Tesla unveiled its long-awaited Cybercab and a surprise Robovan during its “We, Robot” event held at Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in Burbank, California, on Thursday.
The Cybercab, which has butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals, will be priced below $30,000, CEO Elon Musk estimated. The leader added that the car will be equipped for inductive charging, meaning it won’t have a plug-in charging port.
It’s expected to be in production before 2027, Musk said, while admitting that he tends to be overly optimistic about timelines.
In the interim, Musk said the company anticipates starting fully autonomous driving and robotaxi rides with the Model 3 and Model Y in California and Texas sometime in 2025.
The 20-seat Robovan was the shock of the night, driving up to the stage and letting out passengers midway through Musk’s presentation.
“We’re going to make this, and it’s going to look like that,” he said. “We want to change the look of the roads. The future should look like the future.”
Musk did not share any further information about the Robovan before moving on to Optimus, an autonomous humanoid robot. The robot will “basically be able to do anything you want,” he said, adding that, at scale, he expects it to cost between $20,000 to $30,000.
“I think this will be the biggest product ever, of any kind,” Musk said, calling it a personal C-3PO. “I think everyone, of the eight billion people on earth, will want their Optimus buddy.”
To demonstrate the robot’s ability, Tesla had Optimus serve drinks at the bar and dance to Haddaway’s “What Is Love?”
The “We, Robot” event was light on details, but during Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, Musk said Optimius is already being utilized in the company’s factories. The first version of the product is expected to begin limited production in early 2025.
In large part, Wall Street analysts weren’t impressed with Musk’s broad “autonomy for all” vision, noting that it lacked specifics on the Cybercab’s specs and timeframes, Yahoo Finance reported Friday.
