Tesla targets Q2 2027 for owner robotaxis, Cybercab sales by year-end

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president for autonomous driving, said the software for Cybercabs and Model Y is the same and that the company expects to release it to customers as part of a V15 update. He said customer Model Y vehicles must be brought into Tesla’s geofences and fleet management before they can operate fully autonomously, and that Tesla suspects it can “turn on some of the first customer vehicles” around Q2 next year. The Verge reported his remarks.

The target echoes Musk’s 2019 promise at Tesla’s first AI Day that customer-owned cars could join a “Tesla Network” of robotaxis and earn income for owners, and his claim that a million Tesla robotaxis would be on the road by 2020. Neither has happened. Tesla has a few hundred robotaxis in Texas and Florida, some still carrying human safety monitors, and several dozen fully driverless Cybercabs in Austin, according to The Verge.

On the same call, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of engineering, said Cybercabs produced today are destined for Tesla’s own robotaxi fleet. As that fleet grows, he said, Tesla will “mainly deliver fully designed autonomous vehicles to our customers,” starting small and scaling as it learns about delivery, ownership and fleet management. TechCrunch reported that Tesla said it will start selling the gold-hued two-seater, which lacks a steering wheel and traditional controls, by the end of the year.

Musk described the Cybercab as primarily a ride-hailing vehicle rather than a car for personal ownership. “Cybercab is primarily going to be something that is offered as like transport as a service,” Musk said, according to TechCrunch, adding that “the vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be essentially Tesla-owned.” He also said an unsupervised version of Full Self-Driving would reach customers in the second quarter of next year. If both timelines hold, third-party fleet customers could buy and potentially operate Cybercabs before Tesla owners get the same autonomous capability in their own cars, TechCrunch reported.

Tesla’s current driver-assistance product, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), still requires a human driver to remain engaged. The company reported that more than 75% of new Tesla buyers in North America chose the feature this quarter, up almost 20 percentage points from the previous quarter, even as vehicle sales fell and revenue flatlined. Tesla also launched a Robotaxi safety website saying its vehicles had driven 3.3 million miles autonomously, up from 380,000 unsupervised miles reported in July, The Verge reported.

Regulatory questions remain. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the Cybercab last month, hours after the vehicles began operating on public streets in Austin. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require manual controls such as brake pedals and features such as rearview and side mirrors; automakers typically self-certify compliance. NHTSA said it would examine the process and technical data Tesla relied on when certifying the Cybercab and related issues. The Department of Transportation has proposed removing manual-control requirements for vehicles designed to be driven autonomously.

Unsupervised ride-hailing also requires local and state permits, insurance may be difficult to obtain, and in most places individuals or outside companies cannot legally use their own self-driving cars as driverless taxis or passenger rides, according to The Verge. Older Model 3 and Model Y vehicles without the latest hardware are constrained by hardware capability, while consumer vehicles need additional software layers to ensure safety without human intervention.