The Tesla Cybercab has officially launched. What that means in the medium term is not yet clear, but there are a variety of facts we now have on our desk following the launch. Let’s roll through them.
The Tesla Cybercab has been launched and is available to the public to hail as a robotaxi in part of Austin, Texas. (There are reportedly 45 Cybercabs launched in Austin at the moment.)
You can hail the Cybercab via Tesla’s RoboTaxi smartphone app. Tesla says that when you get into a Cybercab, it will adjust to your seating position and AC preferences and will start playing whatever music or videos you had playing on your phone. (For those of us who have been driving Teslas, we are used to all of this except the part at the end about the car’s infotainment system playing the videos you were streaming. We’ll have to see that in action to see how it works and with which apps.)
The Cybercab does not include a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors, and seats just two passengers.
The Cybercab has a drag coefficient under 0.20, which is super low. You can tell from the vehicle design, including the large and smooth hubcaps, that efficiency was a key focus of the vehicle. (Note that the GM EV1, which had similar hubcaps, had a drag coefficient of 0.19 and the Tesla Model 3 has a drag coefficient of 0.22.)
