In classic Elon Musk style, the Tesla CEO made waves once again by unveiling the company’s newest creation, the robotaxi known as Cybercab. But Musk wasn’t stopping there—he also dropped the news that Tesla plans to roll out autonomous driving in its popular Model 3 and Model Y cars in both California and Texas next year. Bold, right?
The reveal took place at the highly anticipated We, Robot event, held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. And in typical Musk fashion, he made quite the entrance. Musk rolled up in the Cybercab, sporting his signature black leather jacket, alongside a man dressed as he had just stepped off a SpaceX mission. And did I mention the humanoid robots? These life-like machines were mingling with the crowd, dancing, and even serving drinks. It felt more like a scene out of a futuristic film than a product launch!
But not everyone was caught up in the excitement. As the event made headlines, Tesla’s stock didn’t quite follow the same celebratory tone. Tesla’s shares actually dropped over 8% after the U.S. markets opened on Friday morning. By 11:45 Eastern Time, the stock was trading around $219. Meanwhile, rivals like Uber and Lyft—who’ve got their own self-driving dreams—saw their stocks rise by as much as 10%. Ironic, huh?
And then, of course, came the big question: “Will the Cybercab actually hit the roads by 2027?” Investors are skeptical, and who can blame them? Musk has a bit of a history of missing his own deadlines. With a grin, he admitted, “I tend to be optimistic with time frames.” Classic Elon.
Still, the vision for the Cybercab is pretty wild. Imagine an autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, costing less than $30,000. Sounds amazing, right? But some analysts are raising their eyebrows at that price tag, wondering how realistic it really is.
Yet, Musk being Musk, he didn’t just bring one Cybercab to the party—there were 20 of them scattered across the event. And for the adventurous souls in attendance, there were 50 fully autonomous vehicles waiting to be test-driven across the massive 20-acre lot Tesla had taken over. That sounds like one wild night!
The Cybercab, by the way, comes with some serious tech muscle. It doesn’t just charge with a plug; it uses inductive charging, which feels like the future. And, just like Amazon Web Services, Musk shared that Tesla has “overspecced” the vehicle’s computing power, meaning it can be distributed across the entire network of cars. It’s all about connectivity, baby.
And as if the Cybercab wasn’t enough, Musk also gave us a sneak peek at another prototype: the Robovan. This sleek shuttle can carry up to 20 people at a time. Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, was at the event and noted that this futuristic van could become a major player in transportation over the next few years.
Musk’s been promising us autonomous cars for what feels like forever now. I mean, back in 2015, he confidently told shareholders that Tesla would have “full autonomy” within three years. Spoiler alert: It didn’t happen. Then, in 2016, he said a Tesla would be able to make a cross-country trip without a human touching the wheel by the end of 2017. That… also didn’t happen and in 2019, during a call with investors, Musk raised over $2 billion after predicting there would be 1 million robotaxi-ready vehicles on the road by 2020. You guessed it—that didn’t happen either.
Fast forward to this year, and Musk is still banging the drum of autonomy. In April, he told investors that the company’s future depends on self-driving tech, adding, “If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla’s going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company.”
The Tesla robotaxi event wasn’t just a regular product launch—it was a full-blown party. Musk made sure of that. Attendees were invited to take test rides in Tesla’s autonomous vehicles right there on the studio lot. And toward the end of his 23-minute presentation, Musk introduced us to the future once more: Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. With a wink, he reassured the crowd that Optimus wasn’t just for show. “The Optimus robots will walk among you,” he said, urging everyone to “be nice” to the robots as they served drinks at the bar.
And how did it all end? With Musk, a crew of dancing Optimus robots, and the words: “Let’s party.” Oh, and the livestream? It closed out with those very robots dancing to club hits, because why not?
