Elon Musk reveals his 'Cybercab' robotaxi
Elon Musk unveiled Tesla Inc.’s highly anticipated self-driving taxi at a flashy event that was light on specifics, sending its stock sliding as investors questioned how the carmaker will achieve its ambitious goals.
The chief executive officer showed off prototypes of a slick two-door sedan called the Cybercab late Thursday, along with a van concept and an updated version of Tesla’s humanoid robot. The robotaxi — which has no steering wheel or pedals — could cost less than $30,000 and “probably” will go into production in 2026, Musk said.
Musk said Thursday that Teslas with FSD would be able to operate wherever state regulators would allow without human intervention, predicting that would occur in California and Texas by next year. And he also unveiled the Cybercab, a vehicle without steering wheel or accelerator or brake pedals which is specifically designed to carry passengers without a driver present, which he said should be in production by 2026.
"We'll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving, where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination," Musk said. "It's going to be a glorious future."
He said the Robocab, unlike other electric vehicles, would have no plug but would be charged by driving over a charging plate. And he also showed a larger vehicle that he said could carry up to 20 passengers or goods, which he called a “Robovan,” although he gave no timeframe for the introduction of that vehicle.
The planned robotaxi service would not only compete with services from Uber and Lyft that use human drivers but with other driverless services now being tested by companies like Google’s Waymo.
The underwhelming event sent Tesla’s shares tumbling as much as 10% Friday in New York, the biggest intraday decline in more than two months. They were down 7.6% at 12:29 p.m., wiping out $58 billion in market value. The stock had soared almost 70% since mid-April, largely in anticipation of the event.
