Tesla, as it does every so often, revealed a bunch of allegedly autonomous stuff at its “We, Robot” event last night in Los Angeles. Here’s everything CEO Elon Musk trotted out, and when he said you should expect to see them.
Cybercab
First up is the Cybercab, a two-door coupe robotaxi that Tesla billed as “premium point-to-point transportation”—or, as Musk put it, “individualized mass transit.” This vehicle has a claimed running cost of 20 cents per mile or “30 to 40 cents a mile” if you account for the purchase price, including taxes. Musk said he “expects the cost to be below $30,000.” Style-wise, it looks a bit like a Polestar 6 with funkier proportions, butterfly doors, and cymbals for wheels. Being allegedly fully autonomous, the Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals. It also apparently features cordless, inductive charging and therefore no traditional EV charge port.
As for the whole “self-driving” thing, as it pertains to existing Tesla products, the line from Musk is now “We do expect to start fully autonomous, unsupervised FSD in Texas and California next year. And that’s with the Model 3 and Model Y.
“And we expect to be in production with the Cybercab in probably—well, I tend to be a little optimistic with the timeframes—in 2026. So, yeah. Before 2027, let me put it that way,” Musk told the crowd with a sly twinkle in his eye.
Credit to the Tesla boss for at least acknowledging his own track record of blowing self-imposed deadlines. Nevertheless, take that “before 2027” release date for the Cybercab for everything that it’s worth.
Robovan
The real showstopper, however, would probably be the Robovan: essentially a futuristic bus Musk insisted on pronouncing with an emphasis on the second syllable for some reason. (Aha! Very unique, Elon! How subversive!)
Intended for when “you need a vehicle that’s bigger than a Model Y,” the ruh-BOW-vin looks like a giant Dyson vacuum attachment and can carry up to 20 people. In a commercial application, it could also be used to transport goods. The quoted running cost for this one is “5 to 10 cents a mile” and as the Robo- name suggests, Tesla claimed that it can drive itself.
“We’re going to make this. And it’s going to look like that,” said Musk.
Optimus
Not satisfied with just cars, taxis, and buses, Tesla apparently built a robot. Named “Optimus,” Tesla closed out its presentation with a whole gang of these walking out on their own. Musk billed it as “your own personal R2-D2 C-3PO” and claimed a “long-term” price of $20,000 to $30,000.
“It’ll take us a minute to get to the ‘long term,’ but fundamentally, at scale, you should be able to buy an Optimus robot for about $20,000 to $30,000,” Musk told the crowd.
He also said that Optimus will “do anything you want.”
“It can be a teacher, babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks,” Musk added. “Whatever you can think of, it will do. And, yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. I think this will be the biggest product, ever, of any kind.” Unlike the products on wheels, the CEO gave no release date for Optimus’ availability. In July, he said Tesla will begin cranking them out for “low production internal use” next year, per TechCrunch.
As always with Tesla, take all of these revealed products and their alleged capabilities, running costs, and timelines with helpings of salt. If you want to watch their unveilings in real-time, the entirety of the event is embedded below.
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