Tesla’s next big bet, the Cybercab, to go into production next year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the company’s Cybercrab Robotaxi will go into production in the second quarter of 2026,, helping the company increase its sales target to 3 million cars in the next 24 months.

At the company’s Q3 earnings call today, Musk advised that Tesla aims to start the production of its two-seater model without a steering wheel or pedals in the second quarter of 2026, within 24 months of its first unveiling.

Tesla aims to use this model to further expand its Robotaxi network in the US before going to international markets.

This is also in correlation with the recent job postings at Tesla’s Austin, Texas, Gigafactory. 

Equipment technicians and manufacturing engineers specialising in Press, Castings, Tools and Die shop have been advertised, hinting towards the manufacturing team for the Cybercab to be expanded before the end of the year.

On the AI front, Tesla also shared that the company has been working on a “Lite” version of Full-Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised for Hardware 3 owners, some of whom have threatened law suits because they have been unable to access the technology. 

During the call, Tesla’s CFO Vaibhav Taneja, said: “We do want to solve autonomy first, and then we will come back with a way to take care of these customers. For what it’s worth, my daily commuter is a HW3 car.”

This means that owners of older vehicles with Hardware 3 will also be able to get FSD in the coming year, with the US release expected in Q2 2026.

In recent months, Tesla has rolled out FSD Supervised software in Australia, including a subscription offering for owners. The software is currently compatible with newer Teslas with Hardware 4.

Hardware 3 owners have been unclear about whether they would be able to use FSD Supervised software in the coming months. This update shows that Tesla aims to provide a version of the FSD software for those owners.

Musk also shared an update on the next version of its humanoid robot, Optimus. The company aims to unveil the next version of Optimus early next year.

During that part of the call, Musk said: “We look forward to unveiling Optimus V3 in Q1. I think it will be quite remarkable,”.

Looking into the company’s financials, it shared that Tesla’s free cash flow reached $US4 billion, which is at an all-time high, after getting it down to $0.1 billion in Q2 2025.

This shows that the company is geared up from a free cash flow standpoint as it commences production with the Cybercab in 2026. We look forward to seeing the production progress in the coming months, as it could very well be the first mass-market car without a steering wheel or pedals.