Taxi for Musk! New self-driving Tesla Robotaxi is a two-seat ‘Cybercab’ coupe with no steering wheel
The American firm says autonomy will be “safer, faster and affordable” with the Robotaxi
Tesla has unveiled its latest creation - the long-awaited Tesla Robotaxi. The firm claims the compact two-door Robotaxi will feature FSD (full self-driving) capability and will arrive in 2027.
The Robotaxi is described by Tesla as a ‘premium, point-to-point electric transport, accessible to everyone’. During the reveal of the car at Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ event in California, the firm’s CEO Elon Musk said, “we expect it to be around 30,000 dollars”. That would make the Robotaxi roughly £23,000 here in the UK, though no plans to bring the Robotaxi over here have been announced.
Full self-driving cars got a boost earlier this year when the UK government passed a bill called the Automated Vehicles Act. It essentially enables the introduction of fully-autonomous vehicles to UK roads within the next couple of years - provided they “achieve a level of safety at least as high as careful and competent human drivers”.
Highlighting the Robotaxi’s self-driving capability is the complete lack of a steering wheel inside. That could prove to be tricky for the car here in the UK, because the Automated Vehicles Act requires a person to give inputs to the car on occasion.
The rest of the interior is as minimalist as we’ve come to expect from Tesla products with a huge screen for the car’s functions, two seats, two cup holders and an armrest. There’s no word on boot or luggage space in the Robotaxi.
Inductive charging is another standout technological feature of the Robotaxi. Musk said “it was high-time” Tesla introduced this piece of technology to its cars and it means the Robotaxi won’t come with a socket to charge up - instead it will drive onto a charging pad and wirelessly recharge.
The exterior of the Robotaxi is also pretty minimalistic with smooth, simple surfacing, full-width light bars at the front and rear, plus no rear window or side mirrors. The Tesla Robotaxi also has a set of butterfly-style doors and instead of a traditional alloy wheel design, it has blanked-off wheel discs. It’s not clear how many of these features will make it to the production car.
Technical details such as battery and power outputs of the Robotaxi have yet to be revealed, but we expect it to use the same platform as the upcoming Tesla Model 2 - the entry-level car to Tesla’s EV lineup.
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