A taxi without a steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedals, and even without a driver. Those have been on the road since the end of last week in Austin, Texas. Manufacturer and operator Tesla is ultimately aiming for millions of these robotaxis.
Tesla brought the Cybercab into operation on 3 September with an initial fleet of 45 vehicles. The service is available to the public via the Robotaxi app.
The Cybercab service is currently limited to certain areas in Austin. However, Tesla is already offering robotaxi services with Model Y vehicles in six cities: Austin, Dallas and Houston in Texas, and Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida. But these cars do have a steering wheel and pedals.
Reception of the new vehicles has been positive so far.
“What black magic is Tesla pulling to achieve this level of precision with the Cybercab doors?! Genuinely insane,” posted @OwenSparks on X, the social network owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Finally, Musk’s broadband company Starlink Starlink V5 would be integrated directly into Cybercab, delivering “seamless connectivity for vehicle operations and passenger entertainment even in locations with poor or high traffic cellular service”.
Investment firm ARK Invest, which holds a large stake in the carmaker, sees disruptive potential for urban transport in Tesla’s Cybercab. According to ARK’s analysis, by 2030 the autonomous taxi could reach a cost price of about $0.25 to $0.35 per kilometre, compared with roughly $2 per kilometre now. Tesla’s advantage over, for example, Waymo is that the former produces both the vehicles and the AI software itself. As a result, the cost price per kilometre could be 30-40c lower. ARK expects Tesla’s scaled production capacity around 2030 to reach three to 4 million vehicles per year.
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