“We’re going from fully supervised self-driving to fully unattended self-driving, where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” Musk said. “It will be a glorious future.”
Musk envisions the Cybercab and Robovan will function similarly to ride-sharing services like Uber and Bolt, where people can summon a vehicle using an app, and he suggested owners of the cars could rent them out.
The Cybercab has been in the works for years as part of Musk’s bold plan to transform Tesla from a pure car company to a robot manufacturer, but the unveiling follows that of Mate Rimac’s similarly designed Verne robotaxi and comes four years after Musk originally planned was to do that. have a fleet of robotaxis on the road.
Rival companies including Waymo, Cruise and Deeproute.ai already operate driverless taxis in several cities around the world, but no vehicle currently offers the kind of full autonomy (level five) that Musk plans for the Cybercab and Robovan.
Musk’s unusual reluctance to confirm a planned launch date is an acknowledgment of the fact that Tesla’s vehicles tend to hit the market several years after he says they will. “I’m usually a bit optimistic about the timeframes,” he joked at the Cybercab’s unveiling.