Elon Musk Unveils $30,000 Tesla Cybercab with 2026 Production, but Details Lacking

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk unveiled a slick two-seat sedan called Cybercab
Elon Musk Showcases Tesla’s Autonomous ‘Robocab’ and ‘Robovan’ as Company Pivots to Robotics

Elon Musk’s unveiling of self-driving taxi prototypes let down some Tesla Inc. investors, with many expecting more particulars on how the carmaker can possibly pull off his latest robocar predictions.

Tesla might currently be riding the failures of the Cybertruck, but the company’s CEO Elon Musk is hoping these futuristic autonomous vehicles might just turn things around.

Tesla Unveils 2-Seater Cybercab That Drives Itself, Price Expected To Be Under $30K: Also Shows Off 20-Seater Robovan To Rival Uber Shuttle

The Tesla chief executive officer unveiled a slick two-seat sedan called Cybercab late Thursday, saying production may start in 2026 and that the vehicle could cost less than $30,000.

Musk hitched a ride in one of the cars on his way to the stage at the automaker’s event in Burbank, California. He also showcased a futuristic-looking Robovan concept that he said could transport as many as 20 people, plus updated versions of Tesla’s humanoid robot, called Optimus.

But the event didn’t address how Tesla will make the leap from selling advanced driver-assistance features to fully autonomous vehicles. Musk’s presentation lacked technical details and glossed over topics including regulation or whether the company will own and operate its own fleet of Cybercabs.

The lack of specifics sent Tesla shares down as much 6.9 per cent before the start of regular trading Friday. The stock had soared almost 70 per cent since mid-April, largely in anticipation of the robotaxi event.

Tesla has a track record of blowing past timelines Musk has offered for all manner of future products, and has had a particularly difficult time following through on his self-driving forecasts. The CEO told investors in 2019 that Tesla would have more than 1 million robotaxis on the road by the following year. The company hasn’t deployed a single autonomous vehicle in the years since.

“The only specific was the US$30,000 for a Cybercab,” said Nancy Tengler, the chief executive of Laffer Tengler Investments and a Tesla investor who attended the event. “The concepts were all grand. Is the idea super cool? Absolutely.”

Tesla has for years been selling a suite of features it’s marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD, that require constant supervision and don’t make its vehicles autonomous.

Musk said Thursday the company expects to be able to allow Model 3 and Model Y owners in Texas and California to no longer need to supervise those features sometime next year. While the CEO offered a rough sense of when the Cybercab may be ready, he didn’t say when Tesla will make the Robovan.

“Investors we spoke to at the event thought the event was light of real numbers and timelines,” Tom Narayan, an RBC Capital Markets who rates Tesla the equivalent of a hold, said in a note. “We would expect shares to trade lower.”

The robotaxi event itself was postponed by two months after Musk ordered changes to the prototype’s design, Bloomberg first reported in July. The Cybercab features doors that open upward like butterfly wings and lacks a steering wheel or pedals.

“They nailed the form factor,” said Gene Munster, managing partner of growth-investment firm Deepwater Asset Management, who went for a ride in one of the prototypes. “But the investor reaction is probably going to be muted because it’s still a long ways away, in terms of the time frame.”

Musk told the crowd gathered at a Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. movie studio lot that consumers will be able to buy the Cybercab, then offered a hedged answer when an attendee asked when it will be available.

“Probably, well I tend to be little optimistic on time frames, but in 2026,” Musk said. “Before 2027, let me put it that way.”

Trump’s Skepticism

United States presidential candidate Donald Trump provided fresh indication of the potential for Tesla’s robotaxi to run into regulatory snags in the lead up to Tesla’s party.

Speaking at a Detroit Economic Club event, the Republican nominee questioned whether anybody likes autonomous vehicles and said they were “concerning” to him. It was unclear from his remarks whether he was only singling out cars from China.

“The autonomous vehicles, we’re going to stop from operating on American roads, remember this,” Trump said. Musk endorsed Trump for president in July and has been spending millions of dollars supporting his candidacy.

Missing Models

Analysts said ahead of the event that they hoped Tesla would share additional information about the more affordable models Musk has teased for the first half of next year.

The CEO didn’t offer any such updates, casting further doubt on the company’s vehicle sales prospects. The carmaker needs to deliver a record number of cars and trucks in the coming months to avoid its first ever annual decline.

“We were disappointed by the lack of detail regarding Tesla’s near-term product roadmap,” Garrett Nelson, a CFRA Research analyst, said in a note. “We think the event did little to change an opaque intermediate-term earnings outlook.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the unveiling date of the Robotaxi a few months ago. The automaker originally planned to reveal the next-gen smaller vehicle Robotaxi prototype on 8th August.

Last week, Bloomberg cited its unidentified inside sources at Tesla (TSLA) that the company has delayed the Robotaxi unveiling. According to the Bloomberg report, the automaker delayed the Robotaxi reveal event from August to October.

At the time this information leaked out, there was no official confirmation from Tesla on the matter. Later on, Tesla’s Elon Musk confirmed the news of the delay and also provided the reasoning behind it.

However, Musk or any other Tesla official channel has given the next tentative timeline for the Robotaxi reveal. It should be expected in 2024 and if Bloomberg is correct, it might be October after all.

The delay of the much anticipated Robotaxi reveal event is not without a reason of course. Elon Musk took to his social media platform X to explain why this coveted event was postponed.

Musk responded to a video on X that claimed that the Bloomberg/Dana Hull story about the 2-month delay was a bit misleading. Warren Redlich claimed that according to his sources, the delay was because of an engineering change that Elon Musk asked for during a big meeting at Tesla.

In his response to Warren’s video, Elon Musk confirmed that he asked for a design change to the front of the vehicle. This perhaps happened because Musk had a eureka moment during or before the big meeting. Otherwise, Tesla designers and engineers were ready to showcase the Robotaxi (Cybercab) prototype to the world.

“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” Elon Musk stated.

Of course, a change to the design of a high-tech next-gen vehicle isn’t just a simple design change to a clay model. This will also require changes to the engineering aspects of the vehicle as well.

According to Warren’s sources at Tesla, one of the lead engineers said that this change to the Robotaxi design will take around 2 months. To which Musk replied, “Just do it as fast as you can”.

Interestingly, Tesla already leaked a few glimpses of the interior of the Robotaxi aka Cybercab in an official video in May. However, the change Musk has asked for most probably won’t affect the interior of the Tesla Robotaxi.

Until the design change is finished, Tesla will also have the new Full Self-Driving (FSD) software version 12.5 launched and tested as well. So, this will also allow the automaker to better demonstrate the Robotaxi features.

According to rumors and various reports, Tesla is going to build multiple prototypes of the Robotaxi, hence another possible reason for the delay.

ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood reacted positively to the news of the delay of the Robotaxi unveiling. She thinks that this delay will result in a more impactful event in October (possibly before or after).

That just tells me, that, we’re probably getting closer to this Robotaxi opportunity — not further away. He wants to show us something more — I think awe-inspiring then we might have seen on August 8th and he believes this is possible by October.

Cathie Wood on Bloomberg TV

Video: Cathie Wood gives her opinion about the delay of the Tesla Robotaxi.