Connect with us

Elon Musk

Tesla’s ‘Project Alicorn’ and what it means for the Robotaxi platform

Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi ride-hailing service in June, and it’s already taking massive steps to do so.

Published

on

Tesla has been planning its launch of the Robotaxi ride-hailing suite for years, but now that the company is nearing the operation of a ride-hailing platform for the first time next month, more details are coming forward.

It appears that Tesla has codenamed the Robotaxi suite, along with its ride-hailing app, as ‘Alicorn,’ a mythical creature that combines the characteristics and features of both a unicorn and a pegasus. But why this name?

It potentially could be pointing toward the vehicle’s use as both a passenger car for personal use, as well as a way to bring in passive income, something CEO Elon Musk first talked about in April 2019 when he indicated your car could work while you sleep, bringing in between $10,000 and $30,000 annually.

This would all be earned by your car being used as a driverless Robotaxi.

Tesla doubles down on Robotaxi launch date, putting a big bet on its timeline

Advertisement

Project Alicorn and What It Means for the Robotaxi

The name Alicorn was not recognized until a decompilation of the Tesla mobile app by Tesla App Updates on X last night. Evidently, Tesla is preparing for the June launch of the Robotaxi by inputting some new features into the smartphone app, something that we reported on recently.

Tesla will not launch a Robotaxi app that operates separately from the standard app. Everything will be ingrained into the main Tesla app that you use to access your car.

In the bigger picture, Tesla adding these specific coding strings means that it is preparing for the launch of the Robotaxi ride-hailing service, something that it has reiterated for all of this year.

Tesla plans to launch the Robotaxi platform in Austin in June, which hints at the timing of the coding to be an indicator that the company is truly ready to get things moving. While the initial rollout will be conservative and will include between 10 and 20 cars, according to Musk, the company is certainly confident that more cities will be enabled later this year for Robotaxi operation.

Ultimately, most of the fleet would ideally be made up of cars that have been purchased by consumers.

Advertisement

Your Tesla as a Robotaxi

Specific coding within the decompiled version of the new Tesla app revealed the ability to call the vehicle owner, meaning Tesla is undoubtedly preparing for vehicles to be driven with operators but without any intervention. Full Self-Driving will take care of the driving.

The account explained it:

Advertisement

“You could turn on the rideshare option and start making money, and your car would pick people up and drop them off while you sit in the driver’s seat, but FSD would be doing all the work, and it would just send jobs to your car. Very similar to what you saw in the teaser video not that long ago. Customers would also have the ability to call the driver as well in this scenario.”

Eventually, Teslas will have no drivers and will only operate with Full Self-Driving as Robotaxi technology.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Elon Musk: Self-sustaining city on Mars is plausible in 25-30 years

Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization.”

Published

on

Credit: Elon Musk/X

Elon Musk has stated that a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars could be established in 25-30 years, provided launch capacity increases dramatically in the coming decades. 

Speaking at the All-In Summit, the SpaceX CEO said building a self-sufficient colony depends on exponential growth in “tonnage to Mars” with each launch window, highlighting Starship’s role as the company’s pathway to interplanetary initiatives.

Mars settlement goals

Musk noted that true self-sufficiency requires Mars to develop “all the ingredients of civilization,” from food production to microchip manufacturing. Starship Version 3 is expected to support the first uncrewed Mars test flights, while future iterations could reach 466 feet in height and deliver larger payloads critical for settlement. Ultimately, Musk stated that an aggressive timeline for a city on Mars could be as short as 30 years, as noted in a Space.com report.

“I think it can be done in 30 years, provided there’s an exponential increase in the tonnage to Mars with each successive Mars transfer window, which is every two years. Every two years, the planets align and you can transfer to Mars. 

“I think in roughly 15, but maybe as few as 10, but 10-15-ish Mars transfer windows. If you’re seeing exponential increases in the tonnage to Mars with each Mars transfer window, then it should be possible to make Mars self-sustaining in about call it roughly 25 years,” Musk said. 

Advertisement

Starship’s role

Starship has flown in a fully stacked configuration ten times, most recently in August when it completed its first payload deployment in orbit. The next flight will close out the Version 2 program before transitioning to Starship Version 3, featuring Raptor 3 engines and a redesigned structure capable of lifting over 100 tons to orbit.

While SpaceX has demonstrated Super Heavy booster reuse, Ship reusability remains in development. Musk noted that the heat shield is still the biggest technical hurdle, as no orbital vehicle has yet achieved rapid, full reuse.

“For full reusability of the Ship, there’s still a lot of work that remains on the heat shield. No one’s ever made a fully reusable orbital heat shield. The shuttle heat shield had to go through nine months of repair after every flight,” he said. 

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla called ‘biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen’ by Yale associate dean

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is being called “the biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen” by Yale School of Management Senior Associate Dean Jeff Sonnenfeld, who made the comments in a recent interview with CNBC.

Sonnenfeld’s comments echo those of many of the company’s skeptics, who argue that its price-to-earnings ratio is far too high when compared to other companies also in the tech industry. Tesla is often compared to companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft when these types of discussions come up.

Fundamentally, yes, Tesla does trade at a P/E level that is significantly above that of any comparable company.

However, it is worth mentioning that Tesla is not traded like a typical company, either.

Here’s what Sonnenfeld said regarding Tesla:

“This is the biggest meme stock we’ve ever seen. Even at its peak, Amazon was nowhere near this level. The PE on this, well above 200, is just crazy. When you’ve got stocks like Nvidia, the price-earnings ratio is around 25 or 30, and Apple is maybe 35 or 36, Microsoft around the same. I mean, this is way out of line to be at a 220 PE. It’s crazy, and they’ve, I think, put a little too much emphasis on the magic wand of Musk.”

Many analysts have admitted in the past that they believe Tesla is an untraditional stock in the sense that many analysts trade it based on narrative and not fundamentals. Ryan Brinkman of J.P. Morgan once said:

“Tesla shares continue to strike us as having become completely divorced from the fundamentals.”

Dan Nathan, another notorious skeptic of Tesla shares, recently turned bullish on the stock because of “technicals and sentiment.” He said just last week:

“I think from a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”

Nathan said Tesla shares show signs of strength moving forward, including holding its 200-day moving average and holding against current resistance levels.

Sonnenfeld’s synopsis of Tesla shares points out that there might be “a little too much emphasis on the magic wand of Musk.”

Elon Musk just bought $1 billion in Tesla stock, his biggest purchase ever

This could refer to different things: perhaps his recent $1 billion stock buy, which sent the stock skyrocketing, or the fact that many Tesla investors are fans and owners who do not buy and sell on numbers, but rather on news that Musk might report himself.

Tesla is trading around $423.76 at the time of publication, as of 3:25 p.m. on the East Coast.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk teases the capabilities of the Tesla Roadster once again

Published

on

Elon Musk has once again teased the capabilities of the Tesla Roadster, fueling the anticipation that many have for the vehicle, despite it still having no public production or delivery date.

The Roadster is among the most anticipated vehicles in the automotive sector currently, and as Tesla has teased its capabilities, from a lightning-fast 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration to potential hovering with cold-gas thrusters, people are eager to see it.

Although the design seemed to be finalized, there was still more work to be done. Earlier this year, as Tesla was showcasing some of the Roadster’s capabilities to Musk, he stated that it was capable of even more.

This pushed back its production date even further, much to the chagrin of those who have been waiting years for it.

Musk continues to tease us all, and as we sit here waiting hopelessly for it to be revealed, he said today that it is “something special beyond a car.”

Musk’s words were in response to a video posted by Tesla China, showing the Roadster in a new promotional video created by a fan.

The Roadster was planned to be released in 2020, but here we are in 2025, and there is still no sign of the vehicle entering production. However, Tesla did say earlier this year that it would host a demo event for the Roadster, where the company would showcase its capabilities.

Lars Moravy said earlier this year:

“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind-blowing; We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on, and he got a little excited.”

Tesla exec gives big update on Roadster, confirming recent rumor

The delays have been attributed to “radically increased design goals” for the vehicle, which have, without a doubt, improved its capabilities, but at the same time, we just want to know if it’s ever going to come.

Tesla can always make it “better,” but at what point do you say, “Okay, it’s time to show this thing off.” They could always build another, even more capable supercar in the next ten years.

Continue Reading

Trending