Tesla's Cybercab is here | WIRED

Film studios are where Hollywood creates fantastic worlds from unusual camera angles and special effects. So what better place to showcase the Tesla Cybercab, a two-door self-driving taxi that CEO Elon Musk says will enter production in just three years – but that's still surprisingly short on concrete details.

Nearly an hour after Tesla announced the debut event would begin, Musk opened the show by being escorted to the butterfly doors of the silver Cybercab prototype by a man dressed as an astronaut. He took a quick, seemingly driverless jaunt through the dark, spooky streets of Warner Bros. Studios in Southern California before getting out of the car to take the stage.

Later, before an audience of enthusiastic Tesla fans and shareholders, Musk referred to the entire facility as a “set” – a far cry from the chaotic, busy streets where an autonomous vehicle might one day drive.

Tesla also presented a “Robovan,” a vehicle that can autonomously move up to 20 people. Like the Cybercab, the van appeared to have no pedals or steering wheel, just seats.

The interior of the Robovan. It holds up to 20 people.

Musk, a noted collector of missed deadlines, has been promising Tesla self-driving technology since 2016. On Thursday evening he made a few more promises. Fully autonomous driving (unsupervised), a technology designed to provide autonomy, will be available in California and Texas next year, Musk says. He says the Cybercab will go into production in 2026 and will ultimately cost less than $30,000.

Driving change

Tesla's approach differs dramatically from that of other self-driving vehicle developers: The electric car maker uses only cameras, rather than an array of sensors, to orient the vehicles in space. Tesla's techniques combine this visual data with artificial intelligence to enable their vehicles to make “decisions” on the road. In contrast, competitors layer in information from lidar, radar and other sensors and “blend” that data. Musk argued that loading vehicles with sensors is too expensive and adds unnecessary complexity to autonomous driving.

The event comes at a critical time for Tesla, which faces increasing competition in electric vehicles not only from legacy automakers but also from emerging companies in China that are exporting low-cost vehicles abroad like never before. Tesla deliveries have fallen globally this year and the automaker fell short of analysts' expectations in the most recent quarter. The automaker laid off around 14,000 employees earlier this year, many of whom work on the core competencies of electric vehicle production, including batteries and charging infrastructure. A number of top executives have left the automaker in recent weeks.

In April, Musk appeared to allay concerns that Tesla would lose its lead in electric vehicles by insisting that autonomy and robotics would be at the heart of Tesla's mission. “Tesla’s value is largely in autonomy,” Musk told investors this summer. Non-believers should sell their Tesla shares, he said.

This is a developing story. Please check back soon for updates.