Tesla, the Kings of Camouflage!

A strange vehicle has been spotted near Warner Bros Studios, the venue for the Tesla Robotaxi presentation on October 10.

It is often said that the best way to hide something is to place it in plain sight, a concept that Tesla seems to have oddly applied. Indeed, when trying to conceal a car prototype, why dress it in an eye-catching bright yellow?

The Reddit account of the Teslamotors community has revealed some intriguing photos. Before claiming that this is a Tesla Robotaxi prototype in testing, let’s first examine the shape of the vehicle spotted in Burbank, California. The vehicle is, of course, dressed in fake body panels to disguise its shape, but it appears to be much smaller than the Model Y it is parked beside in the photo. The overall design closely resembles the model spotted in Elon Musk’s biography by Walter Isaacson, which we are almost certain is that of the Robotaxi. It’s hard to imagine more than two seats in such a reduced format, unless retractable passenger seats are hidden in the trunk. This would be a smart choice as it would allow for a two-seat configuration with a large cargo space or a configuration for 4 or even 5 passengers without luggage. The rear wheels also seem to be larger in diameter than the front wheels.

While Tesla has managed to maintain absolute secrecy around the Robotaxi, it is hard to imagine the developers dressing a prototype in yellow hoping it would go unnoticed. It is quite possible that this could be visibility or detection testing for autonomous vehicles. It could also be a tribute to the Yellow Cabs, the New York taxis that sport this yellow color. Finally, and this wouldn’t be surprising, we may not be looking at a Robotaxi after all, and Elon Musk may have simply decided to give Tesla some media visibility by organizing this scoop. If that is the case, it would be yet another Masterclass in communication since we are talking about it!

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