Tesla Cybercab autonomous electric robotaxi revealed

10/10/2024 11:00 PM

Tesla has unveiled a futuristic autonomous electric car without a steering wheel or pedals due to hit US roads in 2026 – but it is many more years away from Australia.

The Cybercab is a small two-seat coupe – with supercar-style doors – which will be charged wirelessly, and use a more advanced version of Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ technology that does not need human supervision.

Tesla claims it will sell the Cybercab to the public for less than $US30,000 for private use – 30 per cent less than the brand’s cheapest car today – and promises running costs up to 80 per cent lower than a human-driven car.

The US tech giant envisions a fleet of Cybercabs used for ride-sharing services – owned in-house or by private operators – which can be hailed through the Tesla app.

In its current form, Tesla Full Self-Driving software requires an attentive driver behind the wheel, ready to take over from the car at any time.

From 2025, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims it will evolve to an ‘unsupervised’ variant – befitting of its name – which will let passengers sit back without needing to be ready to take back control of the car.

The unsupervised software will initially be offered in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Texas and California, Musk said, before it is added to the Cybercab, which is promised to enter production “by 2027”.

He claimed Full Self-Driving in the robotaxi will become “10 times safer than a human” – and will allow users “to get [their] time back”, rather than sitting in traffic or searching for a parking spot.

The Cybercab’s estimated $US30,000 price would make it 30 per cent cheaper than its current most affordable car – the $AU54,900 Model 3 – thanks to a new production method claimed to halve manufacturing costs.

Given a US launch for the vehicle is two years away – and even the supervised variant of Full Self-Driving is not available in Australia – it will be a long time before the Cybercab or its software is sold in Australia.

The Australian Government is currently working through laws to allow the sale and use of autonomous vehicles on local roads, but they remain in the development stage.

“The Model 3 and Y will achieve unsupervised Full Self-Driving with permission where regulators approve it, in the US and then following outside the US,” Musk said.

Alongside the Cybercab, Tesla unveiled a concept for a new autonomous electric bus – with space for 20 people, or goods transport – and an updated version of its ‘Optimus’ human-like robot.

Clear inspiration has been drawn from the Cybertruck to create the new electric robotaxi, which wears a brushed stainless steel finish, and supercar-like doors.

Photos released by Tesla show a large luggage area with space for multiple suitcases, as well as futuristic wheel covers to boost driving range.

Inside, there is just one display – a large touchscreen controlling all vehicle functions, from music, video calls and air conditioning to the car’s planned route – and two seats trimmed in a leather-look material.

No specifications of the Cybercab have been published, beyond the estimated $US30,000 ($AU44,000) price.

Tesla is aiming the car at private operators, who could buy and run a fleet of the autonomous vehicles ferrying passengers around large cities.

“I think there will be an interesting business model where somebody is an Uber or Lyft driver today, [and] where they can manage a fleet of cars – 10, 20 cars – and just take care of them, like a shepherd tends to their flock,” Musk said on the global reveal live-stream.

“It’s going to be a glorious future.”

Customers will be able to call the Cybercab from a future interface in the Tesla app.

The Cybercab is believed to be underpinned by Tesla’s “next-generation” vehicle platform, which will use a new manufacturing method claimed to make its beneficiaries half as expensive to build as a Model 3.

Rather than assembling the body of a vehicle first, and fitting the interior and battery later on the production line, sections of the vehicle (front, rear, sides and interior) would be constructed as complete assemblies first – before bringing them together at the end of the line to finish the car.

The robotaxi was originally planned to spawn a conventional version with a steering wheel and pedals, built on the same radical production line.

However, it has reportedly been scrapped in favour of new Tesla models based on its existing vehicles, which can be cheaper than today’s offerings but manufactured on the same production line.

“We’ll make this vehicle in very high volume,” Musk said of the Cybercab.

Powering the Full Self-Driving software in the autonomous car will be a suite of next-generation cameras, rather than the more expensive lidar sensors used in many other robotaxi competitors.

All Tesla vehicles in production today exclusively use cameras for all computer-assisted driving functions, from the semi-autonomous driving software to the parking sensors.

Musk said Tesla intends to “over-spec the computer” in the Cybercab – and when the vehicle is not in use, the company could sell access to the car’s computing power for other tasks.

“If the car’s driving for 50 hours a week, there’s still over 100 hours left, and there’s potential there to have a massive amount of distributed inference compute … you might as well use it,” he said.

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