Elon Musk says Tesla will start making driverless Cybercab by 2026
Elon Musk has portrayed the Cybercab as the company’s most significant milestone since the Model 3.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk revealed a long-awaited autonomous vehicle at an event held at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, Calif. late Thursday.
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The company’s first driverless vehicle marks a strategic pivot for the electric-vehicle pioneer, as Tesla seeks to derive much of its future business from robotics and artificial intelligence.
The stakes are high for Tesla, because its core business of making and selling EVs has been under pressure amid slack buyer demand and increased competition.
Musk laid out a utopian vision of the future, one in which autonomous cars dramatically reduce traffic fatalities and a vehicle becomes “a comfortable little lounge” where the owner can relax or work.
Here are some key takeaways from the event.
A futuristic Cybercab
The public got their first look at Tesla’s newest model, the Cybercab, which Musk has portrayed as the company’s most significant milestone since the introduction of the Model 3 in 2017.
The car is reminiscent of Tesla’s Model Y SUV, with a more boxy rear and doors that flip upward. Musk said the company would begin manufacturing Cybercabs before 2027, acknowledging that he tends to be optimistic on timelines.
The vehicles will form the backbone of a new business, shuttling passengers autonomously, and will compete with services like Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise, but also ride-sharing titans Uber and Lyft.
Musk has portrayed the launch of driverless vehicles as central to Tesla’s future success and valuation. He has said robots and self-driving cars could push Tesla’s market value to at least $30 trillion, or nearly 40 times the current level.
Tesla also showed off a larger, shuttle-like driverless vehicle, dubbed the Robovan, that can carry up to 20 people.
The Robovan was also launched at the event.
Tesla’s cheapest car
Musk said anybody will be able to purchase the two-seater Cybercab for less than $30,000. If so, that would be a fraction of the cost of vehicles from market leader Waymo, according to analyst estimates. Musk has portrayed the cost of Tesla’s autonomous-driving technology, which uses camera images and artificial intelligence, as a key competitive advantage.
The price was designed to make them affordable for people who want to start a taxi service. “We imagine someone will have 20 of them and tend them like a shepherd,” Musk said.
Musk claimed that the operating cost of a Cybercab and Robovan made them cheaper to operate than a bus.
A cab—for private owners
Tesla has long said that the carmaker’s investments in self-driving technology would one day allow owners to convert their vehicles into autonomous taxis, earning them money.
On Thursday, Musk said Tesla would deploy a “fully autonomous” version of its driver-assistance system, called Full Self Driving, in Texas and California next year. The software would run on Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs, although it wasn’t immediately clear when customers would have access to this technology.
In the future, he said the company would roll out the service in states and countries where permitted by regulators.
Musk reiterated his view that a self-driving Tesla can help make the company’s vehicles more affordable, by allowing owners to rent out their car when they are not using them.
“Your average passenger car is only used 10 hours a week,” Musk said. “If they are autonomous they could be used five times more, maybe 10 times more.”
Unanswered questions
Musk provided few new details about Tesla’s business model for driverless taxis, such as projections for revenue or market size.
In the past, Musk has compared the robotaxi business to a combination of Uber and Airbnb, where Tesla would operate its own vehicles and take a cut of rides taken in privately-owned Teslas.
Musk didn’t go into detail about how Tesla would manage the regulatory hurdles of putting driverless cars on the road saying only that the company would offer the service where it was allowed. Some high-profile accidents involving self-driving cars have led regulators to scrutinize companies operating these vehicles.
‘An age of abundance’
Musk put the Cybercab at the center of an idyllic vision of the future, one in which robots not only drive people around but perform many other tasks. He hypothesized that an army of android helpers would push down the cost of goods and usher in “an age of abundance.”
The Tesla chief has spoken frequently over the past year about the need for a hopeful vision for humanity’s future.
“I love Bladerunner, but I don’t know if we want that future,” Musk said in reference to the dystopian sci-fi film franchise. “We want to have a fun, exciting future.”
Musk said he hopes to sell billions of these robots, which he compared with R2-D2 and C-3PO, characters in the Star Wars films.
At the end of the event, a phalanx of Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots walked through the crowd, danced on an elevated stage and served drinks to attendees.
A screengrab of Tesla’s Optimus robots.