Tesla to unveil Cybercab, its big bet on self driving cars

Tesla boss Elon Musk is to unveil the firm’s long-awaited robotaxi prototype, the Cybercab, at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California on Thursday.

Self-driving cars have long fascinated Mr Musk and he has made a series of bold predictions about them – including that they will save lives or earn their owners money, through being rented out for rides or even overnight stays.

But when he takes to the stage for the event – which the company has billed We, Robot – he will be under pressure to quell persistent doubts about the electric vehicle maker’s ability to execute on his ambitions.

The project has undergone delays, having been originally slated for release in August before being moved to October.

Mr Musk explained away the latest delay by saying it was down to some last minute changes from him.

“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” Musk wrote in a July post on his social media platform X.

But analysts say it is now time for the company to show real progress with the project.

‘There is certainly heavy build-up after discussing the Robotaxi concept without concrete details for so long,” said Jessica Caldwell of edmunds.com.

“The expectation is that this event should clear the air on the concept,” Caldwell added, saying it would be a “letdown” if Tesla fails to reveal a developed concept and operational details on Thursday.

Relatively little is known so far about the Cybercab.

According to reports, it will have two seats and butterfly wings. It is thought it will use a combination of cameras and computing power to navigate the roads, as opposed to laser-based sensors, known as Lidar, favoured by rivals

Musk has hinted that when complete, some of the robotaxis in Tesla’s network would be owned and operated by the company, but that Tesla owners would have the option to rent their vehicles out on Tesla’s network when they are not driving them.

In a note on Wednesday morning, analysts Wedbush said they expected on-site demos in the prototype, which they said they will attend.

But industry-watchers will also be looking for projections “on Cybercab scaling, overall cost per mile,” and a Tesla ride-share app, Wedbush said.

“With very few industry events as widely anticipated as this, we believe Musk will address the near-term pain points,” Wedbush analysts wrote.

The “We, Robot” event comes as some top executives, including the head of Tesla’s new vehicles program, have recently left the company.

Some have also said the company would be better off focussing on a low cost electric vehicle (EV), to shore up its position against increasing competition from other EV car makers.

However, Tesla has long sought to launch a full self-driving competitor to Google-parent Alphabet’s Waymo, whose driverless vehicles are now a frequent and much-discussed sight on the streets of San Francisco.

The company also offers rides in Phoenix and Los Angeles, and just expanded limited service in Austin, Texas.

Last week, Waymo announced it would add the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to its robotaxi fleet after the vehicles undergo on-road testing with the company’s technology.

Despite Mr Musk’s evident excitement around the technology – and the high stakes for Tesla – it seems he is going for a more low profile approach to media coverage than some of his previous showy product rollouts

Despite multiple inquiries, the BBC did not secure an invitation to the unveiling.

We weren’t alone. An anchor at Bloomberg TV has posted publicly on X about wanting to cover the event in person – even tagging Musk directly – also without success.