Since all the way back in 2016 in its Master Plan Part 2 Tesla has been talking about the need for an electric “high passenger-density urban transport.” While that has yet to come to fruition, Tesla appears to have built the first prototype that could eventually be used in The Boring Company’s underground tunnels in Las Vegas.
Several weeks ago a Las Vegas content creator by the name of Jacob Orth said that according to one of his sources, there was a prototype of a 12 passenger van somewhere inside the offices for The Boring Company in Las Vegas. On Monday Orth followed through on the claim, posting a short video of what appears to be a prototype people-mover for the Vegas Loop.
Leaked video of the secret Tesla van prototype designed for Elon Musk’s Vegas Loop, from inside The Boring Company’s Las Vegas headquarters pic.twitter.com/A3A3XJ0UTx
— Jacob Orth (@JacobsVegasLife) July 10, 2023
As we can see in the video, the vehicle appears to be a very early prototype, and features 11 seats plus a 12th seat for the driver. The vehicle is unmistakable due to the Tesla steering wheel, although we can’t tell if there are any actual wheels underneath the vehicle as the view is obscured by boxes on the ground.
While the video does appear to be authentic, it is unclear just how old this prototype is. According to one Reddit user, they saw it four years ago while interviewing for a job at The Boring Company. Another said this prototype has been around since The Boring Company won the original contract to construct the Vegas Loop.
Whatever it is, it is similar, but still not very close to what Tesla said it would look like in the renders of the “high passenger-density urban transport” vehicles it has released over the years.
