Slate Auto is not subtle about keeping its electric truck simple and analog whenever possible. It has hand-crank windows, no carpeting to speak of, and—perhaps most significantly for a car launching in the back half of the 2020s—no central screen. That means navigation duties are probably going to fall to your phone, but Slate is happy to offer another option on its online store. They call it a physical GPS, but you probably know it by another name. The familiar-looking new product available on the Slate website is simply a Slate-branded Rand McNally Road Atlas.
In other words, maps. Slate is selling maps.
Slate built its Truck—that is its official product name—around the idea that a driver will be using their phone for navigation and entertainment, so the Road Atlas offering is mostly a novelty. Still, it is a Slate-branded book of maps covering Canada, Mexico, and the United States. That is useful enough that it might convince one or two dedicated analog buyers to actually choose to navigate their Slate Trucks through the world this way, at least once or twice for the novelty.
The Slate store lists the atlas for $30, and notes that it is “limited edition.” (We will note that the same apparent atlas without the Slate markings and markup costs $19.99 on Amazon.) Slate’s planned products range from starting prices of just under $25,000 to just over $32,000, depending on which of three customizable body styles a buyer picks. Add in $30 for a “Screenless GPS” and you can get yourself across the continent with ease, one 205-mile charge at a time.
Fred Smith's love of cars comes from his fascination with auto racing. Unfortunately, that passion led him to daily drive a high-mileage, first-year Porsche Panamera. He is still thinking about the last lap of the 2011 Indianapolis 500.
