At a recent shareholders' meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk affirmed that Cybercab will be "the first car created to be completely autonomous without supervision". This model does not have a steering wheel, no pedals and even no rearview mirrors, aiming to minimize operating costs per km when running in self-driving mode.
The announcement came shortly after Tesla shareholders voted to approve a new compensation package for Musk, worth up to $1 trillion, the largest in the company's history.
Notably, Musk's statement contradicts Tesla Chairman Robyn Denholm, who said Cybercab would have a steering wheel and a pedal as a backup option. Tesla has previously considered producing two versions, but Musk has dismissed it and demanded a pure autonomous version.
Tesla has yet to prove that fully Self-Driving (FSD) technology can operate on a large scale without monitoring. However, Musk continues to say that the Cybercab production line will reach a speed of 10 seconds per car, much faster than the Model Y's one-minute cycle. According to him, Tesla can produce 23 million Cybercab units per year.
For a vehicle without a steering wheel to run on the road, Tesla must seek an exemption from the US federal government. This process is complicated and prolonged. Previously, Cruise Origin (All- autonomous robotaxi model developed by General Motors) and Zoox ( Amazon's Self-driving Vehicle Technology Company) both had difficulty applying for permission to operate unided cars.
Meanwhile, rivals such as Waymo still use improved Jaguar I-Pace with steering wheel, but have deployed commercial robotaxi in many major US cities. Musk believes Waymo has paved the way and believes that when robotaxi becomes popular, management agencies will have less reason to reject it.
Musk expects Cybercab to cover all over in the future, becoming a new pillar of Tesla in the fiercely competitive robotaxi market.
