Tesla is holding the event it has been teasing for a week today, Sept. 3: the launch of its purpose-built Cybercab robotaxi in Austin, Texas. It is a two-seat, no-steering-wheel vehicle that CEO Elon Musk is betting will anchor Tesla’s future once driverless ride-hailing, not selling cars, does the heavy lifting.
What is the Tesla Cybercab?
The Cybercab is Tesla’s first vehicle designed specifically for autonomous operation. It is a two-seat machine with butterfly doors whose production design carries no steering wheel or pedals, although some road-test units seen in the US still wear a wheel, per Reuters. Tesla first unveiled it about two years ago at a Warner Bros. studio event.
| Body | Two-seat, butterfly doors |
| Steering controls | None in production design |
| Range | About 418 miles per EPA filing |
| Battery | 48 kWh lithium-ion |
| Drivetrain | All-wheel drive, 219 hp |
| Price target | About USD 30,000 per Musk |
In documents filed with the US Environmental Protection Agency in May, Tesla listed the Cybercab as a fully electric, all-wheel-drive EV weighing 3,113 lb with a charge-depleting range of about 418 miles and 219 horsepower. Musk has said the vehicle would ultimately be available for about USD 30,000, a figure still framed as a target rather than a confirmed sticker price.
What happens at the Sept. 3 event?
Tesla has pitched the gathering at its Austin headquarters as an “Exclusive Access: Cybercab” launch event and invited riders from its existing Model Y-based robotaxi fleet, though it has not published a start time or confirmed a livestream. Whether commercial Cybercab rides begin immediately is unconfirmed: Tesla has not said if it has secured the regulatory approvals or federal safety sign-offs needed for paid driverless operation.
How the robotaxi rollout is shaping up
Before the Cybercab, Tesla has been running robotaxi service using Model Ys in limited parts of Austin, Dallas, Houston and California. Riders hail a car through a phone app, tap Start Ride and wait at a pickup point, with no driver in the car, per Tesla’s own description. Musk told investors in April that the service could expand to roughly a dozen states by the end of the year.
- Model Y robotaxis are already operating in Austin, Dallas, Houston and parts of California
- Planned expansion cities include Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Las Vegas
- The ride-hailing app is currently available only on Apple iOS
- Tesla says pricing will be a simple per-ride rate plus taxes and fees
The skeptics’ caveat and what it means here
Not everyone is sold on the scale. EV outlet Electrek argues Tesla tends to announce big fleet numbers while only a fraction of cars actually carry riders, and that the real bottleneck has been safety validation rather than vehicles. Even so, Tesla touts the Cybercab as its most efficient EV yet, and it is cheaper to run per mile than a Model Y.
Tesla still has no official sales presence in the Philippines, yet its pricing and tech shape buyer expectations here, as seen when Toyota undercut the Model 3’s price in China. Musk’s broader claims about autonomy have drawn scrutiny, something our fact-check of his recent Economist interview covered, even as brands like MG push EVs into Philippine showrooms at far more accessible price points.
The near-term takeaway: watch the road, not the stage. Whether the Cybercab launch becomes a real fleet or a demo depends on how many of those cars are actually carrying passengers a month from now.
