Timely unveiling of Tesla’s Robotaxi: What to expect tonight

Today is the day, folks. After years of testing and an ever-expanding timeline, adze (TSLA) is finally getting ready to unveil its autonomous robotaxi at the “We, Robot” event this very evening.

At 7 p.m. PT, Elon Musk will take the stage to debut Tesla’s so-called Cybercab — an autonomous vehicle that Musk himself believes will be the company’s biggest launch of the decade.

Of course, Tesla isn’t the only company laser-focused on creating the ultimate self-driving car. As mentioned in previous issues, Alphabethis (Google) Waymo and Baiduhis (BIDU) Apollo Go each already makes 100,000 driverless trips per week.

So what makes Tesla’s robotaxi such a big deal?

Well, this debut will likely mark the first time consumers see a fully autonomous vehicle that they can park right in their own driveways. And this could prove to be a watershed moment for this hot industry.

If this is the case, now is the time to prepare for it. So let’s dig into what we can expect to hear about tonight.

Tesla’s Robotaxi unveiling: What we expect to discover

We believe that Tesla’s “We, Robot” event will serve to demystify three important elements of this robotaxi:

• Design: Cybercab layout and core technology.
• Business: details about the vehicle’s mass production, sales and ride-sharing service.
• Regulations: what Tesla is doing to get regulatory approval.

Let’s start with the alleged design of the vehicle.

We expect Robotaxi to look something like a “living room on wheels” — perhaps an oval-shaped car with lots of seats and infotainment screens, but no steering wheel. That’s because the car will be designed to be completely driverless. Other self-directed companies such as Waymo and Zoox are looking to remove steering wheels from their AVs as well, so it would be normal if Tesla did the same.

Now, when it comes to the vehicle’s core technology, Tesla has historically embraced a camera-only approach. But we think the Cybercab will actually have a wide array of sensors. That’s because other AV firms, like industry leader Waymo, use a combination of sensors — cameras, radar and lidar (light detection and ranging). And given their success so far, it seems a diverse hardware stack is the way to go to achieve safe autonomous vehicles.

So perhaps the biggest shock of the night will be Tesla deviating from its original camera-centric design. By including other sensors in the Robotaxi, it could improve detection, safety and redundancy, and eventually gain regulatory approval for these self-driving cars.