Tesla went big on its Cybercab announcement event on Thursday night. It’s been a long-awaited moment, as the EV automaker has been championing autonomous taxis as the ultimate goal of its self-driving technology for years now.
The company’s well-attended livestream finally gave us a real look at the vehicle that’s supposed to herald the future of transportation—in Tesla’s vision, at least. The company revealed a sleek, futuristic-looking vehicle, as you might expect—but with ultimately less daring aesthetics than the polarizing Cybertruck.
That’s not to say that Tesla gave us something conventional. Far from it, in fact. It’s a two-seater, a coupe, and it’s got scissor doors paired with a drastically-sloping roofline. It’s like no other cab you’ve ever hailed before.
Robotaxi & Robovan pic.twitter.com/pI2neyJBSL
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
They call it a Robotaxi in the Tweet? Sure. They called it a Cybercab everywhere else.
Tesla headlines the Cybercab as “faster” and “more affordable.” Why? Well, you won’t be paying a human driver to sit in the seat to haul you around. Beyond that, it notes that the design relies solely on cameras for its self-driving ability. Tesla has long eschewed the use of more expensive radar or LIDAR sensors in its autonomous driving program.
Tesla also states you’ll be able to “call it once” and keep the vehicle “as long as needed,” whether you’re taking short trips or using it all day. Contrast that to a contemporary rideshare or taxi, which is only yours for as long as your trip lasts.
Once again, Tesla has flirted with bold price claims. We’re told the Cybercab will be cost less than $30,000 for purchase, and that sales will be open to private individuals, not just fleet buyers. They’re selling the concept of a cheap robot car that hauls you hither and thither, with the added appeal of the aforementioned scissor doors.
The elephant in the room, of course, is a big one. At this stage, Tesla doesn’t have the technology for self-driving taxis that operate without human supervision. The livestream addressed this, with CEO Elon Musk stating he predicts non-supervised self-driving will be available “before 2027.” This would apply not just to the Cybercab, but to the rest of the Tesla fleet as well—Musk noted that the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, et al, will all get Level 4 or Level 5 self-driving capability. Basically, that’s where the car can drive itself under the vast majority of situations without any human supervision or interaction. You know, what we all think self-driving means.
NEWS: Tesla has filed four patents related to a wireless charging mat for vehicles. This mat is something the car will drive over and it will automatically start charging. While it's not clear what Teslas will use this, presumably Tesla's upcoming Robotaxi will utilize this… https://t.co/jyr5RX0EmI pic.twitter.com/MSdqc9jCoT
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 7, 2024
Notably, the livestream mentioned that the Cybercab will have inductive charging capability. This comes as little surprise, as Tesla’s research activity in this area has been public knowledge for some time. As we reported last month, Tesla has filed four patents regarding wireless EV charging technology. Patent drawings and other graphics from the company suggest charging is achieved via a floor-mounted rectangular pad that sits beneath the vehicle. We’ve also seen that provisions appear to have been made on existing Tesla vehicle batteries for this purpose, with connectors for the technology already apparently included on some batteries.
This move makes sense. While it’s possible to build a robotic apparatus to plug in a wired charger to an EV, a wireless charger is altogether simpler to implement. One merely needs to drive the vehicle over the pad to start charging. This would be far simpler and easier for an autonomous vehicle, and require far less maintenance over time.
Autonomous cabs promise a multitude of benefits. Namely, there’s no need for a human driver to spend their time schlepping other humans around. This eliminates labor costs if you’re hiring a cab, for example, and also avoids issues like fatigue. Alternatively, if it’s your Cybercab you’re talking about, full autonomy avoids the issue of parking. You can have your vehicle drop you off at your destination, and then it can drive away and come pick you up later. There’s no need to find convenient parking near your destination. You can also work during your commute, which theoretically could let you spend more time at home with your loved ones, plus in theory you could rent out your car to someone without worrying about them driving like crazed loons.
That’s all very fun, of course, it’s just not real. Not quite yet, anyway. But Tesla still firmly believes that it can make it happen, and the Cybercab is the vehicle apparently optimized to operate in this way.
What’s weird is that Tesla’s prime autonomous cab would only have two seats and an obviously limited cargo capacity. On the one hand, a great many cab trips do carry just one or two people. On the other hand, it’s a pain enough today when you’re travelling with five friends and have to try and score yourself one of the big Ubers. It would be particularly annoying if this happened every time you were travelling as a trio. In any case, Tesla dodged around this to a degree by simultaneously announcing the Robovan, which apparently has 20 seats and far more space.
Ultimately, the Cybercab is kind of a surprise. That’s what Tesla does well, of course. A regular automaker might have showed us another pod concept with comfy chairs and lots of room inside, but that wouldn’t fit the Tesla aesthetic. What they showed us was something radical, shocking, and questionably practical. Given the way the Cybertruck lit up the discourse, both for better and worse, it seems the Cybercab is following a similar formula. Tesla is as Tesla does, that much is certain.
Image credits: Tesla
This is disappointing. While I’m not a huge fan of Tesla, I do respect their bold design and technology choices. I thought this was supposed revolutionize an industry known for its uniquely distinct vehicles—many cities and countries have their own special take on taxis. Instead, it feels like Elon told a design team to come up with a Cybertaxi concept and have it done in a few months, and the team, burnt out from trying to update the Model Y with Cybertruck elements for some reason, just said, ‘Screw it, this will instead be the new Cyber— I mean, ROBOtaxi,’ handed it in, and called it a day.
The cab has a go-fast design. What do taxi’s do most of the time? Go-slow.
So it’s all bullshit then? Are we tired of Tesla yet?
Well their stock price has dropped 8% today … one can hope.
Under $30k and available in 3 years? Where have I heard that one before…
The two new products are entirely dependent on a product that Tesla has been unable to deliver for over a decade.
One is so small it’s useless to me, the other is an actual bus. Nothing in-between in a useful size?
I apologize for taking this in a political direction, but it’s kind of hilarious that Musk and Don are best buds now, Don is supposedly a yuge supporter of the working class, yet at the same time Musk is actively attempting to put millions of working class drivers out of a job (Don’t worry, it won’t work. I mean eventually it’ll happen, just probably from Waymo or some other company that knows what the hell they are doing)
Also, Convicted Felon Donald Trump has made his desires to hamstring the EV industry quite clear. He also said this, posted unironically to a microblogging site:
https://x.com/danahull/status/1844530542190158288
“added appeal of the aforementioned scissor doors”?!? Are scissor doors inherently more appealing than standard doors? Perhaps in very tight parking situations, but not so great for short people (or tall people?). Just another instance of over-engineering – taking a perfectly acceptable and well-understood interface – a car door – and making it less passenger-friendly.
They also seem like the completely wrong choice for this type of vehicle… people opening cab doors right in front of traffic and cyclists is already an issue – now lets make those doors open higher, with a nice, pointy edge at head-height for a cyclist or windshield-height (front-backlight JT?) for cars, and of course more expensive and complex than regular doors too!
These should be sliding doors.
as an owner of 2 minivans, sliding doors are always the answer
you know what i wish my house had more of? pocket doors. those things rule
My husband is a contractor and I have a special thing I do to annoy him (actually I have many), which is to remark upon nearly every interior doorway I pass through: “It would be nice if there were a pocket door here.”
And doors that probably open automatically without looking for bikes/traffic.
This seems impractical as a taxi. There’s a reason why most taxis look like a tall hat.
All the numbers, specs, promises, etc are straight up laughable
As a design exercise it’s pretty cool, I’d rock that coupe, except I won’t be allowed to drive it.
Time and again Tesla is pulling itself apart between good designers and engineers (Franz von Holzhausen is obviously a real car guy) and dumb, infantile futuristic ideas coming from its Musk brain.
“Elon, we built a cool coupe”
“Great, now remove all controls and only allow app interactions for tech not available yet”
So so dumb. Most importantly, why? Who are taxi (or now bus apparently) drivers upsetting so much that we need multiple billions thrown at the non-existent problem?
And please don’t say “so we can drink and drive home “
Not only that, but there is a certain sense of safety having an actual bus driver imparts. I know it may not be actual safety, but having another human late at night while alone isn’t a bad thing. It’s a broad statement and easy to take apart, but generally speaking I think it’s a net positive to have humans around. I remember falling asleep on a SEPTA trolley one night and the engineer waking me up at the roundhouse and helping me get back home. Thank’s SEPTA trolley driver!
100% this, always. The sad Minority Report vibes coming off that tesla bus are so depressing. But hey, there is an army of optimus humanoids. Seriously, just stop.
No Robert Picardo-bot, no sale.
So it’s a $30000 EV taxi with FSD? Does that mean it could also be a $22000 commuter EV without FSD? That’s the only way I’m going to consider buying a Tesla.
In my opinion, this would be nice as a “Tesla Model 3 Sport Coupe”
But as a taxi cab? It’s the wrong body style.
It would make far more sense to have a compact 5/7 passenger van with sliding rear doors as a taxicab/robotaxi/cybercab.
Oh sure, there are cases where a cab is only schlepping 1 or 2 people. But I personally have observed many cases of cabs filled with groups of people… particularly in nightclub/entertainment districts where it’s a group of friends going out.
Also you know what is also an issue with taxicabs? Accessibility for the disabled.
And that’s another case where a compact van would make more sense… just design it with a rear air suspension and built in ramps to accommodate people in wheelchairs.
If Tesla’s Cybercab was a compact van (and would also be sold as a regular panel/passenger van) with a rear air suspension and built in ramps that can be used for wheelchair access and/or ease the loading of large/heavy objects, THAT would be something to get excited about.
Though I’m mostly a Tesla fan, I think the Cybercab as we see it here will flop. It’s the wrong choice of body style for the given stated purpose of the vehicle.
Cool yet unusable car ya got there, Elon! Now go store them for at least a decade before they’ll be allowed on the roads, at which point the cost per vehicle will no doubt double.
I will say I don’t hate the design. Its a decent looking coupe, though the Honda Prelude concept does it better.
I do think its terrible for its intended purpose.
Might as well pile on, but let’s just get the biggest laugher out of the way…..
UNDER $30k?! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. And Trump is going to make it so no one needs to vote ever again. And the cab is going to have strippers, and blackjack! In fact, forget the cab!
I just think GM/Cruise have such a better approach and vehicles. The Origin is on hold but could hold more people/cargo than the Cybertaxi without being a bus like the Cybervan. They even rolled out a concept for that was essentially a Bolt with no steering wheel or pedals which makes far more sense than this as a taxi. Why couldn’t Tesla just have done the same thing with the Model Y? It would’ve been a much better taxi imo
Let’s talk about the congestion caused by empty robotaxi’s circling the block waiting for their customers to finish their Starbucks.
Renting out your car as a robotaxi when you aren’t using it sounds like a great way to cover your car payment. No one talks about cleaning. If someone leaves trash and their lunch crumbs in there, does it detect that and bring into to you office so you can go out and give it a quick vacuum? What if you send it out for the bar rush and folks deposit any number of body fluids… Does it come home and wake you up for a wipe down? You would never run an AirBnB that way, why do we expect to operate a robotaxi business without the overhead?
More vaporware to boost Elon’s gofundme, I mean Tesla stock.
Thankfully its down $20 a share this morning.
“Tesla showed approximately 50 of the autonomous vehicles at the event.”
“AND I WANT A PROTOTYPE FOR THE EVENT. NO MAKE THAT 50! THAT WILL SHOW PEOPLE WE ARE SERIOUS!”
how much you wanna bet that 45 of those units were barely functional and probably didnt even have seats
Uninspired and downright illogical. What does a taxi need? Room for people and accessibility for the mobility challenged. What does a taxi NOT need? A huge hatchback trunk and lambo doors.
Agreed. If I was building an autonomous cab it would have a ton more room than that. Optimially I’d build it with a wide enough flat floor and a tall enough roof to allow people in wheelchairs to get it without having to get out of their chair, along with a slide out ramp, however that seems very feasable for the robovan they showed.
However $30K for an autonomous vehicle that makes money for you seems like a pretty good deal, IF they can pull it off.
Don’t you understand? Investors are all lizard people, so any design feature that reeks of an understanding of the human condition lowers share price!
The market case for a fleet of privately owned Cybercabs is baffling. We’ll sell you the hardware to make massive profits with no work on your end (which will definitely happen), you just need to take on all the startup costs, operational costs, and legal liabilities.
If it’s such a guaranteed win thats coming very very soon, why aren’t they opening a cab division or a partnership with an existing company?
My biggest fear is these are a way of bilking transit agencies out of cash like the hyperloop vaporware.
Yes, Tesla has not been good to transit. Also see Boring Company.
They have the potential to mitigate some of that by providing a range of vehicles that transit agencies could operate (cleaning, maintenance, charging). However, bus drivers are the hardest working folks out there as they drive, take fares, and act as security. Either we replace drivers with security guards on autonomous buses with little net benefit or we use the Tesla solution which it probably a robot with a Taser.
I worked for an aircraft cabin supplier a few years ago and we made a pretty detailed and researched mockup for Uber when they were pushing their air taxi concept. What you wrote above describes their working intent for it almost perfectly (aside from individual ownership). Uber wanted to create a brand new aircraft type and have it fly all over places out of a brand new type of facility. But they had no intention of owning ANY of it. Not the aircraft. Not the “vertiports”. Nothing but the app and algorithm that put people in cars/scooters/aircraft to go somewhere for a fee. All that other, really hard shit was for someone else to develop, make, own, and operate.
This guy has been saying full self driving is 2 years away for over a decade now. It’s always 2 years, every single time.
Next up, the Tesla Cyberplane flying car, NASA’s return to the moon, and a manned Mars mission.