More from Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi rollout: the biggest news and announcements
Interestingly, the UX seems to prioritize video streaming over any kind of trip visualization. Tesla seems to think people would rather watch movies than be assured their driverless car can see other cars and pedestrians. (They’re probably right, too.)
Elon Musk promised a brighter future, but believing him requires an enormous leap of faith.
Tesla shares are trading down as much as six percent premarket, a few hours after digesting the Cybercabs and ruBOvehns.
It’s wearing a cowboy hat, for some reason.
Lots to parse. A few surprises. But as we’ve said before, the robotaxis are operating in a highly controlled setting and none of this is guaranteed to launch when Musk predicts it will. So stay tuned.
The bots will be mingling with guests at the event, Musk says, who implores his guests to “be nice” to the robots.
Elon is putting the emphasis on the “bo” in robovan, so I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying at first. But yeah, it’s obviously not a conventional looking van.
Tesla’s Robovan is the surprise of the night
The robotaxi will charge wirelessly through an inductive charger, Musk says. Tesla has long teased wireless charging for its EVs.
This is becoming a running theme with Musk: the idea that the unused compute power of millions of idle Tesla vehicles could be used like Amazon’s cloud service business. Of course, it’s not that easy.
Elon says he plans on starting fully autonomous Model 3 and Model Y trips in Texas and California “next year.” Cybercab won’t go into production until “2026... before 2027.”
Cheers as Musk says the cost will be “below $30,000.” Take that with a huge grain of salt.
Elon selling autonomous cars as a time saver, which is a very familiar argument for anyone who has been paying attention to the AV industry.
Elon gets in. It’s driving him through the film lot. There are 20 of them on the lot, and another 30 driverless Model Ys.
