TAROT-2 (Te´lescope a` Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires—Rapid Action Telescope for Transient Objects) represents a major step towards a relatively large observatory dedicated to the rapid observation of optical transients or variable sources. This completely autonomous observatory will feature a 1.5 meter telescope, with an imagery mode. A spectroscopic mode will be implemented, possibly on another telescope, linked to the imaging telescope as well as with TAROT-1. TAROT-2 will be fully autonomous, i.e., no human intervention will be required from the telescope schedule to the processing of the observations. The instrument will be networked with other instruments. New materials will be heavily used for all the optical and mechanical parts. The imaging telescope will have a 2° filed of view, and a maximum slew speed of 60 deg/s. A 8000×8000 pixel CCD camera will give a pixel size of 0.8—. If a new, interesting, source is detected by the imaging telescope, its position will be automatically sent to the spectroscopic telescope for immediate observation, i.e., for a GRB, while the source still has a large optical flux level. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.