Tesla will unveil its Cybercab and with it Musk hopes to lead the company into a new era

Tesla will hold a live event called “We, Robot” on Thursday, where the company is expected to unveil a fully autonomous vehicle that CEO Elon Musk has dubbed “Cybercab.”

A self-driving taxi that can pick up passengers and deliver them safely to their destination is an idea that Musk has been toying with for several years. Some analysts say if the new robotaxi works, it could lead the electric vehicle maker into a new era of automotive innovation.

Still, many critics are skeptical that Tesla can sell safe, self-driving cars on a large scale because of the numerous state and federal safety regulations governing its current driver-assistance technology. But Musk himself is confident, posting on X – the social network he owns – that “this will be one for the history books.”

“We, Robot” was originally scheduled for August 8, but was postponed after Musk called for a “major design change” to the vehicle. In a post on

A Hollywood production

“We, Robot” opens at 7 p.m. in the backyard of the Warner Bros. Discovery film studio in Burbank, California. Blockbuster films like “Batman” and television shows like “Friends” were filmed there.

“We’re literally talking Hollywood here,” says Patrick George, editor-in-chief of InsideEVs.

The property offers plenty of space, leading some to speculate that it will be used to demonstrate the car's self-driving capabilities in real time. But it's far from representative of a real-world driving environment, and that's cause for skepticism, says George.

“I have to wonder how authentic it is. “For example, if Tesla had really cracked fully self-driving cars, why not do this demonstration in downtown Austin, where they are, which also has a lot of traffic, or in downtown Los Angeles?” he tells ABC Audio.

The “cyber taxi”

Musk says the Cybercab would work similarly to a traditional taxi service. Instead of drivers, the cars will be autonomous, and what's more, Tesla owners will be allowed to dispatch their own cars to collect fares when they're not using their vehicles.

In June, Musk said at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting titled “Cyber ​​Roundup 2024” that his vision for a driverless taxi service is similar to ride-hailing service Uber and vacation rental app AirBnB.

“So there will be some cars that Tesla owns itself, in a kind of Uber style. But for the fleet owned by our customers, there will be something like an AirBnB thing,” Musk told investors. “You can add or remove your car from the fleet at any time.” “It almost sounds like an Uber-like application,” says George, “that would allow these specialized vehicles or, who knows, maybe even passenger Tesla vehicles, to get in to operate on this robotaxi network.”

But even in the run-up to Thursday evening's event, Musk's claims have raised eyebrows among ride-sharing industry representatives. In a podcast interview with venture capital investor Logan Bartlett earlier this year, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed skepticism that “a Tesla owner or owner of another car would want that car to be driven by a complete stranger.”

Dan Ives, a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, says Musk hopes the Cybercab can accomplish two goals. First, the data collected from autonomous taxi rides could form the basis for other projects he is working on, such as the humanoid Tesla robot called “Optimus.” In addition, Ives says, Musk is also looking to create a permanent revenue stream from ridesharing so the company doesn't have to rely on buying new cars every year.

“It’s not just about selling a car and the margins it makes. It’s about software, fully autonomous driving, autonomy and ultimately their views from a data perspective that will ultimately drive robotics, Optimus and other technologies.”

“There he sees that everything will develop. He believes it will make Tesla a multi-trillion dollar company, and I think it will power the many other companies he runs,” says George.

Tesla's bumpy autonomous past

Tesla currently offers a semi-autonomous driving technology called Autopilot that can keep the car in its lane and accelerate and decelerate with traffic. Additionally, Tesla buyers can opt for the $8,000 Full Self Driving option, designed for slower city driving. The company claims that Full Self Driving “enables the car to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention,” but also specifies that the feature “requires active supervision by the driver and does not make the vehicle autonomous “.

“It still requires a human maintainer, a human operator. So it’s not really fully autonomous driving,” says George.

Earlier this year, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration analysis of more than 900 crashes in which Autopilot was believed to have been engaged found that the system likely contributed to 467 of them, resulting in 13 deaths. NHTSA is also investigating whether a massive recall of nearly every Tesla ever made went far enough to affect the safety of Autopilot.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the NHTSA's findings.

“This all shows how risky this is for Tesla,” says George. “They are, so to speak, relying on a completely untested technology and making it clear that they see it as the future. And they have to deliver.”

The financial stakes

Earlier this month, Tesla reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. The company said it delivered nearly 463,000 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter, up from just over 435,000 in the same period last year.

Still, stocks fell on the news as investors eye Tesla's shrinking market share amid increasingly competitive electric vehicles from other automakers. George says that's why Tesla has a lot at stake ahead of the Robotaxi event.

“It may also be less about selling a product to future owners and more about convincing Wall Street that he is on the right track to keep the Tesla stock price high,” says George, adding: “They've been kind of successful.” Alluding to the fact that this has been around for 10 years, and I think we're realizing more and more that this check is due.”

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