Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s long-anticipated self-driving taxi, the Tesla Cybercab, during a special showcase event in Hollywood on Thursday night, teasing several other high-tech projects in the process. During the glitzy event, marketed as “We, Robot,” Musk demonstrated the features of the sleek two-seater Cybercab, then surprised attendees by debuting the 20-seater Robovan—all while the newest generation of humanoid Optimus robots served drinks and mingled with guests.
“The autonomous future is here,” Musk said after being shuttled on stage by a Cybercab. “We have 50 fully autonomous cars here tonight. You’ll see model Ys and the Cybercab. All driverless.”
According to the Tesla CEO, the Cybercabs, which do not feature steering wheels or pedals, will be rolled out “before 2027” and be available for $30,000 apiece with an operating cost of 20 cents per mile. However, he also acknowledged Tesla’s previous unkept promises about breakthroughs in driverless vehicle technology, admitting that he tends “to be a little optimistic with time frames.”
The concept of the Cybercab was first pitched in 2019, but constant delays have prevented a public demo until now.
JUST IN: Elon Musk introduces the 'CyberCab,' an autonomous car that can drive people by itself.
Musk says anyone will be able to buy the CyberCab and owners could manage a fleet of "robotic taxis" that can drive people around.
The CyberCab will be priced around $30,000 and… pic.twitter.com/DlwcqQReUL
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 11, 2024
Musk also promised that the Model 3 and Model Y would operate without driver supervision in California and Texas by next year.
“We’ll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving. where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” he said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”
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The Robovan, an alternative to conventional public transit, would run on the same technology. Fewer details were shared about this new vehicle design, but Musk confirmed that neither the Robovan nor the Cybercab were road-ready during the demo, as both still require supervision from a human.
Robotaxi & Robovan pic.twitter.com/pI2neyJBSL
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
“We, Robot” also featured several dozen next-generation Optimus units, with Musk touting them as potential butlers, babysitters, and best friends.
Optimus is your personal R2D2 / C3PO, but better
It will also transform physical labor in industrial settings pic.twitter.com/iCET3a9pd8
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
“So what can it do? It’ll be able to do anything you want,” Musk told the crowd. “So it can be a teacher or babysit your kids. It can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks, whatever you can think of, it will do. I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind.”
With remote assistance from a human operator, one bot dressed in a cowboy hat and apron served as a bartender during the event, while other autonomous units showed off dance moves and played rock-paper-scissors with attendees.
Optimus just made me a drink pic.twitter.com/Pn9hfhrFDi
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) October 11, 2024
Musk anticipates that Optimus units will be available for less than the average price of a car—between $20,000 and $30,000—by the time of their commercial release.
However, despite the glamour of the event, investors seemed less than impressed by Musk’s vague timelines for the AI-powered product rollouts.
During morning trading on Friday, Tesla shares fell by 7%. Analysts indicated that, while “We, Robot” successfully showed off Musk’s vision for the future of Tesla, it did little to present near-term opportunities for investors.
“Musk did a fantastic job of painting an ideal future for transportation that promises to both free up our time and increase safety,” wrote Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at car research site Edmunds, after the event. “But many questions remain about how this will be achieved from a practical standpoint.”
Connor Walcott is the lead writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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