Tesla’s upcoming $25,000 car and its plan for a self-driving taxi will take design inspiration from the Cybertruck, according to a report by Musk biographer Walter Isaacson.
Isaacson’s forthcoming book reveals that Tesla initially focused solely on self-driving robotaxis. It was only after some persuasion from Tesla executives that Elon Musk agreed to develop an affordable car alongside the robotaxi.
To achieve its goal of producing 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, Tesla needed a vehicle that could be rapidly manufactured at scale. This led to the idea of a next-generation platform.
On X @sawymerritt : Elon Musk on Tesla’s Robotaxi in new excerpt from @WalterIsaacson‘s latest book: “This is the product that makes Tesla a ten-trillion company. People will be talking about this moment in a hundred years; At the end of the summer of 2022, after Musk made his pronouncements about being “all in” on a Robotaxi with no steering wheel, von Holzhausen and others at Tesla set about persuading him to cover his bet. They knew how to do it in a non-challenging way.
At a design review session one afternoon in February 2023, von Holzhausen put models of the Robotaxi and the $25,000 car next to each other in the studio. Both had a Cybertruckfuturistic feel. Musk loved the designs. “When one of these comes around a corner,” he said, “people will think they are seeing something from the future.”
In November 2021, Musk and his top team brainstormed in Austin about creating a high-volume robotaxi. They debated for nearly a year whether to build a traditional car with standard controls or a fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals.
Some Tesla engineers suggested a cautious approach, proposing a car with removable steering wheels and pedals. Musk, on the other hand, insisted on a fully autonomous design, emphasizing Tesla’s commitment to self-driving technology.
However, in September 2022, after reviewing data and presentations from Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and others, Musk was convinced that Tesla needed a smaller, “global car” to meet its ambitious growth targets. They also demonstrated that both the $25,000 car and the robotaxi could share the same advanced platform and assembly lines.
Finally, von Holzhausen displayed models of the $25,000 Tesla and the robotaxi in Tesla’s Design Studio, both featuring futuristic designs inspired by the Cybertruck. Musk was enthusiastic about these vehicles and their unique appearance, stating that they would look like something from the future when seen on the road.
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