Elon Musk Unveils Tesla Cybercab: A Fully Autonomous Robotaxi
Elon Musk Reveals Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi, Promises Sub-$30,000 Autonomous Car by 2027 and a 20-Passenger 'RobovanTesla CEO Elon Musk has introduced the Cybercab, the company’s highly anticipated robotaxi, setting its price at under $30,000. Musk also announced Tesla's intention to launch autonomous driving capabilities for its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in California and Texas by next year.
The unveiling took place at the We, Robot event at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Musk arrived in the Cybercab, donning his signature black leather jacket and accompanied by a man dressed as an astronaut. Human-like robots entertained the crowd, dancing and serving drinks to attendees, adding a futuristic touch to the celebration.
Prior to Tesla’s announcement, many analysts remained skeptical about the company’s ability to deliver on its long-standing promise of fully self-driving vehicles. Tesla’s robotaxi vision has been in the pipeline for nearly five years, with autonomous driving features teased for almost a decade.
At the We, Robot event, Musk revealed that 20 additional Cybercabs were present, along with 50 fully autonomous vehicles available for test drives across the 20-acre venue. He highlighted the Cybercab’s revolutionary design, featuring neither a steering wheel nor pedals and utilizing inductive charging instead of a plug.
Musk also noted that Tesla had “overspecced” the computer in each vehicle, employing an Amazon Web Services-like approach that allows computational power to be distributed across its vehicle network, enhancing efficiency and functionality.
Musk announced that Tesla expects the Cybercab to cost under $30,000 (approximately £22,980 or A$44,500). He projected the robotaxi to be in production "in 2026" before pausing and amending his estimate to “before 2027,” acknowledging his tendency toward optimistic timelines.
Envisioning a future transformed by autonomous vehicles, Musk described a world where parking lots could be repurposed as parks, and passengers could relax, sleep, or watch movies in a “comfortable little lounge” during their trips. He noted that Cybercabs could serve as Uber-like taxis when not in use by their owners and even suggested that people could operate fleets of these vehicles, creating ride-share networks akin to a “shepherd with a flock of cars.”
“It’s going to be a glorious future,” he declared.
Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are set to transition from supervised to fully unsupervised self-driving, starting in California and Texas next year, with expansion planned across the U.S. and globally as regulatory approvals permit. While the S and X models will also gain autonomous capabilities, Musk did not specify a timeline for these.
“With autonomy, you get your time back. It’ll save lives, a lot of lives, and prevent injuries,” Musk emphasized, citing Tesla’s extensive driving data collected from millions of vehicles as a key factor in making autonomous driving safer than human drivers.
“With that amount of training data, it’s obviously going to be much better than a human can be because you can’t live a million lives,” Musk stated. “It doesn’t get tired, and it doesn’t text. It’ll be 10, 20, even 30 times safer than a human.”
Musk also unveiled the “Robovan,” an autonomous van designed to carry up to 20 passengers and cargo, though he did not disclose pricing or a production timeline. In addition, he highlighted significant progress on Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus. As the robots moved among attendees to serve drinks, Musk urged, “Please be nice to the Optimus robots.” At the end of the event, several robots danced on a neon-lit stage to Daft Punk's Robot Rock, with Musk estimating a future production cost of around $30,000 per robot.
The event showcased Tesla’s autonomous innovations amid ongoing challenges. The company currently faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. from Tesla owners who had been promised full self-driving capabilities that remain undelivered. Following pressure from U.S. safety regulators in February last year, Tesla issued a recall to address software allowing speeding and other violations in its full self-driving mode. In April, regulators launched an investigation into whether Tesla’s full self-driving and autopilot systems were sufficiently ensuring that drivers remained attentive, prompted by reports of 20 crashes involving autopilot since the initial recall.
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