that they couldn’t tell. Although, by boosting the exposure of the photo, there does seem to be something like a steering column in the vicinity of the driver’s seat.

Overall, the camouflaged prototype does look a lot like the concept render we’ve seen of the Robotaxi, which we used for the featured photo of this article. The general shape with the low nose and swept windshield/rear end are all roughly visible in the camouflaged vehicle.

There is a large boxy… thing in the back, but that looks like kind of like Tesla bolted a box onto the back of the vehicle just to make it look different.

It also looks smaller than the car following behind, though it’s hard to tell from the perspective of the photo. Rumors suggest that the Robotaxi will be a 2-door, 2-seat car, and a smaller size would fit with this. u/boopitysmopp described the vehicle as “tiny,” which fits with this observation.

The final prototype – if what’s under the camouflage is indeed the version that Tesla intends to reveal – probably doesn’t look exactly like the concept render, from what we can see. For example, the rear end may actually be flatter, once you take away the boxy shape in the back… but some of the general lines seem to be there.

(Frankly, it looks like if the box were removed, it might look like a Ute, which are popular in Australia. But that feels like it can’t be right, given the concept and intent of the vehicle…)

The camouflaged Robotaxi also has strangely dark wheels, and it’s tough to figure out the design from the photo. Perhaps the car was just moving at the time (though it’s at a stop sign, and the one behind is not moving), or maybe the Robotaxi’s wheels look quite solid, just like the concept drawing above.

 

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