With a quick swipe and press on the iPad mini, the 6,200-pound, 8-foot-tall Pebble Flow rotated its 33-inch tires and reversed across the parking lot. With another swipe, the $135,500 electric RV lumbered forward, moving at a walker’s speed of 3 miles per hour, the maneuver displayed on the iPad in real time by four bird’s-eye-view cameras. The process was precise and controlled yet surreal — like parking a Google bus in Noe Valley via remote control.

Pebble Mobility, a 2-year-old startup, invited me to its Fremont HQ to experience the “Tesla of the RV world” ahead of its worldwide debut this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

This ritzy electrified transporter joins my Tesla-but-for-X test-driving streak, which includes piloting a $59,000 hydrofoil electric Jet Ski and a $260,000 electric wakeboarding boat. My minimal boating experience had not been an issue, so despite being an RV virgin, I figured I’d wing it. Turns out, water’s a lot more forgiving to navigate than land.

When I was three feet away from a parked car, I used an onscreen slider to activate Pebble’s patented “magic hitch” system, launching the RV’s autonomous mode, which piloted the vehicle into position. It’s similar to a spaceship docking, noted Pebble Mobility CEO Bingrui Yang, 40. Once hitched, the RV’s stabilizing caster wheel folded up like an airplane’s landing gear. The company’s hitch engineer hails from NASA, Yang claimed.

Driving the RV felt like child’s play, so much so that Yang created guardrails. “Users have to authenticate, so that the kids don’t play with it,” he said. Hitching a trailer to an SUV or pickup truck “used to be one of the most frustrating things about an RV, and we’ve made it fun.” 

Even the most dedicated van-lifer has to admit there are things about RVs that suck. The gas-guzzlers are expensive to run, noisy, emission-heavy, and, depending on the culture of the campsite, can attract side-eyes from other campers. But the upsides are freedom to roam, camping without dirt, and access to modern conveniences on wheels. 

In 2023, the global RV market was valued at $48.26 billion; it is projected to reach $69 billion by 2032. The electric RV market is nonexistent for now, but 2025 will see the release of a raft of competitors, from the Pebble Flow to prototyped models from fellow startups Lightship and Thor to the industry-leading Winnebago’s eRV2.

The Pebble Flow wants to do for mobile recreation what Tesla did for commuting, pushing over-the-air updates to its software and perfecting its aerodynamic design. Yang — wearing the same uniform of black jeans, black hoodie, and black sneakers as six other staff members — said Pebble developed from a personal pain point. He’d always loved to camp — each conference room at Pebble HQ is named after a national park — but during the pandemic, he and his wife and son turned to RV life. It didn’t go well. Hitching took half an hour, with his wife directing as he backed up. “We got into a huge fight,” he recalled. “She didn’t want to talk to me the entire day.” 

There had to be an easier way, he thought. Today, Yang receives a very different reaction when he goes camping, he said. “People have told us this is the marriage saver,” he said. “It’s an attention magnet: everybody is looking at you, everybody has their phone out.”

The Pebble Flow is powered by a dual-motor system and a 45-kilowatt battery — about half the size of the battery in a base-model Cybertruck — with solar panels for added juice. There’s an electric tow-assist feature that helps when executing tight maneuvers, and an “Insta-Camp” button on the touchscreen deploys steps, stabilizers, and a motorized awning.

Inside, the 150-square-foot space channels the Scandi school of design, outfitted with light wood, big windows, a kitchen, bed, dining area, and giant skylight. Everything is dual function: The dining table rotates to allow for ease of entry and adjusts vertically to transform into an extra-large twin-size bed that can fit three kids (or one 5-foot-6 journalist lying flat). The other end of the RV featured a queen-size Murphy bed with memory-foam mattress that cleverly converts to a desk space when folded up.

There’s an impressive attention to detail: The interior has thoughtfully rounded corners to avoid accidental bruising; an iPad mini dock above the door; a cupboard to dump dirty shoes by the entrance; and recessed latches on the many, many cabinets. The AC unit is mounted outside to cut down on noise; the kitchen, which includes an electric microwave, convection oven, air fryer, and induction cooktop, has ambient undercounter lights; the bathroom, located opposite the kitchen, features a shower unit with smart glass that turns opaque at the touch of a button. “Most of the time, you’re not using the bathroom, and [making this] transparent really opens up the unit,” Yang explained. 

All Pebbles are constructed at the company’s Fremont base, he said, taking a page from Tesla’s playbook. The engineering team hails from Apple, Tesla, Zoox, Rivian, and SpaceX —  a big draw for Ellen Ma, a partner at UpHonest Venture Capital, a Palo Alto seed-stage fund that invested in Pebble Mobility’s $13.6 million Series A. “They had a lot of experience in designing good consumer products,” she said. 

Ma, who has rented RVs for family camping trips, was drawn especially to the Pebble’s macerating toilet, which grinds waste to mush, allowing it to be pumped uphill even when the RV is parked on uneven ground. With ordinary RVs, “you have to clean the plumbing yourself. … It’s dirty, it’s smelly,” she said. “They automated that.”

Ma sees growth potential in the RV space. As of 2024, 18.1 million Americans identified as digital nomads, a Covid-induced bump of 147% since 2019. She thinks remote workers and part-time travelers alike will get value from a smart RV. “Pebble allows you to enjoy being outside but still enjoy modern conveniences,” she said. “Enough people own RVs that are looking for a glamping experience.”

Yang agrees with that vision. “Work is not five days in the office anymore,” he said. “We want to give people the flexibility and freedom to live and work in a fundamentally changed world.”

Available in blue, red, or beige for $135,000, or in a green “founders” edition for $175,000, the first Pebble Flows ship this spring. There’s also a $109,500 option that doesn’t feature the magic hitch and other smart tech add-ons. 

Yang’s not working with rental companies, which seems a shame as late August becomes an RV-palooza for Bay Area burners. But would this even work at Burning Man? “I hope so,” he said, noting that the team has tested it in all kinds of terrains, including sand. “A previous design got stuck in the mud, but we improved on that.”