New Tesla Robovan is a 20-seat transport pod with no driver

Tesla has just revealed its new Robotaxi, but alongside it was the Tesla Robovan, a 20-seater bus that features full self-driving technology. Tesla says the Robovan could take-on school bus duties but isn’t limited to mass transportation of people. It can be configured to carry goods in industries from construction to food services. 

The Robovan’s design is pretty futuristic and eye-catching, but speaking at the ‘We, Robot’ reveal event in Burbank, California, Elon Musk said; “we are going to make this and it will look like that”. The Tesla CEO and founder also said “we want to change the look of the roads. The future should look like the future”. 

While the Tesla Robovan interior looks pretty spacious with rows of seats facing each other, there’s also luggage storage in the ‘boot’ and the ‘frunk’ of the vehicle. 

As with the Tesla Robotaxi, the Robovan comes with full self-driving capability with no visible steering wheel or even a traditional driver-style seat arrangement inside. There’s no word on whether the Robovan will come to the UK, but self-driving car technology did receive backing earlier this year when the UK government passed a bill called the Automated Vehicles Act. This enables the introduction of fully-autonomous vehicles to UK roads within the next couple of years - provided they “achieve a level of safety at least as high as careful and competent human drivers”.

There were no details on pricing or technical information of the Robovan, but we expect both fleet and retail sales to be available for the electric bus when it hits the market. Given the sheer size of the Robovan we could see much larger batteries being introduced, though this could depend on the specific use case for the vehicle - whether that be a city-based form of transport or something that undertakes much longer journeys with heavy loads.