Cybercab’s big debut

TL;DR: The world’s most sci-fi-looking robotaxi is hitting the roads soon—without a steering wheel or brake pedal. But while Tesla’s been promoting the big public debut of the Cybercab, there are a lot of outstanding questions about how they will actually operate.

What happened: Almost two years after Tesla first revealed the Cybercab, the company’s about to start opening them up to customers. It’s hosting a splashy, invite-only event in Austin on September 3 tied to the robotaxi’s launch, which the company frames as a chance to “experience the future of full autonomy.”

Despite the imminent launch, though, there’s a lot we still don’t know—including how many Cybercabs will be roaming the streets of Austin, and whether Tesla’s nascent robotaxi business is ready to unleash cars that nobody can physically drive.

What we know so far: The Cybercab first drew attention for its distinctive (and polarizing) look, but its unusual design goes beyond the paint color: The car has no steering wheel, brake pedal, or rear window—and it seats just two people. Cybercabs have been spotted on some public roads since about June, often with steering wheels during these test drives (and sometimes, apparently, human supervisors).

Miles to go: It’s unclear whether Tesla is ready to debut unsupervised rides (with only remote monitoring). Tesla launched its robotaxi service about a year ago, but its operation remains minuscule compared to competitors—as of June, it had just 59 total cars in its fleet across three Texas cities. (Waymo, meanwhile, now has nearly 4,000 driverless cars on the road in 15 cities.)

Tesla’s unsupervised robotaxis have so far logged about 380,000 miles across six cities, according to a Tesla earnings call from July. Compare that to Waymo (220 million fully autonomous miles as of March) and Amazon’s Zoox, which makes its own steering wheel-less robotaxi (and now has 3 million miles). Zoox launched with free passenger rides in Las Vegas last September, and recently got the green light to start charging for them.

The full self-driving question: Cybercabs will likely run on some version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software—the public version of which still requires “active supervision.” With nobody aboard to do that in Cybercabs, though, Tesla leans on remote operators—who’ve caused several minor crashes themselves.

Bottom line: Next week’s event might answer some questions about this robotaxi’s readiness, but the launch remains a big jump for a business with a tiny fleet and few logged miles. —WK