Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s autonomous robot, now known as Cybercab, at the Warner Bros station in Burbank, California on Thursday night. And forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but Tesla’s billionaire CEO says it’s coming in two or three years.
Cybercabs are two-seater vehicles with no steering wheel or pedals, and Musk billed them as “mass transportation.” Musk promised adaptive charging, meaning the car wouldn’t need to be plugged in like a regular electric car, but he didn’t provide details on how that would work.
Musk kicked off the much-anticipated show by walking out of the Warner Bros. building. Make for a glossy presentation, complete with Hollywood glitz and glitz, and Musk is nothing if not a showman. The only question is whether he can deliver something he has been promising “two years away” every year for the past decade.
A video of the concept car was playing behind the CEO of Tesla when he spoke on stage and said “we expect the cost to be less than $30,000,” to much excitement from the audience. But not long after he revealed the price, he was interrupted by someone in the crowd shouting and asking when the Cybercabs would be bought.
“We expect to launch independent, unsupervised FSD in Texas and California next year,” Musk said to more excitement.
But Musk then ended his sentence, making it clear that he was only talking about Teslas on the road that would likely need local government approval to operate without drivers.
“And that’s obvious… that’s with the Model 3 and the Model Y. Then we expect the production of the Cybercab, which is the most advanced form of autonomous transportation, maybe… , but in 2026,” said Musk stuttering with laughter.
“So, yes. Before 2027, let me put it that way. And we’re going to make this car at a very high volume,” Musk said, to a largely subdued crowd.
Amusingly, some of the images playing behind Musk still refer to the car as “robotaxis,” and anyone using Tesla’s X account also didn’t get the memo that they’re now called Cybercabs, not robotaxis:
Robotaxi is premium point-to-point electric transportation, accessible to everyone pic.twitter.com/oLykwaaTHm
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
Twenty Cybercabs were available for special guests to try out at Thursday night’s event in Burbank. Musk predicted that autonomous vehicles will be ten times safer than humans and a big selling point is the idea that people who buy Cybercabs will be able to rent them out without the owner using them like a driverless Uber.
Notably, Musk did not mention that Tesla was pursuing the necessary regulatory approvals for any of the items he mentioned. And as we’ve seen in other companies, that’s a big hurdle.
Musk also showed the Robovan, which has the style of the future, but did not give any indication when that might be a reality. “We will do this. And it’s going to look like that,” insisted Musk, in a voice that betrayed that he probably didn’t believe it himself.
The Robovan will fit 20 people (four more people than the futuristic Loop cars he promised and never released in the 2010s).
Details of Robovan pic.twitter.com/Pdito0dfRq
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
The billionaire CEO also showed off the Optimus robot, which he says will mow your lawn, get your groceries and watch your kids. Musk said he thinks Optimus will be “the biggest product ever of any kind.”
Musk said the robot would cost “$20-30,000 in the long run,” but he didn’t provide details we hadn’t heard before. Many experts doubt Musk can meet that price point if he gets the Optimus into mass production.
But robots were present during the event, allegedly mixing guests’ drinks, although it’s not clear how “independent” they actually are. Musk has tried that trick before, with someone controlling things out of the box.
Optimus is your personal R2D2 / C3PO, but better
It will also change physical activity in industrial areas pic.twitter.com/iCET3a9pd8
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
The event was titled “We, Robot” and was streamed live on YouTube, but it may have disappointed many people who might have been hoping Musk would promise something that would happen soon.
CNBC Companies Squaw on the road asked a bullish analyst Thursday morning if we’ll get any information on cost per mile, cybercab rating, the ride-sharing app, or insurance costs. We didn’t hear anything even close to those kinds of details on Thursday.
Companies are already making driverless taxis in the real world. Alphabet’s Waymo operates in markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco. GM’s Cruise operates in Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston and recently announced that the company will launch a partnership with Uber in 2025. Cruise temporarily suspended operations in California after an October 2023 incident in which a self-driving car hit and pulled a pedestrian. jaywalking in San Francisco, but resumed in three cities in June 2024.
The main difference between Waymo and Cruise’s existing technology compared to Tesla is that Musk’s company does not use Lidar technology. And many experts think that is a mistake.
Musk has become a lightning rod of controversy in recent years, buying Twitter in 2022 and turning it into a hotbed for far-right extremism and conspiracy theories. Musk ran again as a Republican in 2022, just a day before the infamous news that he offered to buy a flight attendant a horse in return for sexual favors, according to Business Insider. The millionaire denied that story.
The American oligarch has fully embraced Trumpism, despite previously calling Trump too old to run again, and has even started a Super PAC trying to restore the neo-fascist former president to the White House. But Trump may not be the good business friend Musk hopes he is, if Trump’s words are to be believed.
Trump gave a speech in Detroit on Thursday where he railed against many topics, including autonomous vehicles, which he doesn’t like.
“The Chinese and other countries are producing autonomous vehicles,” Trump said. “Do you like to be independent? Anyone interested in a private car? You know what that is, right? If you see a car moving.”
“Some people know, I don’t know,” Trump continued. “A little bit about me, but autonomous cars, we’re going to stop working on America’s roads.”
TRUMP: “Some countries have produced auto-mo–bile and self-driving cars. Do you like autonomous? Does anyone like an autonomous car? You know what that is, right?”
CROWD: *one person clapping* pic.twitter.com/68y8nP5sIl
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2024
But who knows if Musk can deliver on the things he promised on Thursday. We have heard all this before in some version or another. Musk has been saying for years that autonomous cars will be delivered soon. Someone even created a video a few years ago collecting all of his pledges since 2014.
“By 2020, we expect to have a million robots on the road,” Musk said on a 2019 earnings call, as just one example.
No one knows what the future holds, and Musk has a habit of delivering products too late. But there are times when his promises don’t materialize or the finished product doesn’t match what he promised it’s just a joke.
Do you remember the cars of 16 people who promised different cities like Chicago and Las Vegas? Musk called it the Loop, not to be confused with the Hyperloop.
The Boring Company was to build and transport passengers through the 18-mile tunnel between downtown Chicago and O’Hare Airport. The entire trip would take about 12 minutes, according to Musk, and it looked promising, as you can see in the concept video section below.
That video has since been removed from the Internet. Musk never envisioned a future version of The Loop for Chicago or any other city. Instead, he built a tunnel in Las Vegas with human drivers driving regular Teslas at low speeds. It was very disappointing, to say the least.
What are the chances of Musk’s new Cybercab being a Loop? We don’t know. But that two- or three-year period doesn’t make us very optimistic about Cybercab’s future.
