It seems like we’ve been talking about the future of autonomy for a long time, but things are getting real and fast. Tesla’s cyber taxis are in production and an increasing number of them have appeared in drone footage of factory parking lots or in posts shared online from various tests across the United States.
It seems like we’ve been talking about the future of autonomy for a long time, but things are getting real and fast.
Tesla’s cyber taxis are in production and an increasing number of them have appeared in drone footage of factory parking lots or in posts shared online from various tests across the United States.
Tesla released a new video today showing the Cybercab in action, driving around its Gigafactory in Texas. The official Tesla account republished the video on X, with confirmation that Cybercab employees will be able to travel in autonomous robotaxis, without a steering wheel or pedals.
This is likely the expected announcement during the week, which Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, hinted at in a podcast (Herbert’s Brighter). It seems that the announcement was delayed by a few days, many thought it was the publication of the sustainability report, but no, it was certainly this.
While this is not yet a full-scale rollout on city streets, it is another important step in the process. Tesla’s gigafactory is huge, and getting from one end to the other is not a short walk, it’s a destination, one that the robotaxi will now help.
What is not known is how the cars will circulate through the factory. Will there be a custom map, similar to the one we saw at the 10/10 event, or will employees simply tap the screen to place a marker and set their destination?
We’ll also be interested to see how many are running, as it won’t be desirable to have your expensive employees waiting for rides either.
Another couple of questions have to do with charging and cleaning. Over time, Cybercabs will use wireless charging, but it may not be available at first, and when it’s at prototype scale, it may not be available to support dozens of these running nearly 24/7.
We’ve seen engineering samples loaded manually, into superchargers, so that’s certainly possible, especially considering some of these plates are early numbers 003 and 007.
Regarding the cleanup challenge, Tesla will surely hope that employees do the right thing, but will likely use learnings from the employee test to drive public focus.
This is an exciting development in the autonomous vehicle landscape and we will be eager to monitor and report, even from the other side of the world, in the hope that one day we will see these vehicles available here to help with mobility and the transportation economy.
For more information, go to Tesla.
Check back often for more exciting news!
