Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company’s Robotaxi, the Cybercab, will be built on a manufacturing line inspired by a high-tech consumer electronics production line, able to roll out a Cybercab every 5 seconds.
Now, the company has surprised many by announcing that it will start full autonomous operation of the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, by June this year.
In a post on X, after a meeting the Austin city and department of Transport officials, Tesla said: “The future is autonomous & it starts in Austin, this June”.
The future is autonomous & it starts in Austin, this June
Thanks to Austin City & Texas DOT for hosting & supporting our efforts to unlock safe & low-cost premium point-to-point electric transport pic.twitter.com/4kcMAZuwl0
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 25, 2025
This is well ahead of the timeline company previously provided for the operation of the Cybercab and was expected to use a fleet of its Model Y vehicles.
The announcement was followed by a post by Eric E, a principal engineer on the Robotaxi product who shared Tesla’s interactions with the officials in Austin: “Exciting day talking about Robotaxi with critical operational stakeholders. Thanks again to officials at Austin Transportation and Texas DOT for organizing these AV Exhibits.”
Although the details of how this trial will operate, and within what boundaries, this is potentially quite big news and also hints at the production of the Cybercab product at its Austin Gigafactory.
Tesla originally unveiled the Cybercab at the We-Robot event in October 2024 where demonstrations of the service were offered to attendees.
At the event, alongside revealing the vehicle, Musk hinted that this two-seater model is expected to be in production by 2026 at a price point of around $US30,000 or under $A45,000.
Given the latest news, it’s likely to be in just 3 months from now, ahead of the expected 2026 production run.
To get the Cybercab down in price and ease production complexity, Tesla has focused on parts reduction, manufacturing methods, automated production lines and materials technologies.
Eric E, the principal Cybercab program engineer, also revealed that the total structural parts count in the Cybercab would stand at roughly 80 when compared to the Model Y, which has around 200 parts.
Tesla’s Cybercab’s operation in Texas will differ from other trials, such as Waymo, because its product relies purely on vision to deliver self-driving, while others focus on more complex systems that include Lidar.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.