From crowd to crowd. Days after its premiere at a political rally with Donald Trump, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, presented Cybercab in style this Thursday. It is an electric car with a futuristic design with two doors that open like wings, without a steering wheel or pedals, a robotaxi with which Tesla wants to revolutionize autonomous driving with the help of artificial intelligence. The demonstration demonstrated little beyond that the prototypes are capable of moving driverlessly along a short closed circuit. It was also found that Elon Musk has taught his robots to dance ―or something similar―.
Musk exhibited the new models and a spectacular limousine bus, Robovan. The head of Tesla assured that the company will begin producing the Cybercabs in 2026 – a period subject to regulatory authorizations – and that their cost will be less than 30,000 dollars (about 27,500 euros at the current exchange rate), although if in the end it does not If so, it would not be the first time that the company has broken a promise in this regard. The robotaxi launch event itself was delayed several months after it ordered changes to the prototype. Musk already formulated his new forecast in a somewhat convoluted way: “Probably, well, I tend to be not very optimistic about deadlines, but in 2026. Before 2027, let me put it this way.”
Cybercabs will cost 20 cents per mile to operate over time. “The cost of autonomous transportation will be so low that it can be considered individualized collective transportation,” he said. The robotaxis will use inductive chargers and will not need plugs. They will also rely solely on cameras and artificial intelligence, without the need for other hardware that robotaxis use.
However, there was a lack of data on production plans, the cost of the models, the expected profitability and other details expected by investors and analysts, who believe that Tesla is betting a large part of its value on the success of this project. product or, in general, in driverless cars. There was also no information on how fully autonomous driving will be achieved. It was more of a conceptual presentation.
Tesla is at risk of recording the first drop in deliveries in its history this year, as purchase incentives have failed to attract enough customers to its range of electric vehicles. Sharp price cuts have also reduced profit margins. The company hopes to launch a new, more affordable model next year to revive demand.
The presentation event, with the name of We, Robot (We, the Robots) took place at the Warner Bros studios in Burbank, on the outskirts of Los Angeles (California) and the staging was like a movie. The event began with a considerable delay, due to a medical emergency of one of the attendees, as Musk explained. More than three million people followed him simultaneously on social network X at some points.
Several of the company’s Optimus robots served as hosts or attractions. Some danced mechanically on top of a glass platform while the music played and others were in the guest area. The cameras focused again and again on someone standing at the bar as if to act as a waiter, but beyond greeting and moving in somewhat absurd ways, they could not be seen finishing serving any drink. It is the product with which Musk wants to earn a billion dollars annually, but clearly there is a long way to go before that.
The star of the night, in any case, was the Cybercab. Musk arrived riding one and praised the virtues of driverless cars. “Most of the time cars do nothing, but if they are autonomous they can be used five times more, maybe 10 times more,” he said. He compared the fact that cars have drivers with the time when elevators had elevator attendants.
“The autonomous future is already here. We have 50 fully autonomous cars here tonight. You will see the model Y and the Cybercab. All without driver. You can get on them. They don’t have steering wheels or pedals, so I hope it goes well,” he joked, and then assured that autonomous cars will be 10 times safer than those driven by humans. Tesla has had safety issues with the self-driving features of its current models.
The entrepreneur has a vision in which the autonomous car is a mix of Uber and Airbnb, in which the driverless car acts as a taxi and vehicle owners can add them to the fleet when they do not need them. Musk’s plan is, therefore, to manage a fleet of self-driving Tesla taxis that passengers can hail through an app. Self-driving car owners will also be able to earn money on the app by offering their vehicles, with Tesla taking a cut of the revenue.
The other prototype presented this Thursday, Robovan, has capacity for 20 people and can be adapted for commercial or personal use, as a school or tourist bus or even as a cargo vehicle, according to the company.
