Tensor Wants To Sell You a Robocar This Year

Most autonomous vehicle companies are not chasing consumers. They are chasing the money, and that money is in the rideshare market. But while walking the CES show floor, I stumbled across a self-driving car from a company I had never heard of before. Their claim was simple and bold: they want to sell you a self-driving car, and they say it starts this year.

Big promises like this are nothing new. Elon Musk has been predicting consumer-ready self-driving cars since 2014, and those timelines have slipped again and again. So the real question is not whether this sounds exciting. It is whether this will actually happen, or if this is just another shiny piece of CES vaporware.

Sensor Suite

Tensor are using a similar approach to other systems that are driverless on the roads today:

• 17 ultra high resolution cameras (including 1 under chassis)
• "Hyper" radar (HD 4D radar)
• Five LiDAR sensors

The inclusion of an under chassis camera is also something we are yet to see, but has proved to be a good idea based on previous AV mishaps.

The sensors are also designed to be self cleaning, which does give us some hope that this is intended for real world deployment.

Overall, solid and convincing.

Vehicle

Tensor claims to have designed their "Robocar" from the ground up, with AI and autonomy in mind. This does show in certain aspects, with the shape of the vehicle being designed for maximum sensor visibillity, and features such as retractable driving controls.

The company plans to mass produce their vehicle in partnership with Vinfast, claiming that their Robocar is "the first mass-produced, fully automotive-grade Robocar in the world".

So, will this actually happen? I question whether we will see customer deliveries this year, and whether those vehicles will have capable software onboard for full L4 autonomy is another question entirely.

However, I do applaud the company for not taking deposits or preorders before any vehicles have shipped. All the right pieces do seem to be in place to make this happen. Their design is smart and their approach to autonomy seems reasonable. Only time will tell, but I'm excited to see what's next for Tensor.