Tonight, at 10 pm Eastern, 7 pm Pacific, Tesla will be hosting an event called We, Robot, seemingly a play on Isaac Asimov’s 1950 I, Robot short-story collection about robotics and artificial intelligence. This event, to be held at Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in Burbank, California, was the one that was originally supposed to happen on August 8, and this is where Tesla’s purpose-built self-driving robotaxi, which they are calling the Cybercab, will be shown to the world.
So what do we know about this Cybercab, or what all of this may be about? Tesla has certainly been talking about robotaxis for a long time, so tonight should be, if nothing else, interesting.
Oh, and if you want to watch the livestream tonight, you can do so, on Twitter:
(Okay, fine, on X, and it’s here:)
The future will be streamed live
10/10, 7pm PT https://t.co/YJEjZIYoTA
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 9, 2024
The big draw of the event, of course, is the Cybercab. Now, the Cybercab is especially interesting because, as a purpose-built self-driving taxi, it represents a departure from how Tesla has traditionally positioned their eventual self-driving robotaxi plans, which they’ve been discussing for years now.
The big difference is that in the past the understanding always seemed to be that the currently-existing Tesla cars already out there in the world would form the basis of a Tesla robotaxi fleet, allowing owners to profit from their cars’ hard work out there hustling taxi gigs while they relaxed at home, raking in the cash. This was the basis of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s predictions that by 2020, there would be over a million Tesla robotaxis on the road, ready to do work.
Look, here you can see where he does some whimsical math to compute that regular Tesla owners could make about 30 grand a year from letting their cars take robotaxi fares:
But, that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening now, at least not yet. Right now, it appears that a special platform designed exclusively for robotaxi use has been developed, the Cybercab, and it is expected to be a one-row, two-door vehicle (though those doors seem to be large gullwing-style doors) that can hold maybe two to three people.
We’ve seen a heavily disguised prototype already, along with some renderings and physical mock-ups:
As of yet, it’s not clear why Tesla appears to have abandoned the idea of using existing platforms for the robotaxi project. Was the currently existing computing hardware not up to the task? Tesla has replaced those before to allow for earlier cars to use later versions of their Autopilot and Full Self Driving (FSD) semi-automated Level 2 driver assist systems, so you’d think it could have been possible to upgrade existing vehicles, but perhaps not? Maybe there will be a path for existing Tesla vehicles to gain robotaxi abilities? We just don’t know yet.
Okay, so what do we know for tonight. Well, the Cybercab, will be shown, finally undisguised, so that will be good. It’s also very likely going to have one of those synchronized, illuminated drone shows where drones make all kinds of impressive pictures in the sky:
⚠️ Spoiler Alert ⚠️
Tesla’s “We, Robot” event will feature a drone show with a huge Optimus face!
The show was tested earlier tonight. https://t.co/3gXuN0wbci pic.twitter.com/VPH3smpK4D
— Tesla Newswire (@TeslaNewswire) October 10, 2024
We know this because, as you see above, people have spotted the drones practicing, which they like to do so they don’t get nervous. Some of those animations and images seem to portray the head of Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot that started life as a guy in a suit:
…and has grown up to be an actual humanoid robot capable of, um, slowly placing metal cylinders in a tray:
So, it also seems probable that there will be some Optimus-related announcement at the event, or at least some appearance of Optimus.
A somewhat more unlikely possibility at this event is a surprise announcement of a new car, specifically Tesla’s now-cancelled sub-$25,000 “Model 2” or whatever they decide to call a cheaper Tesla. It’s also possible the Cybercab and a cheaper, smaller Tesla are built on the same platform, with the cheap Tesla having manual, conventional driving controls, which seems like it’d be a smart idea. But all of that is a very big if.
I have a lot of questions I hope will be answered tonight. Is this Cybercab going to have any provisions for manual controls, if needed? At least Bluetooth so you can connect an Xbox controller? Anything? Will this be a Level 4 system, ready to operate in certain areas (and if so, what are they) or will Tesla try to deploy a full, unlimited Level 5 system, which would be a first?
Will Tesla have a subsidiary to manage Cybercab rides? Will there be a unique Cybercab app? And why did they pick a logo that evokes one of the most unsettling AI characters in popular culture, 2001‘s HAL 9000?
Hopefully we’ll find out tonight.
I’ll be back here at 10 pm Eastern/7 pm Pacific to live-blog the event, so check back in!
Shouldn’t it be “We, Robots”?
#pedanticrant
Get your shovels ready!
We hope you enjoyed the ride hahha! <boom>
There’s a secret panel that lifts up in the back center of the seat where you can plug in a Logitech F710 controller I’ve heard. Much like on a riding lawn mower there’s a safety switch to stop the vehicle if you’re ejected, so you have to stay seated there for the car to operate in this mode.
“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”
[Silence]
“Hal, it’s Dave, open pod bay doors.”
“Dave’s not here, man.”
I never would have thought to put those two together: kudos!