By: Nick Gambino
On Thursday at the Warner Bros studio lot, a self-driving Tesla robotaxi rolled up to a crowd anxiously waiting for the man of the hour. The car pulled to a smooth stop and out popped Elon Musk to kick off the We, Robot event.
For the next 20 minutes Musk proceeded to talk about and show off the future of self-driving transportation. The robotaxi he drove up in is called the Cybercab. The aesthetic heavily borrows from the recently launched Cybertruck.
The Cybercab is a slick two-seater without a steering wheel or any pedals whatsoever. It will apparently cost less than $30,000 and is expected to be available sometime in 2026. Though, if the continuously delayed Cybertruck rollout has taught us anything, it’s that you’re better off not placing any bets on these Tesla timeframes.
There were over 20 Cybercabs cruising around the Warner Bros lot and 50 autonomous cars in total, giving rides to anyone who wanted to know what a future where robots drive you around might feel like.
While the Cybercab was definitely cool it was the Robovan that really had jaws gaping. The luxury electric vehicle cruised in looking like some sort of futuristic magnetic rail car. Apparently the Robovan can fit up to 20 people in comfort. It’s like a medium sized bus (or a big van as the name suggests) without all the emissions city buses tend to put out.
While the inside looks luxurious I really wonder how long it’ll stay like that once you open it up to the general dirty public. No offense to humans, but we’re gross. You can’t just give us nice things with beautiful white seats and expect it not to be destroyed.
We’ll see what the final design looks like. The Robovan probably won’t hit the road for several years. By then it might be a completely different vehicle. Or they could scrap it. Or we could all move to Mars, another Elon Musk dream.
All I’m saying is anything is possible and dreaming is nice. That may be all this We, Robot event was really about – giving us more to dream about.
