Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently hinted at the possibility of a Tesla electric bus in a tweet that he later deleted, which sparked speculations and discussions among fans and industry watchers on the likelihood of seeing a new vehicle from the electric car maker.
The exchange of tweets began when a Twitter user shared an image of what seems to a tunnel from Musk's The Boring Company. The photo seemingly features electric vehicles entering the tunnel through an elevator. The CEO responded in a tweet saying that the company has simplified this, and for now, it is basically Teslas in tunnels.
The Boring Company recently applied for a permit to begin expanding the Loop tunnel that would be utilized as a means of transportation between stations. Unfortunately, it is not clear how passengers would be transported from one point to another. But, Musk shared a potential clue on how this would be possible, that is, through electric buses.
In his tweet, the CEO mentioned that his company could 'make a dense Tesla,' hinting at the possibility of a Tesla electric bus as a public transport vehicle. The tweet attracted more interest when Musk later deleted his tweet. Whispers on Tesla's electric bus are not actually new, especially with Musk's previous statements about the country's public transportation system.
We simplified this a lot. It’s basically just Teslas in tunnels at this point, which is way more profound than it sounds. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2020
Industry watchers believed that Tesla would soon manufacture electric buses or at least work with other companies to produce zero-emission buses. In 2017, The Verge reported that Musk clarified that he wanted to solve the traffic using higher density vehicles. He did not, however, mention the development of the Tesla electric bus.
Musk noted that he is not certain of the bus really makes sense in the shared fully autonomous environment. This was the CEO's response when he was asked about the project at that time. "If it costs less than a bus ticket to make use of a shared autonomy fleet to go wherever you want, point to point, well, why don't you just use that? So I don't know."
While he dislikes public transit, Musk's preference for vans was confirmed in 2018. In a tweet, the CEO mentioned that he looked forward to working with Daimler in producing an electric van. But, he did not offer more information about this.
For fans, that statement was enough to have something to speculate about. Musk's recently deleted tweet could be hinting at the possibility of a Tesla electric bus or Tesla electric van. But fans will never truly know about this unless Elon Musk confirms it himself.
