Tesla has, at long last, revealed its fully autonomous Robotaxi.
Boss Elon Musk revealed the Robotaxi at an event in California called ‘We Robot’, with Musk promising true autonomy will herald a new era for Tesla.
Bizarrely, the Robotaxi takes the shape of a two-door coupe. Complete with scissor doors the two-seat taxi has no steering wheel or pedals, but a large liftback storage area.
Musk, who frequently referred to the Robotaxi as the “Cybercab” casting doubt over the actual name, said the company is planning to begin production in 2026 or “Before 2027, let’s put it that way” conceding that he tends to be “optimistic” with time frames.
Musk also said the model will be built in “very high volumes” and that “Yes, you’ll be able to buy one. We expect the cost to be below $30,000 (AU$45,000).
“When we look at transport today there’s a lot of pain we take for granted. We think this is normal. Like having to drive around LA in three hours of traffic.” he said, explaining that the taxi will move Tesla’s autonomous software to the next level. “We’ll move from supervised full self-driving to unsupervised full self-driving. Where you could fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”
He also pitched the Robotaxi as a form of “individualised mass transit” and promised it would be even more affordable per mile than a bus to run.
“If you think of the average cost of a bus per mile for a city, the average price is about a dollar a mile.
“The cost of Cybercab, we think probably over time the operating cost will be about 20 cents a mile. Including taxes and everything else probably 30 — 40 cents a mile.”
On top of that, Musk also predicted that owners would be able to capitalise on their purchase by renting the autonomous vehicle out when it was not in use.
“There’s also a challenge for a lot of people that cars cost too much when you factor in everything, insurance, payments, storage, it’s quite expensive. How many hours a week are cars used? The average is 10 hours a week — the vast majority of the time they do absolutely nothing.”
“But if they’re autonomous they could be used five times more, maybe ten times more. The same car could have ten times the value.”
“With autonomy you get your time back. This is a big deal. It will save lives, like, a lot of lives, and prevent injuries — I think we’ll see autonomous cars become ten times safer than a human” he said, comparing autonomous cars to elevators, where once they required operators they are now ‘automatic’.
“There will be an interesting business model where [owners] can manage a fleet of cars — maybe 10 — 20 cars, take care of them like a shepherd, like a little flock of cars.” He said.
Musk also said there could be a model where the powerful computers in each Cybercab could be used as the basis for a cloud computing service when they are not being used on the road. “It’s there, you might as well use it” he explained.
The car was also revealed to not have a plug, and would instead rely on wireless induction charging, although how this new infrastructure would be deployed was not detailed.
As a surprise part of the event, Tesla also revealed the Robovan. A small bus able to carry “up to 20 people” designed for “high density” which Musk promised would bring the cost down to “five cents a mile.” The wild retrofuturistic styling was chosen as Musk says because “the future should look like the future.”
No more details, including production or release date were offered for the Robovan — though Musk did insist the name was to be pronounced ‘ruh-bow-ven’ rather than ‘row-bow-van’.
Tesla has long promised that autonomy would be its next big push, although the brand has been under some pressure in 2024 as its explosive growth has been curtailed by a retraction in the EV market in much of the world.
The EV pioneer has been slow to update its range, with the Model S and X switching to left-hand drive only, and its most popular model, the Y SUV, is yet to receive the same upgrades which debuted on the Model 3 in late 2023.
At the same time, the brand’s market share has begun to be significantly eroded, particularly by new lower cost models from China.
As part of the presentation, Musk promised before the Cybercab or Robovan launches “You’ll experience a robotic taxi via the Model 3 and Model Y program”.
“The 3 and Y will achieve unsupervised self-driving with permission, wherever regulators will approve it in the US” he said.
Plans for how the brand would overcome road rules throughout the world were also not detailed. As it stands, driverless vehicles are illegal to use on public roads in Australia.
No doubt more details will be unveiled for the Cybercab and Robovan over the course of 2025, so stay tuned for more information.
