Abstract:
Tesla officially launched its gold-plated future car, Cybercab, at a private closed-door event in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. This is a major milestone for Elon Musk. He has been hyping the imminent arrival of self-driving cars for years and has bet the company's future on AI, self-driving cars and humanoid robots.
Tesla officially launches driverless taxi Cybercab
However, this event was unusually low-key: Since there was no live broadcast, the Tesla-supporting X account could only live broadcast a webpage tracking the number of Tesla self-driving taxis in Texas. As with last year's self-driving taxi launch, the invite list was mainly made up of pro-Tesla influencers to minimize outside criticism of its new product.
Invitee Chuck Cook said that Tesla required him to sign a confidentiality agreement and agree to a media ban, and he must wait until the event is over before releasing relevant content. On X, uninvited pro-Tesla accounts criticized the decision. The Not a Tesla App account accused the company of "serious mistakes."
"Tesla did not broadcast the Cybercab event tonight, which is a serious mistake," the Not a Tesla App account posted on
Not a Tesla App said not live streaming was a mistake
Some netizens commented below: "Many people deliberately spared time to watch this event. Tesla completely restricted the event to the so-called Internet celebrity group, which is disrespectful to us."
As of this week, Tesla has registered 45 Cybercabs with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, but it is unclear how many of them will be put into commercial operation immediately. Tesla provided several Cybercabs to some Tesla influencers in Austin for use in producing related content. The company has been testing the vehicles in several cities for several months. Tesla has also launched a new website for its Robotaxi service, which outlines the rules for riding in the new vehicle. For example, children under 13 are currently prohibited from riding on Cybercab.
In addition, Tesla has also released multiple videos focusing on Cybercab’s interior, crash test performance and accessibility features. The accessibility video is particularly puzzling: in the video, a wheelchair user actually stood up and folded and stored his wheelchair himself.
According to data from Robotaxi Tracker, plus the newly put into operation Cybercab, Tesla currently has a total of 256 self-driving cars operating in 6 cities without human supervision. By comparison, Alphabet's Waymo currently operates about 4,000 self-driving vehicles in 14 cities.
However, there are still many unanswered questions about Cybercab. Two years ago, Musk said the two-seat model would be available for purchase, possibly for as little as $30,000. But so far, Tesla has not announced when Cybercab will go on sale. Tesla's official website now has a new online form for people interested in "future Robotaxi business opportunities," such as purchasing a Cybercab fleet or building "travel hubs and infrastructure."
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