Tesla Cybercab Announced: Elon Musk's Robotaxi is finally here

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a new electric vehicle dedicated to self-driving, a potential milestone after years of false promises and bloated deadlines.

The Robotaxi is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle, with no steering wheel or pedals, meaning it will need approval from regulators before going into production. The design was futuristic, with doors opening upwards like butterfly wings and a small cabin with enough space for two passengers. There was no steering wheel or pedals.

Musk revealed the prototype Robotaxi at Tesla's “We, Robot” event held on the Warner Bros. film lot in Burbank, California, where there were several non-public roads for demonstration. Tesla reportedly mapped the area in advance of the protests, though the company said it did not rely on high-definition maps to power its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance feature.

Musk is trying to shift Tesla away from its core business of making and selling EVs toward one that builds robots and AI. Tesla's market cap is equal to that of all other global automakers combined. Much of the company's stock price is based on Musk's years-long promise to solve autonomy by releasing a truly revolutionary vehicle that can drive itself anywhere it wants.

Whether Tesla's Robotaxi will accomplish that daunting task is anyone's guess. Musk has a reputation for defying the odds, but AV experts regularly question Tesla's approach to technology, particularly the company's aggressive push for Level 2 advanced driver-assist systems like Autopilot and full self-driving (supervised).

Still, Tesla lags behind companies like Waymo and Cruise, both of which have logged millions of miles of on-road testing with their driverless vehicles. To be sure, robotaxis have had a tumultuous rollout, with numerous incidents of blocked vehicles, traffic jams and even a handful of injuries. Federal safety regulators are investigating several major players to determine whether the technology that powers these vehicles is safe or should be recalled.