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Elon Musk unveils Tesla’s self-driving Cybercab—no steering wheel, no pedals, $30K price tag

Tesla unveiled its new robo-taxi on Thursday, and, in true Tesla style, the much-anticipated autonomous vehicle rolled in almost an hour late—right on schedule for a product that’s been delayed repeatedly. But fans didn’t mind even a wee bit, as CEO Musk delivered not just the long-awaited vehicle but also an AI robot called Optimus that can bartend for you and a driverless robo-van that can shuttle sports teams to games.

The robo-taxi debuted at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event held on Thursday at movie studio of Warner Bros. Discovery in Burbank, California. The event that was live-streamed on X, was scheduled to start at 7 pm pacific time but didn’t begin until 7:53 pm. The delay prompted speculation and jokes online, but Musk said that the reason for the hold-up was a medical emergency in the crowd.

Musk rolled up in the new Cybercab model in style, with a cosmonaut ushering him into the vehicle and aerial footage capturing his futuristic autonomous trip through the movie studio backlot and to the event stage. “There are no steering wheels or pedals in the car. So I hope this goes well, we’ll find out,” Musk said after exiting the vehicle to start his presentation.

Musk has been teasing self-governing capabilities in Tesla vehicles for years, making one of his most dramatic promises in the year 2019, when he said the company was making an entire fleet of ride-sharing vehicles and foretold there would be “over a million robo-taxis on the road” by 2020. That didn’t materialize. Then, in April of current year, Musk publicized on X that the Tesla Robotaxi would finally be unveiled on August 8. That was deferred, because of “an important design change.”

On Thursday, Musk unveiled 20 cars and promised owners could in fact make money using their Cybercab as a rideshare vehicle when they’re not driving. “So the vast majority of the time, cars are just doing nothing. But if they’re autonomous they can be used, I don’t know five times more, maybe ten times more,” Musk said. “So, the same car would have five times as much value, maybe ten times as much value.” “And you’ll be able to buy one,” he added. “We expect the cost to be under $30,000.”

So, when actually will it hit the market? Musk set the date “before 2027,” noting: “I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames.” Musk also revealed the new Tesla Robovan, which can seat up to 20 people, however no production date or price tag were mentioned for the product. Finally, Musk revealed Optimus (a human-sized AI robot), that “can babysit your kids” or help around the household. At the Thursday debut, the robots were seen in cowboy hats, serving drinks at the bar, playing rock-paper-scissors with spectators and dancing in sync on a stage. “Please be nice to the Optimus robots,” Musk said, “they’ll walk among you.”

 

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