Tesla Cybercab

Background

In 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that he believed that Tesla would have one million autonomous robotaxis operating on public roads by the end of 2020; observers speculated that he meant converting already sold Tesla vehicles to be autonomous.^[4]

Since approximately 2020, Tesla had made public statements about a mass market electric car product that would follow the Model Y^[5] and would be considerably cheaper than the Model 3. In 2022, Musk was advocating inside the company that the Robotaxi would be Tesla's next vehicle, but by September 2022, he had reluctantly accepted the recommendation of Tesla executives Franz von Holzhausen and Lars Moravy that the next-generation vehicle platform should support both a small, inexpensive, mass-market car and a Robotaxi that would be built with no steering wheel at all, and that both could be manufactured on the platform and use the same next-generation vehicle assembly line.^[6] In October 2022, the company stated publicly that the Tesla engineering team had turned its focus to the new platform, and that the company expected the platform would enable cars to be half of the price of the Tesla Model 3 or Y.^[7]

In April 2024, Musk announced that the Robotaxi reveal would take place in August, subsequently delayed to October.^[8]

Announcement

Musk unveiled the Cybercab at the Tesla We, Robot event held October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios Burbank in California, where 20 concept Cybercabs were autonomously driving around the studio outlot at night and giving rides to attendees of the event.^[9][10] Musk stated that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027.^[11] The final name of the vehicle remained unclear, as Tesla used both "Robotaxi" and "Cybercab" throughout the event to refer to the cars.^[9] Tesla also demonstrated their humanoid robot, Optimus, at the event and showed off a single concept prototype of a Robovan that could reportedly hold as many as 20 passengers.^[12]

The concept Cybercab shown was a two-passenger car;^[13] it had two butterfly doors but no door handles as the doors opened automatically. The car had no rear window and no side view mirrors.^[14][15] The car had a hatchback opening for cargo, with no external charge port showing on the prototype vehicles. The production vehicle was planned to include inductive charging.^[9][16]

Investor reaction to the announcement was muted, particularly given the long time frame between the announcement and expected start of production.^[11]

Production

On the Tesla investor call on October 23, 2024, Tesla said they were aiming to be in volume production with Cybercab by the end of 2026, and that the annual production goal was 2 million Cybercabs per year, when several factories are at full design capacity.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2025 at the Shareholder meeting, Elon Musk announced that the Cybercab production would begin in the second quarter of 2026.^[17]

In February 2026, Tesla announced the first Cybercab production vehicle had been produced at the Gigafactory Texas near Austin.^[2] By mid-March, Cybercab test units were spotted on public roads in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, as well as 25 units at Gigafactory Texas, many of them operating in test cycles on area roads.^[18] By July 2026, hundreds of Cybercab vehicles had been spotted near the Giga Texas assembly plant.^[19]

Commercial Introduction

On September 3, 2026, Tesla held an invitation-only Cybercab launch event in Austin, Texas^[20][21][22]. Elon Musk presented the vehicle at a private gathering at ACL Live.^[23] The same day, Tesla said it was offering Cybercab rides in “limited areas of Austin” through its existing Robotaxi service, which had operated since June 2025^[24][25][26] primarily with autonomous Model Y vehicles.^{[27] [28]}

Tesla did not publicly specify whether rides were charged or whether any Robotaxi-app user in Austin could book a Cybercab^[29][30]. Texas motor-vehicle records reported about 45 Cybercabs^[31] registered to Tesla’s robotaxi fleet by late August 2026. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was in contact with Tesla and evaluating the Texas rollout^[32]; the vehicle lacks steering-wheel, pedal, and mirror equipment typically required under federal motor-vehicle safety standards^[33]. Tesla said the Cybercab would go on public display in Beijing, Shanghai, and other Chinese cities from mid-September 2026 to show its design and technology, and that the displays did not involve sales or commercial robotaxi operations in China^[34].

Roof

The roof is to be made of polyurethane panels with embedded pigmentation. The roof is not painted during manufacturing. Plastic parts are welded ultrasonically. An extended headliner matches the frameless windows. Roof-mounted sensors are not present.^{[36][37][better source needed]}

Specifications

In June 2026, as fleet self-driving testing continued and official EPA documentation was released, specifications of the production Cybercab became public.