Tesla unveiled its self-driving car, a taxi dubbed the Cyber Cab, and a larger vehicle called Robovan, after postponing the event that was scheduled for last August.
That came at the “We, Robot” event, when billionaire Elon Musk introduced “Robovan,” a spacious vehicle that can accommodate up to 20 people, or can be used for commercial purposes such as transporting goods. “Robovan” has a strange design, resembling a capsule, with sliding glass doors, rows of seats facing each other, and no steering wheel like the “Cyber Cab.”
He explained that the robot truck could solve the problems of high density, so if you want to take a sports team somewhere or are looking to cut the cost of travel, you can use it. The presentation raised many questions because it was devoid of details such as the vehicle’s capabilities, price or release date. Tesla revealed a self-driving vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals on Thursday night, and said it would enter production before 2027.
It took a step closer to becoming a reality when it brought Musk on stage for the company’s “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood. The website reportedAxios“You can sleep and wake up at your destination,” Musk was quoted as saying, as 20 Cybercabs drove around the lot with no people in them.
* The Cyber cab — a futuristic silver coupe with butterfly doors — will eventually cost “less than $30,000” and “we will be building this vehicle in very high volumes.” * It will cost 20 cents per mile to operate, and passengers will be able to request a car for 30 to 40 cents per mile. * The company expects to move from “human-supervised” autonomous driving in its current vehicles to “unsupervised” driving in 2025 in Texas and California using the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.
The Cyber cab will use wireless charging with electricity and will not have a charging cable. In a surprise, the company also unveiled the “Robovan,” a self-driving truck capable of carrying up to 20 passengers or configured for cargo purposes.
This comes at a time when robotic cars in China are providing self-driving taxis that allow you to travel six miles in a driverless taxi for only about 50 cents. According to CNN The service has since expanded to Wuhan, a sprawling city of more than 11 million people in central China. The city’s 500-strong fleet of vehicles is owned by Apollo Go, a unit of Chinese tech giant Baidu.
Optimus is your personal R2D2 / C3PO, but better
It will also transform physical labor in industrial settings pic.twitter.com/iCET3a9pd8
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
Tesla’s lag is evident in the progress of its competitors, such as Waymo and Baidu, which have succeeded for more than a year in providing a driverless taxi service, a service that is very popular, with 6 million trips already completed with a fleet of only 1,000 cars, thanks to the cheap cost due to the lack of a driver, with the ability to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the service costs only a third of the price of a taxi or Uber. The cost that users pay is between 0.5 and 1.0 Chinese yuan per kilometer ($0.07 to $0.14), which is incredibly cheap. With such a service, driving between Boston and New York (348 km) will cost you between $24 and $48, in your own taxi!
The main selling point here is price. Basic fares start at 4 yuan (55 cents), compared with 18 yuan ($2.48) for a chauffeur-driven taxi, state media Global Times reported . The service launched in 2022 and has been gaining momentum, with the company aiming to double its fleet to 1,000 vehicles by the end of 2024. Wuhan currently has about 17,000 regular taxis, according to the city’s transport bureau.
Self-driving taxis currently operate on a relatively small scale in several cities around the world, mostly in the United States and China, while the United Arab Emirates is also welcoming companies from around the world to conduct autonomous vehicle trials. Several US companies are in the works, including Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG), and GM’s Cruise.
