Tesla robotaxi with steering wheel and pedals would be 'pointless' – Elon Musk

10/24/2024 11:08 PM

Elon Musk has slammed the door shut on building a $US25,000 [$AU37,500] version of the autonomous Tesla Cybercab with a steering wheel and pedals, after years of speculation.

Cheaper Tesla models are on track for launch next year, but they will not be based on the radical architecture of the driverless Cybercab ‘robotaxi’ planned for 2026 deliveries.

“I think having a regular $[US]25K model is pointless. It would be silly. It would be completely at odds with what we believe,” Musk said on an investor earnings call earlier this week.

While Musk’s quotes have been interpreted as ruling out any form of $US25,000 [$AU37,500] Tesla with a steering wheel and pedals, his comments were delivered in the context of designing the Cybercab exclusively for autonomous driving.

MORE: Tesla Cybercab autonomous electric robotaxi revealed

“If you try to make a car that is essentially a hybrid, manual, automatic car, it’s not going to be as good as a dedicated autonomous car,” Musk added.

“So, yes, Cybercab is just not going to have steering wheels and pedals.

“What we designed is optimized for autonomy. It will cost in the order of … roughly $25K, so it is a $25K car. And you will be able to buy one exclusively if you want. It just won’t have steering wheels and pedals.”

More affordable Tesla models have been confirmed for the first half of 2025, but they will be based on existing architectures – and manufactured on current production lines.

It remains to be seen how much these vehicles cost, and if they can hit the $US25,000 price floated by Musk.

MORE: Cheaper Tesla electric car on track for next year

The Cybercab will instead debut a ‘next-generation’ platform, as well as a radical ‘unboxed’ manufacturing method which would make it half as expensive to build as a Model 3.

A conventional version of the robotaxi has been discussed since 2020 – or even earlier – when Musk proposed a single compact vehicle that could be offered with or without normal driving controls.

In recent years, however, the plans have grown murky.

A report by news agency Reuters in April claimed Tesla had stopped work on the conventional model to go all-in on the robotaxi, citing sources within the company.

MORE: Tesla's $US25,000 small car axed to go all-in on autonomous taxi – report

Musk quickly shot down the rumour on X (formerly Twitter), accusing Reuters of “lying, again” without specifying why the report was incorrect or – as the definition of lying would suggest – how or why the news agency was attempting to intentionally mislead readers.

In the days that followed, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen warned attendees of a panel discussion to not “always believe everything you read” when asked about the report.

The US car and tech giant has since confirmed plans for more affordable vehicles on existing platforms, which has taken much of the heat away from the discussion over a conventional version of the robotaxi.

A ‘regular’ version of the robotaxi was not in the original plans for the vehicle, as revealed in a biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson – who shadowed the Tesla boss for two years – and published last year.

Musk originally wanted to only produce the autonomous vehicle, but was convinced by von Holzhausen and vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy to play it safe with a variant fitted with human driving controls.

“We want to make sure we are assessing the risk with you,” von Holzhausen reportedly told Musk in a 2022 meeting.

“If we go down a path of having no steering wheel, and FSD [Full Self-Driving] is not ready, we won’t be able to put them on the road … our proposal is to bake them in right now but remove them when we are allowed to.”

Musk is said to have shaken his head, and when assured the driver controls could be “small” and removed “pretty easily”, the outspoken Tesla CEO reportedly said: “No. No. NO … No mirrors, no pedals, no steering wheel. This is me taking responsibility for this decision.”

“Let me be clear. This vehicle must be designed as a clean Robotaxi. We’re going to take that risk. It’s my fault if it f***s up,” he is quoted as saying.

“But we are not going to design some sort of amphibian frog that’s a halfway car. We are all in on autonomy.”

Isaacson writes that Musk was presented with data showing Tesla would need a more affordable car to continue its then-annual growth of 50 per cent – and that the regular version could easily be built on the same production line as the robotaxi.

It was this, combined with a pair of design models – one for the regular small car, and the other for the robotaxi – shown by von Holzhausen in February 2023, that reportedly got Musk over the line.

The CEO claimed to have described the cars as “seeing something from the future,” according to Isaacson’s book.

Video: What a five-door ‘conventional’ Cybercab could look like

The post Tesla robotaxi with steering wheel and pedals would be ‘pointless’ – Elon Musk appeared first on Drive.