Tesla’s next sci-fi move: fully autonomous Cybercab and Robovan

On Thursday night, it was show time again for Elon Musk in an appropriate setting: the artificial city of Warner Brothers’ studio lot in Los Angeles. Here, he could safely unleash a fleet of twenty fully autonomous two-seater Cybercabs and add a ‘one more thing’ surprise, the 20-seater Robovan.

The whole thing was submerged in a science-fiction atmosphere called ‘We Robot,’ complete with a show role for Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots, who dance better than their spiritual father and act as bartenders and waiters.

Little technical details about the much-hyped ‘$30,000’ Cybercab were released, and only a vague timeframe – “before 2027” – as Elon Musk has a history of promising the future today, having to swallow it back later.

Vision of the future

Nevertheless, Musk once again showed a vision of an autonomous future, which might seem awkward for a man supporting Donald Trump, who already said if he gets to be President again, he will ban autonomous vehicles from the street.

Tesla’s Robotaxi or Cybercab—both names were used during the presentation—is, as expected, a two-seater with butterfly-wing doors and no steering wheel or pedals. Only a big central screen sits in the middle of the ‘dashboard’ in front of the passengers.

Elon Musk did not provide technical details at the event, except that the autonomous taxi will use ‘cheaper’ camera and AI technology instead of the expensive LiDAR other autonomous vehicles like Waymo use—all this to keep the price of the cab under $30,000 (€27,400).

According to Musk, ‘everyone should be able to buy one,’ but he merely sees it used by fleet owners that, somewhat like a sheppard, can tend a flock of Cybercabs spread over a city like Los Angeles remotely.

The Cybercab, as seen now, has no charging port. It will charge wirelessly through an inductive charger and not by plugging in a cable, so it does not need human intervention. In a video, Musk also showed the idea of robots cleaning the vehicle seats and screen automatically, again without human help.

The idea is that the Cybercab can offer rides at an essential cost of one-fifth – some 20 cents – of the price of today’s bus ride (one dollar), up to 40 cents with taxes and everything included. The Cybercab is to drive fully autonomously in all circumstances (SAE Level 5) or at least in strict geofenced areas (Level 4), as is already done by Waymo and others in some cities today.

The bumpy legal road ahead

However, the legal road to Level 5 autonomous driving is still bumpy. Tesla will have to make considerable effort to get today’s ‘supervised’ Full Self Drive (FSD) technology to become ‘unsupervised’ and allowed to be used on American roads.

However, Musk is confident that Tesla can legally offer it by the end of 2026 in states like California or Texas, already in the Model 3 and Y and, by extension, all Teslas. No additional hardware will be needed, he promised.

More interesting than technical details is the vision of mobility in the city of tomorrow, where Musk envisioned the myriad of parking lots of today converted to green parks as individual parking would no longer be needed.

Cars only used 10 hours a week

Musk said today’s cars are used in America on average 10 hours a week out of 168, leaving the potential for multiple uses in their time off, like last-mile parcel deliveries or sharing.

Paradoxically, it’s just the ‘sharing’ that was questioned most by the critics on the two-seater Cybercab, as you’ll need several to move a family with children or to go out with friends. That’s where Musk conjured a white rabbit out of his hat, surprising his audience in Steve Jobs-style with ‘one more last thing’: the Robovan.

The streamlined, fully autonomous shuttle offering a luxurious seat for 14 up to 20 people could be straight out of a Warner Bros. science-fiction movie, but Musk intends to keep that futuristic look once (and if?) it hits the streets.

Although Musk didn’t mention a launch date, it could be legally better suited to hit the streets first as shuttles like this are already today used in well-determined routes with fewer challenges to expect, as Level 4 autonomous driving. He envisions a ride in such a shuttle should cost as little as 5 to 10 cents—a perfect ‘public transport’ example.

The whole ‘We Robot’ event in Los Angeles was bathing in a science-fiction atmosphere, but not a dark and grim one like the one pictured in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner with Harrison Ford—one of Musk’s favorites—but rather a bright one, Musk said.

A future where humanoid robots—that use a lot of the same tech as in self-driving cars—are becoming affordable at prices under $30,000 and can help as personal assistants. ‘Everyone should have his own R2D2 or 3CPO in the future,’ Musk jested.

However, Musk, also known for his distrust of artificial intelligence taking over from humanity, hinted that robots could be a blessing for humans for 80%, but still, 20% could be used for darker purposes.

Three laws of robotics

Tesla’s “We Robot” event mimics sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov’s ‘I Robot.’ Those were originally a series of short stories that appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 to be compiled into a single publication in 1950.

There, Asimov introduced for the first time the three laws of robotics, which were used many times in all kinds of science fiction movies later:

• The First Law states that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.