Deep Dive: The full Robotaxi experience & all details we learned after

Hey, Jaan here.

The official program of Tesla’s robotaxi event was big on vision and certainly a great party, but a little light on the details. We’ve heard that the two separate emergencies delayed the event, leaving the presentation shorter than planned. So I set out to find every single noteworthy detail from the people who were actually there at the event, and their chats with the Tesla engineers.

We’ve also learned a lot of the details since via Tesla team members on X, all is added here. I sprinkled some entertainment in it for you too, of course.

Ready?

— Jaan

Here’s a table of contents for you, in case you want to skip to anything specific (don’t skip anything though haha):

Table of Contents

• The “We, Robot” event experience

• Your ride in the Tesla Cybercab

• The Tesla robotaxi Cybercab details

  • Tesla Cybercab can be bought by anyone

  • Tesla Robotaxi (Cybercab) design

  • Tesla Robotaxi system

• The Tesla Robovan (robobus?)

• Tesla’s grander vision for future roads

• Optimus bots

• Youtubers covering the event

The “We, Robot” event experience

Welcome, here’s your ticket to the event:

and hey, remember to grab a map of the site as well:

We’ve got about three hours until Elon walks on the stage, so take a look at your surroundings on this Warner Bros site in Los Angeles. There are five “neighborhoods” created by Tesla:

• Westworld: has a Texas BBQ and the stage for the event
  Metropolis: arcade games, and you could take a swing at Cybertruck with a sledgehammer (and hear it talk to you);

• TSLA Theater: has pizza and desserts, as well as a movie on a gigantic screen

• New York: brings a block party with live music and street performers, as well as street snacks

• Merch: offers Tesla Merch.

Tesla really went all out in (re)designing the surroundings to match its brand — from the S3XY Saloon to Frunk ‘N’ Boots:

You’ll also notice there are posters of popular movies with a Tesla twist.

There’s also plenty of mention of Master Plan Part IV there (coming soon?):

Oh wait, the event is about to begin let’s see.
Franz just walked on stage (timestamped at 00:59 here)

Franz keeps it rather brief, mostly saying:

Then, he calls out Elon to show us that future.

We see Musk walking out of a theatre on the other side of the event site, you’ll see the robotaxi drive up for the very first time, as Elon sits in it and is taking a ride with it to the stage.

We don’t see Elon dance (oh bummer), and he gives a good general overview of what Tesla expects the future will look like.

Elon welcomes people to the “We, Robot party”, and most of the event did give us more of party vibe and less of specific details about the robotaxi.

However, we’ve since gathered here quite a lot of details from various sources, from engineers on the spot and later remarks, through which we’ve got some of the bigger picture pieced together quite well.

So let’s jump into the part that probably interests you the most, the Robotaxi:

There are 19 Cybercab prototypes running around in the event, giving the attendees rides. Another 29 Model Ys drove around fully autonomously too, so it’s a lottery which one you’ll get to ride in. Looks like you were lucky to get the former.

Your ride in the Tesla Cybercab

Here’s how your robotaxi ride looks like:

The interior is spacious, lots of room for your legs since there’s literally nothing, not even pedals, blocking them.

You’ll select a destination from the screen, buckle the seatbelt, the doors close, and off you go. While driving riding, you can watch movies or play games through the display.

On the top of the screen, you’ll see the progress towards destination,

On the bottom you have buttons on each side with “Stop Ride”, and in the middle “Theater | Games | Map”.

The Tesla robotaxi Cybercab details

Tesla Cybercab can be bought by anyone

Here’s Elon’s speech unveiling the robotaxi (YT: 04:15)

• Price: under $30,000,

• Can be bought by anyone, so you can shepherd your own fleet of autonomous taxis, or use it yourself (Tesla’s socials mentioned Fleet Management software),

• “Call it once & and it’s yours as long as needed, for quick trips or all day",

• Arriving “before 2027”, late 2026

• 19 cybercabs were driving around at the event giving people rides, giving 1,300 trips total and transporting over 2,000 guests, continuously operating over the 3.5 hours. Zero incidents.

Ashok Elluswamy wrote this:

Tesla Robotaxi (Cybercab) design

• No steering wheel or pedals

• Two large padded seats, heated not ventilated

• Automated butterfly doors

• The doors normally close automatically when the passenger buckles up, but they can also be closed manually.

• 20.5’’ center display (largest of any Tesla so far, Cybertruck is at 18.5’’)

• The Cybercab only has 3 interior buttons: 2 window switches and the dome light switch.

• Two cup holders in the middle.

• Uses inductive charging, it has no charging port. Tesla also confirmed later the efficiency is “well above 90%”.

• Aluminium body panels, no glass roof. Seems it does not have stainless steel exterior panels per an engineer, due to costs.

• Framed doors unlike other Teslas (likely to lower costs)

• It has a front and rear lightbar, similar to Cybertruck (and perhaps what we’ll see in Model Y Juniper?)

• Massive trunk, rear hatch opens high upwards, no frunk

• No exact range given, but expected at ~200 miles per Top Gear’s interview with some engineers (which isn’t a bad thing in this case, as it sounds like an optimal cycle for a robotaxi fleet and keep costs low).

• The efficiency is aimed at 5.5 miles per kWh, which will make it crazy efficient.

• Front laser light bar

• Rear wheels are 21’’ and front wheels are 18’’ (different sized, much like I guessed on the early teaser image)

• Yes, the wheels were painted over somewhat to make the tires look thinner or give the complete look there, we’ll see what the actual robotaxi wheels will look like.

• Cybercabs will not have Tesla logos (like Cybertruck). Everyone will know it’s a Tesla by the design.

Tesla Robotaxi system

They showed off a new automatic vacuum and scrubbing unit that was cleaning the robotaxi’s seats and screens (YT: 16:28):

• Can be automatically cleaned and charged at hubs;

• Cybercab is Front Wheel Drive only;

• Runs on “upsized” AI5 hardware for FSD;

• Two cameras at the top of the windshield, front bumper camera, two B-pillar cameras and one rear-facing camera. Vision only, no radar or LiDAR. Weird that no washers seems to be with the cameras.

• In case you find anyone doubt the robotaxis were running on FSD, here’s a video confirming with the evidence through… the brake lights.

• Production will start first in Texas and then move to other factories.

The Tesla Robovan (robobus?)

Elon: “Also, what happens if you need a vehicle that is a bigger than a Model Y?”

The Robovan is unveiled here (YT: 17:46):

• No price or release date yet

• Design taken after Art Deco trains (1930’s)

• Elon pronounced it weird (“Robóvan”?), which might’ve been an inside joke with the team?

• So is it actually a bus? Even Elon writes “Futuristic Art Deco Bus”

• Carries up to 20 people (14 seats, 6 standing);

• Large glass sliding doors

• Can be adapted for school bus or RV use (or even personal use)

Elon also commented that “The view from the inside is one of extreme openness, with visibility in all directions, although it may appear otherwise from the outside.”

And added the answer to the question in a lot of people’s minds on the robovan ground clearance:

If you’re left thinking the robovan looks more like robobus, then… you’re not alone. Tesla has also last week filed trademark applications for both Robobus and Robotaxi (via Barbara here).

Tesla’s grander vision for future roads

Here’s Elon’s talk on why today’s transportation sucks (YT: 06:07):

The Cybercab is a two-seater, as 90%+ of all demand is with 1 or 2 people in the car. In the Tesla robotaxi network, the rest of the demand is filled with Model 3 and Y owners (and of course Cybertruck etc) being able to deploy their vehicles to the network. And for larger groups, of course the robovan comes in.

Major question answered: in a quick chat interview with Franz on Holzhausen and Lars Moravy, Kim Java was able to confirm that the older, Hardware 3 running Teslas (like her 2018 Model 3) are able to run on the robotaxi network fully autonomously. “Every Tesla is a Robotaxi,” Lars Moravy said.

Elon talks of the low cost for autonomous transit, with about $1 per mile for buses, Cybercab around $0.2 per mile ($0.4 after taxes and fees). He reiterates how AI has lived “a million lives” so it’s been trained on numerous odd situations with a bunch shown on video (YT: 13:20):

Since it is always pays attention and is always fully aware of its surroundings, the autonomous vehicle can be 10-30x safer than humans.

Elon also brought up the distributed inference compute of the vehicles that are not in use, which will significantly increase over time.

Unsupervised FSD in Texas and California is planned in 2025, with Model 3 and Model Y; unsupervised FSD for S, X, and CT in the future.

Optimus bots

Here’s where Elon highlights the humanoid robots and where the progress is today (YT: 19:47):

About 20 Optimus bots were walking up on the stage and later within the crowd, where people could interact with them — the bots were teleoperated, though walking seemed autonomous, and the dance moves were certainly following already set scripts too, rather than teleoperated.

No matter what your media headlines say, the videos from the spot clearly show the bots and accompanying Tesla members saying the that the bot is not doing it all fully autonomously.

People played rock-paper-scissors or charades with the bots, had chats with the bot (well, the person behind the bot controlling it remotely), and more.

The bots were also served drinks at the bar:

And here are the Optimus bots recreating the Spideman meme.

The Optimus hand has also now been significantly improved, with 22 degrees of freedom (up from 11 degrees on the last version):

“It will be able to play the piano, maybe even some guitar,” Elon comments.

Elon said the bots are expected to cost $20k-$30k, and they can eventually assist people with household tasks, become your humanoid friend, teacher, babysitter, etc.

By the way, Tesla just uploaded a great video of (not-teleoperated) Optimus’ progress, including how it charges and walks up the stairs:

Tesla also just uploaded some new pics for such in its gallery:

I’ll wrap up the coverage here.

Leave a few words after voting if you can, curious to hear your thoughts:

Thanks for being here.

— Jaan

PS, If you’re thirsty for more on the event, here are some…

Youtubers covering the event

Now, if you’re looking for more event coverage, just go check out some of the coverage from your favorite Youtubers:

MKBHD:

Top Gear:

The Kilowatts:

Kim Java:

Dirty Tesla: