- Tesla reveals Cybercab and Robovan robotaxis
- Cybercab production expected to begin in 2026
- Cybercab prices expected to start below $30,000
Tesla on Thursday night unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi, which the company calls the Cybercab.
The premiere took place at the closed Warner Bros. studio. in Burbank, California, and included the surprise debut of a van called the Robovan.
Both autonomous vehicles lack a steering wheel and pedals, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in the reveal that both are destined for production, with no planned changes to the vehicle designs.
In typical fashion, Musk didn’t give many details, but he did say that the Cybercab, a sleek two-door hatchback, is expected to begin production in 2026 and comes with a price under $30,000.
Robotaxi pic.twitter.com/zVJ9v9yXNr
-Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
The Cybercab will be aimed at private and fleet buyers, and according to Musk, the cost of traveling a mile for owners over the long term could drop to around 20 cents per mile per person, although he did not detail that cost. .
With the Robovan, Musk said the cost per mile could eventually drop to 5 to 10 cents per person, as the vehicle can carry up to 20 people.
Tesla also showed a video where vehicles can charge autonomously using inductive chargingand even clean the interior using an autonomous cleaning station. And Musk said the technology being developed for the robotaxis could be transferred to Tesla’s Planned Humanoid Robot Helper known as Optimus. Tesla had Optimus prototypes at the event serving drinks to attendees.
Tesla Robovan
Tesla has been promising since 2016 that Tesla owners could eventually rent their EVs as robotaxis through a Uber-style service called Tesla Network. When announcing the Tesla Network, Tesla said that owners using their EVs to provide rides to friends or family would be possible outside of service, but anyone doing so for revenue purposes could only do so through the Tesla Network. Musk in 2019 said Tesla would take a cut of any revenue generated, suggesting a figure of 25-30% at the time.
However, Tesla has not yet demonstrated an autonomous system that can function without constant supervision. Tesla’s Autopilot with fully autonomous driving is only rated at level 2 in the SAE Scale of Autonomous Driving Capability. Level 3 is the first stage in which a car can operate unattended and currently only those from Mercedes-Benz Pilot drive system is classified at Level 3 when it comes to private cars. On Thursday, Musk said updates to FSD are coming that will allow vehicles equipped with the feature to drive in unattended mode as early as next year, although initially only in California and Texas.
Public robotaxi services already offered, such as Alphabet’s Waymo One and Baidu’s Apollo Go, are classified at level 4 of the scale. A Level 4 autonomous car can drive itself, but still has conditions, typically within a pre-mapped geofenced area. Level 5 is the ultimate goal, i.e. an autonomous car that can match the capabilities of a human driver.