RoboCop's $150K Urban Assault Vehicle May Not Be Vaporware

The Carbon TX7 is exactly what you want in a tactical police truck. It's a “multi-mission vehicle” (MMV) with a glut of sophisticated gear for keeping the peace. It could also be pure, unadulterated vaporware.
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Photo: Carbon MotorsImage: Carbon Motors

The Carbon TX7 is exactly what you want in a tactical police truck. It's big. It's mean. It's pack with sophisticated tech for kicking ass and keeping peace. And it might not be vaporware.

The TX7 has a spate of surveillance cameras mounted around the vehicle, along with infrared and thermal imaging, a WiFi-enabled command module and sensors to detect large-scale biological and chemical weapons. Options include run-flat tires, ballistic glass and body panels and a 14-watt generator. All that and it's packing a secure space in the back for transporting up to 10 perps or fellow officers.

“When we asked [agencies] about their command vehicles, they said they take them out maybe twice a month,” Stacy Stephans of Carbon told Wired. For a vehicle that normally costs municipalities something in the ballpark of $600,000, Carbon recognizes that police forces just aren't getting their money's worth. The TX7’s goal is to fill the space between big vehicles like a SWAT van, and the average patrol sedan, with the capabilities to handle more situations than both, combined. Rather than purchasing separate specialized vehicles, Stephans said, agencies can use the TX7 for all types of calls.

While it’s tough on outlaws, the TX7 is kind to the environment. In stock form it runs an ultra-low emissions diesel V8, but Carbon says that a compressed-natural-gas powertrain model will also be available. Roof-mounted solar arrays are also an option to help power all the on-board electronics, so consider the $149,950 base price just the beginning.

Carbon wants the TX7 to be the all-purpose vehicle that, in one unit, can handle search-and-rescue, natural disasters, border patrol or any other crisis that arises. The idea is that agencies will save hundreds of thousands of dollars by purchasing one of these instead of multiple specialty vehicles. Carbon wouldn’t disclose which agencies were putting in orders for the TX7, but they admit that among the buyers, many wanted to take advantage of the TX7’s off-road capabilities to patrol public lands.

The TX7 follows Carbon’s E7 sedan, a BMW turbodiesel-powered patrol car with suicide rear doors, heated and cooled seats, and a top speed of 155 mph. As of press time, Carbon Motors says it has received 24,442 E7 reservations from 638 law enforcement agencies, but has yet to deliver a single vehicle.