Tesla just debuted the all-new Cyber cab and its boxy big brother, the robo van. It's one punch vision for the future of autonomous electric taxis. Should you be excited? Well, let me break it down for you. Now, the Cyber cab is a compact electric coupe that looks sort of like a blend between the aesthetics of the Tesla Cybertruck and the Model 3 sedan. It doesn't have a steering wheel, it doesn't have pedals, heck, it doesn't even have rear glass. And that's because Tesla envisions this to be a fully autonomous electric taxi. You don't drive it; it drives you. Now, under the hood, the electric cab is powered by the next generation of Tesla's full self-driving software, the so-called unsupervised FSD, as opposed to the driver-supervised FSD that you'll find in this current crop of electric vehicles. Now, this is a completely vision-based sensing system—cameras only, so no spinning LiDAR like you'll see in the Wio electric taxis operating in certain cities in America.

now in addition to the next generation of Tesla software, the automaker also said to be equipping the Cyber cab with an overspecced version of its AI hardware. The idea is that this extra overhead will help make rides a little bit safer, but Tesla head Elon Musk did say something along the lines of using these vehicles as a distributed computing system while they're parked, something along the lines of Amazon cloud computing but for cars. It's a little bit vague how they plan on using this, if at all. We'll just have to keep an eye on it. Tesla demonstrated the Cyber Cab's autonomous chops by having Tesla head Elon Musk arrive to the event in a Cyber cab that was driven autonomously. Now, the event took place at the Warner Brothers City Studio Lot in Southern California, and showgoers were also given an opportunity to ride around in the Cyber cab or in an unsupervised FSD-equipped Tesla Model Y. That's right, this Cyber cab technology is also planned to come to Tesla's crop of current electric

vehicles, so the Model 3 or Model Y that's in your driveway now could one day become completely autonomous. Now, there is a big difference between getting a ride in an autonomous cab on a closed studio lot and having this technology work on the chaotic streets of American cities. So, let's hope the Teslas worked the kinks out by the time it arrives on our roads. Now, we can expect it to arrive on our roads in 2026 or before 2027. Must joke during the presentation, though. Let's be honest, Tesla has been promising fully autonomous Robo cabs next year since 2019, so expect delays. Now, while we wait, there are still some questions that need answering. For starters, we don't know how big the battery is or how much range the Cyber Cab's going to have. We also don't know how quickly or efficiently its inductive charging will be or when this technology will become widespread for us to use on the roads or in our driveways. Now, what we do have is a

ballpark figure of under $30,000. When Tesla eventually begins sales to private owners, the automaker doesn't plan on running a cabinetwork itself. Instead, what it wants to do is sell you a cyber cap or two, and when you're not giving yourself a ride to work or wherever, you can actually rent them out to other people for autonomous rides, making money while you sleep. And of course, because you can't talk about autonomous electric vehicles for more than 5 minutes without something that looks like a giant Bread Box on Wheels rolling out, we've got the Tesla Robo van or Robo van, a 20-passenger autonomous electric vehicle that can be reconfigured for cargo. That's right, Tesla invented the bus, sort of. It's not very different from the purpose-built vehicles that we've been seeing from Japanese and Korean automakers at shows like CES for years now. Think the PBV concepts that KIA rolled out at CES this year. Now, when you really think about it, an autonomous electric vehicle is essentially a robot on wheels. It's got wheels instead of legs and

It's not shaped like a person, but that's why Tesla chose this opportunity to also trot out its humanoid Optimus robots at the event. It brought out a platoon of these monochrome C3PO-looking dudes to do a little dance at the end of the presentation and serve drinks to partygoers. Now you can learn more about the humanoid Optimus robot over on cet.com. That's where we've also got a deep dive into the long and rocky road towards Tesla's autonomous Robo taxis. Drive safe, and I'll see you soon.

Tesla Cybercab: A Robotaxi of Your Own for Under $30k

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