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Elon Musk has unveiled Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi, which he claims will revolutionise personal transport.
The Tesla Cybercab was unveiled at an event in California on Thursday evening alongside a prototype for a 20-seater Robovan, both of which ditch conventional controls like steering wheels and pedals in favour of a fully-autonomous driving experience.
Mr Musk, who serves as Tesla’s chief executive and the company’s largest shareholder, expressed confidence in the progress the electric car firm has made on autonomous driving technology in recent years, though said the Cybercab would not be available before 2026.
Tesla began selling the autonomous software, which is called Full Self-Driving, nine years ago but there are doubts about its reliability.
“We’ll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving. where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” Mr Musk said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”
Tesla expects the Cybercabs to cost under $30,000 (£23,000), with the company expecting to make the Full Self-Driving technology available on its popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Texas and California next year.
At the presentation, which was dubbed ‘We, Robot’, Mr Musk rode in the Cybercab and showed off a working Robovan carrying passengers.
The unveiling of the Cybercab comes as the tech billionaire tries to persuade investors that his company is more about artificial intelligence and robotics as it struggles to sell its core products, an ageing line-up of electric vehicles.
Tesla’s model line-up is not likely to be refreshed until late next year at the earliest, investment bank TD Cowen analyst Jeff Osborne wrote last week.
Mr Osborne also noted that, in TD Cowen’s view, the “politicisation of Elon” is tarnishing the Tesla brand among Democrat buyers in the US.
Mr Musk has endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and has pushed many conservative causes. Last weekend he joined Mr Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
The Tesla and X owner has been saying for more than five years that a fleet of robotaxis is near, allowing Tesla owners to make money by having their cars carry passengers while they are not in use by the owners.
But he has acknowledged that past predictions for the use of autonomous driving proved too optimistic. In 2019, he promised the fleet of autonomous vehicles by the end of 2020.
“I tend to be optimistic with time frames,” Mr Musk said during the latest event.
Additional reporting from agencies.
