At an event held at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California, Elon Musk officially presented Tesla’s highly anticipated robotaxi, named “Cybercab” to the public. Musk stated that the business model of the Cybercab would be to allow owners to pay it out, and earn from its rental for auto rides.
Production Timeline and Pricing Elon Musk
The projected start date for production of the Cybercab, according to Musk, will be “before 2027”. However, doubts arose because Musk had missed deadlines before. He also revealed that the car would cost less than $30,000, positioning it as an affordable option in the self-drive car market as demand for such vehicles is expected to rise. Musk made fun of himself claiming that he is optimistic about meeting deadlines during such events.
Autonomous Driving Vision Elon Musk
At the event, Elon Musk confidently stated that fully autonomous vehicles with no human intervention would prove safer than those driven by people. He explained that Tesla could equip the Model 3 and Model Y with ‘fully autonomous unsupervised’ technology next summer in Texas and California if they receive the necessary approvals. However attaining such permission is problematic as the issue of safety is the main reason.
Safety Concerns and the Controversy Over Mental Models of Technologies Samitha Samaranayake, a professor for Cornell University, raised the safety issues regarding Cybercab, and more specifically, autonomous vehicles. Where most competitors adopt Lidar and radar technologies, Tesla’s system relies on cheaper camera-based sensors. This is why Tesla wants to get this data from its many cars in the field and enhance its AI. However, this strategy has not convinced many experts that such autonomous driving would be able to guarantee the level of safety required for this tier of driving.
Delays and competitive pressure affected the Cybercab, which was originally scheduled for release in August. Musk stated that fundamental design changes caused the delay. AT&T directed Jimmy and others: ‘make a step to other states to address the business problem’. Other companies such as a robot taxi Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise have managed to roll out their robotaxis in some US cities which is stiff competition.
In the future outlook, Vivek Rao advises that Tesla plans to develop the Cybercab while also aiming to offer ordinary customers autonomous driving as quickly as possible. As for the market, there is no doubt that Cybercab turns the winds for Tesla as the latter companies are free to go without hands on the wheel. Farmed out the Cybercab engine, many share this market pegged with the battering of sales crunch.
