At a 'We, Robot' event held Thursday at the Warner Bros. Discovery film lot in Burbank, California, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric vehicle manufacturer's highly anticipated Cybercab -- a futuristic-looking sleek two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals. The company also unveiled a Robovan which Musk said, can carry up to 20 people and reconfigurable for goods transport.
"So they've been traveling, there's no people in them," Musk said during his remarks as a line of Cybercabs streamed into the venue, to the cheers of attendees who also later rode in the sleek two-seaters. "As you can see, the car is just going by with no people."
Before walking on stage, Musk walked over to a Cybercab, which opened its butterfly-winged doors, and did a short demo around the streets of the Hollywood studio. The sleek two-seater only has one big tablet computer screen in the center, and no steering wheels.
Cybercab is not charged by a wired plug-in charger, instead it's charged wirelessly via “inductive charging,” according to Musk.
Musk said the cost of autonomous transport using Cybercab will be low, akin to “individualized mass transit,” and will over time cost around $0.20 per mile. “And you will be able to buy one,” he said, adding that the cost of the vehicle would be below $30,000.
The Tesla chief argues that autonomous cars will "become ten times safer than a humans. I mean, if you think of times past where there used to be an elevator operator in every elevator but once in a while, they get tired and accidentally shear somebody in half. Now, we have automated elevators. You just get an elevator and you press a button and you don't even think about it and it just takes you to the floor. And if you did see an elevator operator with a big relay switch, you'd be like, that's weird. That's how cars will be."
Tesla also surprised attendees and fans by unveiling Robovan, a sleek-looking autonomous bus that can carry up to 20 people and can be reconfigured to transport goods.
According to Musk, Tesla expects to "start fully autonomous unsupervised FSD[full self-driving] in Texas and California next year. And that's obviously, that's with the Model 3 and Model Y." He said Cybercab "which is really highly optimized for autonomous transport" is expected to be in production before 2027. "And we'll make this vehicle in very high volume," he added.
"But well, before that, you will experience a robotic taxi via the Model 3 and Model Y program and model S and X, too," Musk said. "But the Model 3 and Y will achieve unsupervised full self-driving with permission, in wherever regulators essentially approve it. In the US, and then to follow outside the US. And Cybertruck, too. All our cars are basically, all cars that we make. Let's not get nuanced here."
Musk also introduced several dozens of its humanoid robot, Optimus, to showcase its latest capabilities with new 22 degrees of freedom of movement. Several robots walked among-and-spoke, in different accents, to attendees at the Thursday event, dancing and serving drinks in what can only be described as sci-fi movie scene.
"Everything we've developed for our cars, the batteries, power electronics, the advanced motors, gearboxes, the software, the AI inference computer, it all actually applies to a humanoid robot," Musk said. "The same techniques. It's just a robot with arms and legs instead of a robot with wheels. We've made a lot of progress with Optimus." He shared his vision for a future where robots act as friend and helper for the low price of around $20,000 to $30,000.
