Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi event: the biggest news and announcements

Filed under:

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a prototype of the company’s first fully driverless vehicle tonight during its long-awaited robotaxi event. The new vehicle is dubbed the Cybercab, and Tesla let guests at the event ride around in them at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California. The night’s surprise, however, was a brand-new “Robovan” transport vehicle that can be configured as “mass transit” or a cargo carrier.

For years, Musk has been promising that a driverless Tesla vehicle was just “two years away.” Many delays later, Musk has shown fans and investors something. Their reaction to the “We, Robot” event will be a referendum on whether Musk can deliver real self-driving technology that can compete with robotaxi companies like Waymo and Cruise.

You can find out more about what Tesla announced at the event with our live coverage below.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Interestingly, the UX seems to prioritize video streaming over any kind of trip visualization. Tesla seems to think people would rather watch movies than be assured their driverless car can see other cars and pedestrians. (They’re probably right, too.)

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Tesla CEO Elon Musk could have taken the stage at last night’s “We, Robot” event and put a lot of fears to rest.

He could have released comprehensive safety data for the company’s Full Self-Driving feature that showed real progress for the driver-assist feature, contradicting all the crowdsourced data that’s out there making FSD look truly awful.

Oct 11

Thomas Ricker

Tesla shares are trading down as much as six percent premarket, a few hours after digesting the Cybercabs and ruBOvehns.

Oct 11

Jay Peters

Check out our video highlighting the most important parts.

Oct 11

Jay Peters

One called Elon the “Technoking.”

Oct 11

Jay Peters

Why didn’t Tesla call it the Cybervan?

Oct 11

Jay Peters

It’s wearing a cowboy hat, for some reason.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Lots to parse. A few surprises. But as we’ve said before, the robotaxis are operating in a highly controlled setting and none of this is guaranteed to launch when Musk predicts it will. So stay tuned.

Oct 11

Umar Shakir

A bunch of Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots walked out alongside the reveal of Tesla’s new Robovan vehicle at tonight’s Cybercab event. The robot is also seen in a video doing daily human tasks like bringing in a package from the porch and watering your plants.

“The Optimus will walk amongst you,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk says. “You’ll be able to walk right up to them, and they will serve drinks.”

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

They’re doing the robot. What else?

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

The bots will be mingling with guests at the event, Musk says, who implores his guests to “be nice” to the robots.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Elon is putting the emphasis on the “bo” in robovan, so I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying at first. But yeah, it’s obviously not a conventional looking van.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

The robotaxi will charge wirelessly through an inductive charger, Musk says. Tesla has long teased wireless charging for its EVs.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Tesla CEO Elon Musk surprised attendees of the “We, Robot” event by presenting a new, unexpected vehicle: a passenger van.

Of course, it was far from a conventional van. The Tesla Robovan (Musk pronounces it ruh-BO-vehn) looked like something out of an Art Deco fever dream, with a sleek train engine-like shape and no visible wheels. Musk said that the vehicle could carry up to 20 people or be used to transport goods.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

This is becoming a running theme with Musk: the idea that the unused compute power of millions of idle Tesla vehicles could be used like Amazon’s cloud service business. Of course, it’s not that easy.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Elon says he plans on starting fully autonomous Model 3 and Model Y trips in Texas and California “next year.” Cybercab won’t go into production until “2026… before 2027.”

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Cheers as Musk says the cost will be “below $30,000.” Take that with a huge grain of salt.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Elon selling autonomous cars as a time saver, which is a very familiar argument for anyone who has been paying attention to the AV industry.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Elon gets in. It’s driving him through the film lot. There are 20 of them on the lot, and another 30 driverless Model Ys.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a new electric vehicle dedicated to self-driving, a possible milestone after years of false promises and blown deadlines.

The robotaxi is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle, lacking a steering wheel or pedals, meaning it will need approval from regulators before going into production. The design was futuristic, with doors that open upward like butterfly wings and a small cabin with only enough space for two passengers. There was no steering wheel or pedals, nor was there a plug — Musk said the vehicle charges inductively to regain power wirelessly.

Oct 11

Umar Shakir

Don’t do Hayao Miyazaki like this.

Oct 11

Jay Peters

That’s what my wife just asked me about this event, which was supposed to begin FIFTY ONE MINUTES AGO.

(The answer is no, it hasn’t.)

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Elon is tweeting about Howard Stern and NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, we’re 45 minutes past the start time.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Apparently there are a lot of crypto scams masking as Tesla robotaxi livestream on YouTube — a problem we have reported on in the past.

Oct 11

Andrew J. Hawkins

Back to the Future, E.T., and The Mask have all received the robotaxi treatment. The question I have: were these done by human artists, or AI?

먹튀 원칙

technology theverge

Share this story

See also