Tesla’s next feat? Solving public transport woes with self-driving buses
Musk hints at plans, but won't say anything concrete just yet
The Model 3 has racked up 400,000 pre-orders already, and Tesla Motors is riding a huge wave of positive publicity. So what better time to start talking about another transformational vehicle?
The next one might be a bus – or something akin to a bus, at least. And it’ll be self-driving, too. But it won’t be exactly like a bus, since it’ll apparently take you directly to your destination. In other words, it might be more like a cab.
Can you tell that we don’t know much about it yet? That’s by design, naturally. CEO Elon Musk hinted at the upcoming development at a transportation conference in Norway today, according to Bloomberg, offering some clues at what’s ahead but declining to delve too deep into the particulars.
“We have an idea for something which is not exactly a bus, but would solve the density problem for inner city situations,” said Musk. “Autonomous vehicles are key.”
"I very much agree with solving the high-density urban transport problem," he added. "There’s a new type of car or vehicle that would be great for that and that’ll actually take people to their final destination and not just the bus stop."
It’s not a lot to go on for now, admittedly, but seeing how Tesla Motors has started transforming the car industry – and Musk’s SpaceX has done much the same for space travel, while his Hyperloop concept is making progress – it’s certainly something worth paying attention to.
Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before Musk gets into the details, but for now, he’s playing coy. "I don’t want to talk too much about it," he said. "I have to be careful what I say."
(Photo not from today’s event.)
[Source: Bloomberg]
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
