Tesla‘s Cybercab model was unveiled exactly a year ago — alongside the Robovan model — at the ‘We,Robot’ event.
A few weeks after the event, the company’s CEO Elon Musk said he was “confident” about reaching volume production of the model in 2026.
Musk set an ambitious goal of “ultimately” reaching 4 million Cybercab units.
“[…] We’re aiming for at least 2 million units a year of Cybercab. That will be in more than one factory, but I think it’s at least 2 million units a year, maybe 4 million ultimately,” the chief executive stated.
The goal was reaffirmed in the July shareholder deck, according to which Tesla will “pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy and is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026.”
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the company plans to begin producing its long-awaited Cybercab in the second quarter of next year, describing it as a vehicle designed entirely around autonomous driving.
Speaking on the third-quarter earnings call, Musk said the Cybercab will represent Tesla’s single biggest production expansion, and will be the company’s first vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals.
He said it is “a vehicle that’s optimized for full autonomy” and “an engineering optimization on minimizing fully considered cost per mile of operation.”
Musk contrasted the Cybercab with Tesla’s existing lineup, saying that current models “still have a little bit of the horseless carriage thing going on” since they include steering wheels and pedals.
He explained that while other cars are designed for performance and driver enjoyment, the Cybercab will focus entirely on passenger comfort and smoothness, “aiming for a gentle ride the whole time.”
The Tesla CEO dismissed concerns that prioritizing the new model could hurt profitability, saying he expects demand to be “pretty nutty.”
Musk said the key selling point will be the ability for passengers to use their phones safely during the ride.
“If you tell someone the car is now so good you can be on your phone and text the entire time while you’re in the car, anyone who can buy the car will buy the car,” Musk said.
The Cybercab was spotted earlier this month at the Giga Texas plant, undergoing crash testing.
According to X user ‘Joe Tegtmeyer,’ who frequently shares drone images of the factory, “this may indicate the vehicle has completed most of the final engineering & production tests out at Fremont [California] and what remains is now at Giga Texas.”
Last week, video footage from the Fremont factory published by user ‘Met God in Wilderness 在曠野遇見神’ on YouTube also showed the vehicle testing in the facility.
In April, Tesla‘s Head of Investor Relations Travis Axelrod had stated that the first Cybercab builds would be “coming at the end of [the second] quarter.”
By then, Axelrod said that the company’s “large scale installation of all the equipment in Giga Texas [is] still on schedule for production next year.”
With production set to begin, Tesla is currently hiring for several engineering and technician roles related to the manufacturing operations of the Cybercab in Texas.
The company is introducing a new ‘Unboxed Process’ for Cybercab production, in which different sections of the vehicle are manufactured separately and later combined during the final assembly stage.
The patent for the manufacturing process was granted and published late last month by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The Cybercab is a fully autonomous EV model with two seats and no pedals or steering wheel.
Three months ago, VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy responded to rumours that a version of the model that included a steering wheel would be available.
“If you see the Cybercab RC [remote controlled] fleet running around with steering wheels, that’s because we had to figure out a way to test it,” the executive stated.
Moravy clarified that “they’re not for sale, it’s just a test feature only.”
Tesla‘s autonomous ride-hailing service was launched earlier this year in Austin, using several Model Y vehicles equipped with the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Robotaxi software.
