On Thursday, October 10, during the unveiling of his "Cybercab" robotaxi at a major show in Hollywood, Elon Musk sought to outline long-term prospects for Tesla, whose growth is currently stagnating. According to Musk, Tesla "should be thought of as an AI robotics company" and no longer merely a car manufacturer, whose future development will be based on the rise of autonomous vehicles.

Musk, who arrived at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles in a Cybercab (a kind of two-seater coupe partly inspired by the Cybertruck with a very stripped-down design without a steering wheel, pedals or rear windows), stated that production would begin in 2026. The Cybercab is expected to be priced at less than $30,000 (around €27,430), with an operating cost of no more than $0.20 per kilometer. Charging will be done via induction, according to Musk.

Fleets of self-driving Cybercabs will be operated through an app. Private owners of one of these robotaxis will be able to use it themselves or to sell access to it to the public. In addition to an autonomous version of the Model Y, the world's best-selling Tesla, Musk also unveiled the Robovan, a boxy autonomous minibus capable of transporting 20 people within cities without a driver.

Advertised as an event "for the history books," this Hollywood show is the culmination of promises that Musk made almost 10 years ago. In 2016, he confidently claimed that he would have robotaxis on the road within two years and that a million of these vehicles would be in operation by 2020. In the meantime, other players have entered the field of autonomous urban transport.

Waymo (Google) now has 700 active vehicles, which make almost 100,000 paid trips a week in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Austin, Texas where Tesla is headquartered. Cruise (General Motors) operates in four major US cities. In China, companies have also launched driverless cab services in several metropolises.

The vision presented by Musk, who also mentioned the latest enhancements to Tesla's "personal assistant robot," Optimus, pertains to a distant future. According to UBS analysts, "wide-scale Tesla robotaxi deployment is unlikely within the coming years." In addition to the technological hurdles to be overcome and the need to gain experience with autonomous vehicles on the road, the automaker must also catch up in the regulatory field, and launching an experimental autonomous vehicle service would require long and complex dealings with the authorities.

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