Elon reveals that Tesla is working on a dedicated robotaxi vehicle

By Jorge Aguirre
Tesla is working on a dedicated robotaxi vehicle
Tesla is working on a dedicated robotaxi vehicle
The Boring Company

Tesla will build a vehicle dedicated for use as a Robotaxi, with a ‘futuristic-looking’ design, said CEO Elon Musk at the Cyber Rodeo party celebrating the opening of the Texas Giga Factory.

“What I can say is we’re gonna move to truly massive scale - scale that no company has ever achieved in the history of humanity. That has to happen to transition the world to sustainable energy. Massive scale, Full Self-Driving, there’s gonna be a dedicated Robotaxi that’s gonna look quite futuristic,” said Musk.

The Robotaxi concept may be traced back to Musk's Master Plan Part Deux, which was published in 2016. Musk said at the time that the company's Robotaxis will be normal Teslas with full self-driving capability. This concept was expanded upon during Autonomy Day 2019, when it was suggested that Tesla owners would use their personal vehicles to provide ride-sharing services.

This raises some questions about whether current Teslas will be able to reach the same level of autonomy as this dedicated Robotaxi, or whether they'd be able to become Robotaxis at all.

While the Tesla CEO didn't expand further on the details or design of this Robotaxi vehicle, The Boring Company (Musk's tunnel-building firm) has included a render of a van prototype in several of their pitches to US cities in the past.

The van render has a tall body with wide windows, sliding doors, front and side seats, and no driver controls. It has bulging fenders that house its wheels, and it is quite similar to the people-mover train cars used at several airports and event centers. The thought that this could be what the new Robotaxi vehicle looks like is not far-fetched.

He made his remarks at the ‘Cyber Rodeo at Giga Texas’ party, inaugurating Tesla's new billion-dollar factory. The exclusive, invitation-only celebration commemorated the opening of the new facility in Travis County, which also acts as the company's new headquarters following its relocation from California.

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New Tesla Model Y Adds 4D Radar; Calls 911 If Child Left Behind, Increases Safety

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s refreshed Model Y is currently being manufactured as Tesla prepares for its first deliveries next month. While we’ve already seen quite a few cool new features, there’s more that has yet to be revealed. A recent video interview with Tesla’s engineering team hosted by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley reveals that the vehicle includes a new 4D cabin radar.

4D Radar

While Tesla has included an in-cabin radar since 2022, this appears to be a new, more capable radar. The current cabin radar is used to verify seat occupancy, but Tesla plans to add more functionality to this new system.

This updated radar will be used to provide a lot more detail than the current radar or cabin camera can provide today. The radar is located in the same location as the current version, directly above the rearview mirror.

Classify Passenger Size

This new radar has several new safety-focused features, and they’re all quite exceptional. First off, the radar will detect and classify passenger size to determine which airbags to deploy dynamically. That means that if a shorter individual is sitting up front, the dashboard airbag may not activate - but the curtain airbag will.

That will reduce injuries in impacts from airbag activation while also reducing repair costs by not activating unnecessary airbags. By having a better idea of the passenger’s size, height, and weight, the vehicle can also better determine when to activate the airbag.

Children Left in Car

But that’s not all - because of that classification system, the radar can differentiate an adult passenger from a baby or child sitting in the second row - and automatically make the necessary dynamic safety adjustments.

The cabin radar will also detect heart rate and breathing, and Tesla will automatically send a reminder through the Tesla app if it detects a child is left unattended in the vehicle. If this occurs, the vehicle will perform a variety of functions, the first being to turn on the HVAC system and send you a reminder. And if that’s not enough - in the case of an emergency, your vehicle will automatically call emergency services for you and report its location.

It’s important to note that while vehicles outside North America have eCall capabilities, in North America, they cannot call 911 unless a phone is connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth. We hope that Tesla can contact 911 via an alternative method or add eCall capabilities to these vehicles.

In late 2023, Tesla added the ability for the vehicle to call 911 over Bluetooth when the vehicle is involved in a crash.

The cabin radar in the 2024 Model Y
The cabin radar in the 2024 Model Y
Not a Tesla App

Coming Soon

While the refreshed Model Y will be shipping in March, this new radar and its associated features won’t be available immediately. Tesla intends to activate these new safety features in Q3 2025 - so sometime in late summer or early fall. We’ll dive into this new feature once it’s available later this year.

Tesla Confirms Update Issue for FSD V13.2.2; Fix Coming

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

A member of Tesla’s AI development team, Kalena Brown, took to X to mention that an update is on its way for AI 4 vehicles on older FSD V13.2 builds.

It seems that Tesla has caught an issue that has been preventing vehicles from safely updating from FSD V13.2.2 to newer builds such as FSD V13.2.4 or V13.2.6.

The Bug

Tesla usually catches these issues early in testing, but sometimes, they make their way out into the wild, necessitating a stop to a rollout. In this case, the rollout was likely halted to prevent this issue from spreading to other vehicles.

There have been a lot of comments on social media that users haven’t seen an update since late December or early January. While that’s not completely abnormal, this update, version 2024.45.25.5 includes an issue that prevents it from being updated.

The Fix

Brown says that Tesla is aware of the issue and is working hard to get a build with the fix released soon. It may be a couple of weeks before it’s ready, but you can expect Tesla to roll this one out slowly to make sure the issue is addressed.

The issue appears to be specific to FSD V13.2.2, so anyone on another update should not be affected. Keep an eye out on our feeds - and we’ll let you know once the update is released.

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Take a look at features that Elon Musk has said will be coming soon.

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