Tesla has lastly revealed its Cybercab, and it seems like a smaller, sleeker Cybertruck. And whereas many have been anticipating there to be at the least one prototype of a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, Tesla CEO Elon Musk delighted his followers with a lineup of 20 automobiles.
The flashy “We, Robot” occasion occurred at Warner Bros. Discovery studio on Thursday. Earlier than strolling on stage, Musk walked over to a robotaxi, which opened its gullwing doorways, and did a brief demo across the well-maintained streets of the Hollywood studio.
Musk repeated earlier claims that the price of autonomous transport might be so low, will probably be akin to “individualized mass transit.” He mentioned he believed the common working price of the Cybercab might be over time round $0.20 per mile.
“And you will be able to buy one,” Musk mentioned, including that the price of the car could be beneath $30,000.
Musk additionally famous he expects Tesla to start out doing “unsupervised FSD in Texas and California next year” with the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y. He acknowledged that he’s too optimistic about timelines, however mentioned he expects the Cybercab to be in manufacturing by 2026 or “before 2027.”
Followers cheered when Musk mentioned they might have the ability to check out the Cybercabs themselves on the occasion.
“They have like 20 of them driving around the entire lot totally unsupervised,” one event-goer informed TechCrunch.
The robotaxi additionally doesn’t have a plug in charger, and as a substitute has “inductive charging,” which is a form of wi-fi charging, in response to Musk.
Robovan and Optimus
Tesla unveiled a shock Robovan on the occasion, a sleek-looking autonomous bus that may carry as much as 20 individuals and likewise transport items. No timelines have been revealed for this car — solely a hand-waving of a future that might “change the look of the roads.”
Musk additionally launched roughly a dozen Optimus humanoid robots, sharing his imaginative and prescient for a future the place robots act as buddy and helper for the low worth of round $20,000 to $30,000. These bots have been strolling among the many people on the occasion, dancing like go-go dancers, and even mixing drinks.
Robotaxi historical past and context
Tesla was initially slated to disclose its Robotaxi or Cybercab in August, however delayed the revealing after the chief requested an “important design change to the front.”
The Robotaxi unveiling is a part of Tesla’s push to go “balls to the wall for autonomy” this 12 months after pivoting from prioritizing the manufacturing of a $25,000 EV and shedding 10% of employees, together with many of the charging crew. However Musk’s imaginative and prescient of an autonomous driving future has been in play for years, and a big a part of the explanation why traders worth Tesla’s inventory not as an automaker, however as a know-how firm.
The Cybercab prototype represents one half of the enterprise idea Musk has set forth since at the least 2019, whereby the automaker would run its personal fleet of devoted robotaxis on a Tesla ride-hail app, which Tesla teased throughout its first quarter investor name.
Musk has described the opposite half of the technique as much like Uber or Airbnb, the place Tesla house owners will have the ability to add their correctly geared up automobiles to Tesla’s ride-hailing app to make more money when the automobiles will not be in use, and Tesla will take 25% to 30% of the income (much like Apple’s App Retailer take charge). Musk additionally mentioned that Tesla projected that robotaxi rides would price lower than public transportation, however he didn’t say by when.
“By the middle of next year, we’ll have over a million Tesla cars on the road with Full Self-Driving hardware, feature complete, at a reliability level that we would consider that no one needs to pay attention, meaning you could go to sleep,” Musk mentioned at Tesla’s 2019 Autonomy Day. “From our standpoint, if you fast forward a year, maybe a year and three months, but next year for sure, we will have over a million robotaxis on the road. The fleet wakes up with an over the air update. That’s all it takes.” That, after all, didn’t occur by 2020.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software program, which is on tons of of hundreds of automobiles immediately, depends solely on cameras to understand the setting round it. Trade consultants say this vision-only strategy is the explanation why the software program continues to be not truly absolutely self-driving, regardless of its identify. FSD can carry out many automated driving duties, however nonetheless requires a human behind the wheel to remain attentive and take over if wanted.
It’s additionally not clear that current Teslas even have the suitable {hardware} to get to this full self-driving future that Musk has been promising for years. As Musk posted on X in July, the roughly 5x improve in parameter depend wanted to energy Tesla’s next-gen AI “is very difficult to achieve without upgrading the vehicle inference computer.”
Regardless, if Tesla needs to commercialize Stage 4 autonomous driving – which suggests the car can drive itself underneath sure situations without having a human to take over – it might want to show the security case. Tesla has been underneath quite a few federal investigations for deadly crashes that occurred whereas Autopilot, Tesla’s decrease stage superior driver help system, was in place. California has essentially the most rigorous allowing course of for testing and deployment of autonomous automobiles, however in most different states, Tesla must present at a minimal that its automobiles are able to pulling themselves over safely.
Then there’s the matter of the Cybercab’s lack of steering wheels or pedals, which might put it out of compliance with federal car security legal guidelines. GM’s Cruise had beforehand tried to convey its purpose-built robotaxi, the Origin, to manufacturing, however failed to realize the mandatory approvals from the Nationwide Freeway Visitors and Security Administration earlier than scrapping the challenge.
