Tesla’s robovan is the surprise of the night

Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised attendees of the “We, Robot” event by presenting a new, unexpected vehicle: a passenger van.

The robovan is intended to for the company’s Tesla Network, an autonomous ridehailing service for purpose-built self-driving cars, as well as Tesla customers’ personally owned vehicles.

Tesla has dropped hints about a van before. In its Master Plan Part Deux, the company said it was developing “high passenger-density urban transport” and also suggested that autonomous buses could be deployed. And earlier this year, Musk showed an image of a cloaked van-shaped vehicle as part of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Given Musk’s notorious disdain for public transportation, it seemed unlikely that he would commit resources to anything like a van. But in Master Plan Part 3, the company lists “bus” and “commercial/passenger vans” as “TBD.”

The electric van space is heating up, with the recent releases of the Volkswagen ID Buzz and Mercedes eSprinter. In the commercial segment, there’s also the Ram ProMaster EV, Ford E-Transit, and BrightDrop Zevo.

Developing…