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

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

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.

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.

As noted by @Tesla_App_iOS, alicorn_button_title_call_driver is present in the new app version’s coding.

This supports an idea Tesla revealed years ago, that people could use their cars to generate revenue by adding them to the Robotaxi platform. https://t.co/QguKUmFVOf pic.twitter.com/E0Otu5OxXV

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 7, 2025

The account explained it:

“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.

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