Elon Musk unveils Tesla’s Robotaxi and Robovan

• Elon Musk just unveiled Tesla’s Robotaxi at the company’s “We, Robot” event in Los Angeles.

• They are expected to cost less than $30,000.

• In addition to the two-door cabin, it also announced the Robovan, a 20-passenger shuttle.

Tesla’s long-awaited Robotaxi has finally been revealed.

Elon Musk showed off Tesla’s upcoming driverless taxi in his “We, Robot” Thursday evening.

The presentation took place at the Warner Bros. Film Studio. Discovery in Burbank, California. The location allowed Tesla to show off its self-driving capabilities without encountering any unexpected situations with traffic.

Musk entered the event in a sleek-looking silver Robotaxi, an upward-opening two-door vehicle with butterfly-style doors. The Robotaxi, also known as the Cybercab, took Musk for a ride around the lot before heading out to kick off the event.

Musk said the Robotaxi has no steering wheel or pedals and doesn’t need to be plugged in. Instead, he said the electric vehicle relies on inductive charging and simply has to drive over the charger to charge.

Musk said that Tesla had at least 20 Cybercabs and that there were 50 fully autonomous vehicles at the event, some of which were already driving without people.

Musk said Tesla would have unsupervised fully autonomous vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y, on the road in California and Texas next year and that the Cybercab would be in production by 2027. However, Musk himself point out his tendency to be optimistic about deadlines. , regularly delivering products later than originally estimated.

He also said Cybercabs would be available for purchase. They are expected to cost less than $30,000.

Tesla provided more details in a post on X, announcing that the Robotaxi service would have no driver fees and that the fully autonomous vehicles would use cameras alone, rather than radar or lidar equipment. The company also said that customers could call the Robotaxi once and use it for as long as needed, whether for a short trip or for a full day.

Musk didn’t share many specifics about the technology behind the Robotaxis or the safety features. Tesla has come under scrutiny in the past for the safety of its driver assistance systems.

Tesla also announced the Robovan, a large shuttle van that Musk said could seat up to 20 people.

Musk also touted Optimus, a humanoid robot that he said would cost between $28,000 and $30,000, but did not share a timeline for when the robot will be available.

“I think this is going to be the biggest product ever, of any kind,” Musk said, adding, “I think everyone is going to want their Optimus friend.”

At the end of the presentation, several of the robots danced on stage with a light show.

In a post on X before the reveal, Musk said Tesla created a “futuristic world” on the studio lot, sharing photos from a flyer from the event. The photos included a map showing four separate areas that had been assigned titles that included “TSLA Theater,” “New York,” “Metropolis” and “Westworld.” The flyer said guests could visit the various zones for things like Texas barbecue, arcade games and a block party complete with street performers.

The event got off to a late start, starting nearly an hour later than expected, which Musk said in an X post was due to someone in the crowd having a medical emergency.

The reveal was also streamed live on X, Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and had more than 3 million viewers at one point.

The unveiling of Tesla’s latest vehicle is a major milestone for the company and has been highly anticipated for years. Tesla originally planned to unveil the Robotaxi in August, but pushed back the date because Musk requested a “major design change on the front end” of the vehicle, he wrote in a post on his social media platform, X. He also said the “extra” time” would allow the company to “showcase some other things.”

Tesla’s CEO has said that achieving full autonomy is key to Tesla’s future success.

“Tesla’s value is overwhelmingly autonomy,” Musk told investors in July.

Musk, in the past decade, has made repeated predictions about when the technology, which also faces regulatory hurdles, will be ready. Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance software is widely available, but the optional full self-driving upgrade is still considered beta software and requires constant human supervision and a willingness to take over the driving. In 2016, Musk said during a press call that a Tesla vehicle would drive autonomously from Los Angeles to New York City in 2017. In 2019, the billionaire said at a conference that Tesla would have a million Robotaxis in the road in 2020. In 2022, the timeline moved to 2023.

Despite Musk’s optimistic outlook, Tesla’s self-driving technology has faced significant challenges and regulatory scrutiny. A recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating hundreds of crashes involving Autopilot, which resulted in 29 fatalities.

While previous Tesla vehicles have Level 2 autonomy, Alphabet-owned Waymo, which has partnered with Uber, has reached Level 4 autonomy, meaning the vehicle can drive without anyone behind the wheel in some cities in the United States.

Some analysts don’t expect a fully autonomous Robotaxis for several more years. Meanwhile, regulatory approval of Robotaxi and its fully unsupervised autonomous driving technology will be a major hurdle Tesla will have to overcome in the coming months and years.

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