Tesla’s Cybercab / Robotaxi - Price, FSD Hardware, Release Date, Screen Size and More

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

October 10th was Tesla’s spectacular ‘We, Robot’ robotaxi event, and now we know a lot more about Tesla’s upcoming robotaxi – officially named the Cybercab – than ever before.

So, grab your Tesla-stamped BBQ burgers and put on your 12 gallon hat, we’re going to take a look at everything we know about Tesla’s Cybercab.

Exterior

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The Cybercab showed up to ‘We, Robot’ with both a front and rear lightbar, similar to the Cybertruck. However, unlike the truck – it’s not stainless steel. Instead, the prototypes that were at the robotaxi event arrived with aluminum body panels painted silver.

While the exterior finish won’t be as tough-as-nails as the Cybertruck, the Cybercab is designed to be cheaply mass-produced, so this decision makes sense. While there was early talk about using a stainless steel “exoskeleton,” it appears Tesla decided that aluminum and steel body panels would be easier and/or cheaper to manufacture.

While many initial concepts thought the Cybercab may only include three wheels, it does indeed have four wheels like a normal car.

And of those four, only the front two did the steering – so no rear-wheel steering here. Speaking of the wheels, they were mostly covered up with a disc-shaped plate, making them extremely aerodynamic. Tesla also painted the sidewalls of the tires silver, leaving them looking super slim in comparison to the size of the wheel.

Looking at the whole vehicle, the Cybercab doesn’t have Tesla’s iconic glass roof – but a simpler metal roof. The windows are not frameless either – they are framed (metal around the glass opening), which makes them easier to maintain and produce. All these changes are clearly aimed at reducing the overall cost of the vehicle, fitting its robotic taxi role.

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The one oddball in terms of price-to-function ratio is the butterfly doors. Cybercab’s butterfly doors are super impressive – and strike a pose just as iconically as the Model X. We’re interested to see what Tesla has planned for these automatic doors – as they may be difficult to maintain and service in colder climates given snow and ice build-up.

Interior

On the interior, the Cybercab comfortably seats two adults with large, padded seats. In these prototype vehicles, the seats are not ventilated, but they are heated. The seats themselves were fairly simple in comparison to Tesla’s other seat designs, even when compared to the simpler Mexican Model 3 with its fabric seats.

Tesla has made the overall interior design very simplistic and easy to clean. They showed off a new automatic vacuum and scrubbing unit that was cleaning the robotaxi’s seats and screens – so these seats are likely intended to take some punishment. And the screen will likely need to be cleaned often. There were no other major controls in the vehicle to clean – no steering wheel, no pedals.

However, the interior is classic Tesla—super spartan, stylish, and clean, with an extremely large 20.5” center display intended to display trip progress and entertainment. In comparison, the Cybertruck currently has the largest display in any Tesla, with an 18.5” screen. The Model 3 and Model Y use a 15” screen. Unsurprisingly, it looked like both video games and movies and TV shows would be available in the Cybercab.

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Two drink holders are also located just in front and below the center armrest. Just under the drink holders (towards the passengers) are the buttons to open and close the doors. The doors normally close automatically when the passenger(s) buckle up, but they can also be closed manually.

As expected, the controls for the windows are on the doors, so nothing too special there. Tesla has only shown the white interior so far, with black trim throughout the interior, including the carpet floor and plastic headliner. We’re hoping that Tesla also introduces a black interior – even with how resilient Tesla’s whites are – a black interior is likely to better last through the day-to-day punishment a taxi goes through.

FSD Hardware/AI

At the event, Elon Musk confirmed that Cybercab would be shipping with an “upsized” Hardware 5/AI 5. It looks like AI5 has mostly the same camera layout as AI4—with two (+1 fake) cameras at the top of the windshield. The car also features a front bumper camera, the usual two B-pillar cameras, and one rear-facing camera.

Currently, the only vehicle with the same camera setup is the Cybertruck. We’ve heard rumors that the upcoming Model Y Juniper Refresh, as well as future Model S and Model X vehicles, will also have a front bumper camera.

Storage

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The Cybercab's rear end has a fairly large amount of storage—the rear hatch opens upwards and reveals a sizeable cavity. From some rough estimates, it will be possible to comfortably throw 3-4 large suitcases back there, along with a few other items.

Internally, there’s less space, but as there is no center storage console, there is a large amount of legroom. If you potentially needed extra space, you could put a backpack on the floor of the Cybercab between your feet, and still have plenty of space to stretch.

Release Date

Elon acknowledged he’s been overly optimistic about timelines and relented that production for Cybercab should begin no later than 2027. However, he did mention 2026 as a likely start date.

Now that the Cybercab has been unveiled, we’ll likely start seeing design and build prototypes on the roads in Texas and California – where Tesla plans to start Unsupervised FSD – sometime in late 2026. More vehicles will show up in 2027.

Price

In a somewhat surprising move, Tesla announced that they’ll also sell the Cybercab to anyone who wants to buy it, whether it’s for personal use or to operate their own fleet of autonomous taxis. Tesla announced that they plan to sell the Cybercab for under $30,000 USD. Given the lack of steering wheel and pedals, we’re not sure whether the US Federal EV Rebate or the Canadian iZEV rebates would be applicable to these Cybercabs, but we’ll see how that pans out in the future. Both of these rebate programs are set to expire before the Cybercab hits the road.

Cybercab Hubs – Cleaning & Charging

Elon also confirmed that the Cybercab has inductive charging – a first for a fleet-scale EV. It seems that Cybercabs will likely belong to “hubs” where they can be charged and get cleaned. Whether these hubs are Tesla-owned facilities or consumer-owned is yet to be determined.

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Tesla also showed off a very short clip of the Cybercab getting cleaned with robotic arms. The cost and complexity of this are likely to drive a model where Tesla provides the facilities for charging and cleaning while owners simply let their vehicles be charged or cleaned as required.

We’re excited to hear more details about how exactly Tesla intends to build out these potential hubs and more details about the upcoming Cybercab. Now that the event has passed, we should start to see a steady flow of new information as Elon or other Tesla executives share new details.

Tesla’s More Affordable Vehicle Update: Q1 2025

By Karan Singh
@DominicBRNKMN/X

Alongside the many things we learned about Unsupervised FSD and the Robotaxi program, we also got to find out a little more about Tesla’s more affordable vehicle in the Q1 2025 Earnings Call.

There has been extensive reporting on what the long-anticipated affordable EV option would become, and we’ve seen numerous news stories mentioning that it was delayed or even arriving on time. The executive team revealed the near-term and long-term plans for Tesla’s upcoming vehicles, and there’s definitely good news to share here.

Updated Timeline

The most important piece of news is that despite all the talk of delays from supposed inside sources, Tesla has confirmed that the plan for its more affordable model remains on schedule for production to begin in the first half of 2025. Tesla’s executive team narrowed that timeline down further - and said that they expect production to kick off as soon as June and that the new model will be in the market shortly thereafter.

While the production timeline itself is on track, Tesla did note that the subsequent ramping process will likely be slower than initially hoped, citing global tariff and financial impacts as challenges to overcome to prepare its production lines.

Hybrid Production Approach

Tesla has once again confirmed that this will not be their next-generation vehicle, built using new production methods. Instead, they outlined a relatively more pragmatic approach for this new model.

Tesla will utilize aspects of both the next-generation platform as well as some parts of its current platforms (namely the Model 3 and Model Y). This means that Tesla will produce this new vehicle on the same manufacturing lines as the Model 3 and Model Y.

This strategy allows Tesla to bring the vehicle to the market more quickly, while also managing capital expenditures more efficiently by using existing infrastructure. However, Tesla’s executive team also noted that this approach, while faster, will result in fewer cost reductions than what might have been achieved with an entirely new platform and dedicated manufacturing process.

Vehicle Design

Using these existing production lines means that Tesla’s new vehicle will likely share some considerable similarities with either the existing Model 3 or Model Y. Rather than being a radically different and smaller vehicle, this new model will resemble the overall form factor and shape of Tesla’s current core offerings, while being optimized for a lower cost.

This doesn’t mean that Tesla is forgetting the overall goal here. Their ultimate goal is to reduce the initial cost of ownership and lower monthly payments for customers while maintaining a standard of excellence and safety.

Not Unboxed

Both at this Earnings Call and previous ones, Tesla has indicated that this new vehicle will not be using the innovative unboxed assembly method, at least for the time being. That relatively unique method will be developed and implemented specifically for the purpose-built Cybercab and for future vehicles on the next-generation platform.

We’re just a few days away from May, so it won’t be long before we see more about this upcoming vehicle. Stay tuned.

U.S. Announces New Autonomous Vehicle Framework and What It Means for Tesla

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

In a follow-up move to the current US administration’s goals to introduce a federal framework for autonomous vehicles, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is loosening autonomy restrictions following an announcement from Secretary Sean Duffy on X. This new initiative helps streamline complex regulatory processes and foster home-grown innovation.

Automated Vehicle Framework

As part of the broader upcoming USDOT Innovation Agenda, the newly unveiled AV Framework is designed to promote American innovation and strengthen domestic engineering while maintaining existing safety standards. The framework centers around three key principles:

  • Prioritize Safety

  • Unleash Innovation

  • Enable Commercial Deployment

To kickstart this AV framework, USDOT announced two initial steps focused on streamlining processes and expanding opportunities.

Crash Reporting Requirements

Under the first principle to Prioritize Safety, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) will maintain its Standing General Order requiring crash reporting on Advanced and Automated Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS and ADS). 

However, the reporting process will be streamlined following feedback from AV innovators, likely including Tesla. The goal here is to focus on collecting critical safety information while removing unnecessary or duplicative items from the reporting process, thereby reducing the burden without compromising safety.

Cutting Red Tape

Directly tied to the second principle of Unleash Innovation, the framework also seeks to slash red tape. The first step here is the expansion of the Automated Vehicle Exemption Program, or AVEP. This program allows manufacturers to petition for temporary exemptions from certain federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) for testing or deployment purposes.

Previously, the standard excluded domestically produced vehicles. Now, domestically produced AVs will not need to meet FMVSS, which will broaden the scope for manufacturers to test more innovative and unique designs and technologies.

Single National Standard for AVs

Finally, tied to the third principle of Enable Commerical Development, USDOT intends to move the United States closer to a single national standard for autonomous vehicles. This aims to prevent a confusing and inefficient patchwork of state-level or city-level laws and regulations, which can create hurdles for companies attempting to innovate, deploy, and scale their technology.

A unified standard across the United States also means that Canada and Mexico will likely be able to follow, as they share homologization standards across North America, including for vehicle crash safety and some autonomy regulations.

What This Means for Tesla

These framework changes will likely have a substantial impact on Tesla. The move towards a national standard is potentially the most impactful change, as Tesla identified regulatory hurdles as one of the most significant challenges it will face with the deployment of both Unsupervised FSD and its Robotaxi network.

The reduction of FMVSS requirements and streamlined reporting will likely play a role in the future as well. The FMVSS requirements are probably already being worked on, if not already met, by the Cybercab and other vehicles in Tesla’s lineup.

Meanwhile, the streamlined reporting will be helpful once Tesla officially launches its Robotaxi network in June.

You can read the official press release on the announcement here.

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