Tesla Robotaxi revealed

Tesla has revealed its new self-driving Robotaxi (or Cybercab, if you prefer) at an event titled ‘We, robot’ to promote its self-driving technology and dream of an autonomous future. A compact, driverless vehicle with sleek lines and eye-catching supercar-like doors, the Robocab has no steering wheel or pedals and operates entirely autonomously, picking you up from your door and driving you to your destination while you and your passengers relax inside, watch a movie, play videogames or even catch a quick nap.
Revealing the Robocab to a live audience, Tesla figurehead Elon Musk made the point that the average car spends most of its time standing around doing nothing, costing money and taking up space. A future of autonomous cars, he suggests, would make much more efficient use of these cars on the basis they’d be constantly moving, freeing up the land we currently use for car parks and garages for more useful purposes, like parks and recreation areas.

While autonomous driving is being pushed across the automotive industry few have done more to keep it at the top of the agenda than Tesla, the tantalising promise of ‘Full Self Driving’ to its customers thwarted sometimes by the technology and sometimes by regulators but, Musk promises, finally to become a reality in Texas and California by next year in existing Model 3s and Model Ys.
For its part while the Robotaxi’s on-demand ride hailing seemingly operates as an alternative to the more traditional model of car ownership Musk did say you’d be able to buy one, and it should cost around $30,000 in its home US market. Whether you’d be able to send it out into the wild to operate as some manner of autonomous Uber and perhaps make you a bit of money in the process remains to be seen but, much as people AirBnB their own homes while away on holiday themselves, one could see that being a possibility.

In terms of the vehicle itself other than confirming it has no steering wheel or pedals little technical information on the Robotaxi was forthcoming at this stage, other than the suggestion it would use wireless inductive charging rather than the plug-in chargers we’re more used to. This, presumably, on the basis however clever the vehicle is it can’t yet manhandle a charging lead into a socket of its own accord. More’s the pity, as anyone who’s had to wrestle with one in a dark and rainswept car park to plug in their own EV will attest.
So, when are we likely to see Robotaxis on our streets? That will be up to regulators in individual cities and regions as much as anything, Musk accepting that he can sometimes be a little over-optimistic on lead times but it should be available ‘before 2027’ at current estimates.