At a private, closed-door event in Austin, Texas today, Tesla officially launched its gilded car of the future: the Cybercab. It’s a huge milestone for Elon Musk, who has been hyping the imminent arrival of driverless cars for years and has bet the future of his company on AI, autonomous vehicles, and humanoid robots.
It was an unusually muted event, with no livestream, no journalists, and a very short invite list comprised mostly of pro-Tesla content creators. Tesla influencers planning live shows with the event stream were left streaming the webpage that tracks the number of Tesla robotaxis in Texas instead.
But if the goal was to blunt criticism, it didn’t work. Invitee Chuck Cook said the company had him sign an NDA and agreed to an embargo requiring to wait to post content until after the event was over.
On X, pro-Tesla accounts who weren’t invited grumbled about the decision; Not a Tesla App accused the company of “dropping the ball.” As of this week, Tesla has 45 Cybercab vehicles registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles — though its not clear how many will be put into commercial service right away.
Several vehicles were made available to Tesla influencers in Austin for content creation; the company has been testing them in various cities for months now. Tesla also launched a new website for its Robotaxi service, which includes the rules for riding in the new vehicle.
For example, children under the age of 13 are currently banned from riding in the Cybercab. Several videos were posted, highlighting the interior, crash test worthiness, and accessibility.
) With the new Cybercabs, Tesla now has 256 unsupervised autonomous vehicles in operation across six cities, according to Robotaxi Tracker. By comparison, Alphabet’s Waymo is currently operating approximately 4,000 vehicles across 14 cities.
But there were still many lingering questions about the Cybercab. Two years ago, Musk said the two-seater would be available for purchase, perhaps for a price as low as $30,000.
But the company still has yet say when the Cybercab would go on sale. There is a new online form for those interested in “future Robotaxi opportunities,” such as purchasing a fleet of Cybercabs or building “mobility hubs and infrastructure.”
For the past year, Tesla has been operating a robotaxi service in Texas and Florida using several dozen modified Model Y vehicles, some of which are supervised by human safety drivers and some of which are not. With the introduction of the Cybercab, the company is embarking on a risky new phase that will pit Musk’s stripped-down, less costly approach to autonomy against more established players like Waymo.
