Tesla Launches Its Cybercab Robotaxi — Quietly and Without the Press

Elon Musk has spent years promising the imminent arrival of self-driving cars, effectively betting the company's future on them alongside artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. And now, in Austin, Texas, Tesla has officially launched the Cybercab — a two-seat robocar with no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors, one that navigates using eight cameras and none of the radar and lidar that other robotaxis rely on.

What stands out is just how quiet this supposedly landmark moment turned out to be. The event was held behind closed doors: no livestream, no journalists, and a very short guest list made up mostly of Tesla-friendly bloggers. Influencers who had planned to run their own broadcasts on top of the official stream ended up broadcasting a web page with a counter of robotaxis registered in Texas. The guests, by their own account, were made to sign a nondisclosure agreement, while fans who weren't invited grumbled on social media that the company had “missed the moment.”

The numbers and the oddities

As of this week Tesla had registered 45 Cybercabs in Texas, though how many of them will actually hit the road is unclear. With the new additions, the company has brought its self-driving fleet to 256 vehicles across six cities — for comparison, Alphabet's Waymo has around 4,000 vehicles in 14 cities.

Tesla has also launched a Robotaxi service site with ride rules: children under 13, for example, aren't allowed to ride in a Cybercab yet. The published clips advertised the interior, crash tests and accessibility — and the accessibility video came out especially puzzling: a person in a wheelchair gets up on their own, folds it up and stows it away.

The old promises

There are still more questions than answers. Two years ago Musk was talking about a Cybercab priced at something like $30,000, but the company still hasn't named a sales launch date — there's only an online form for anyone looking to buy an entire fleet or build “transportation hubs.”

The track record of promises is impressive too. Musk claimed that by the end of 2025 half the U.S. population would have access to robotaxis — today that's six cities in Texas and Florida. Back in 2016 he promised that every new Tesla came equipped with everything needed for autonomous driving, but he later had to walk that back. The paid Full Self-Driving feature, at $99 a month, is still a Level 2 system that requires constant driver supervision.

Fans will call the launch historic, and investors seem to agree: the stock ticked up. Analysts consider robotaxis one of the main justifications for the company's $1.18 trillion valuation — against the backdrop of slowing EV sales under pressure from competitors, above all those from China.

Source: The Verge