Axios has a copy of a section of the Walter Isaacson biography of Elon Musk, which covers how the development and design of Robotaxi and next generation car. Elon was for a couple of years adamant about going to the robotaxi only and not wanting a cheap next generation car. Franz von Holzhausen and his team developed both the robotaxi and the next generation car. They put models of the robotaxi and the $25,000 car next to each other in the studio and showed Elon in early 2023. Elon finally became enthusiastic about both.

The next generation car will also now be developed in Austin first so that the designers will be near the production lines.

Both robotaxi and the $25,000 have a futuristic design like the Tesla Cybertruck — an angular, stainless steel pickup truck that had yet to debut.