Elon Musk set to launch driverless 'Cybercab' at Tesla robotaxi event

Tesla chief Elon Musk is set to launch a prototype of his long-awaited pet project of robotaxi, the Cybercab. The event will take place on Thursday (Oct 10) at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank.

Self-driving cars are something that Musk has long dreamed about. When the world is moving towards low-cost electric vehicles (EVs), Musk has made a series of ambitious predictions about self-driving taxis—like they will save lives or earn their owner's money by being rented out for rides or even overnight stays.

Musk will make an elaborate launch of his dream project at Tesla’s “We Robot” event. Interestingly, this comes after the event was cancelled on its original due date for release in August, leading to doubts from thinkers and analysts that his project is still not prepared well. Hence, Musk’s Thursday event will also quell a lot of doubts about delivering on his ambitious project.

In Musk’s defence, he said on an X post that due to some last-minute changes from his side, the event had to be postponed.However, now the event will be live-streamed on X at 19:00 Pacific Time in the US on Thursday, or approximately 03:00 in the UK on Friday morning.

Robotaxis: How will they look like?

The concept of robotaxis is not new, the car rival of Tesla, Waymo (owned by Alphabet) has already unveiled their model of self-driving taxis and some even operate on US roads. But when it comes to Cybercab, little is known so far.

According to various reports, it will have two seats and butterfly wings. It is thought it will use a combination of cameras and computing power to navigate the roads, as opposed to laser-based sensors, known as Lidar, favoured by rivals.

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Musk hinted that some of the robotaxis in Tesla’s network would be owned and operated by the company and that Tesla owners would have the option to rent their vehicles out on Tesla’s network when they are not driving them.

The analysts are also expecting some on-site demos in the prototype at the event, to help understand the project better.

In the past, driverless cars have been in the news for all the wrong reasons after a pedestrian was knocked down by one such car. Despite such setbacks, this sector continues to grow. Waymo said in early October it would add the Hyundai Ioniq 5 to its robotaxi fleet after the vehicles undergo on-road testing with the company's technology.

Cab-hailing giant Uber also wants to add more autonomous vehicles to its fleet to expand on its delivery and ridesharing options for customers.

(With inputs from agencies)