Tesla has launched its Cybercab robotaxi service in part of Austin, Texas, with reportedly 45 vehicles now on the road. Riders hail one through Tesla's RoboTaxi phone app, and the car has no steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors, seating just two people. It relies only on cameras for navigation, with no radar or lidar sensors, and has butterfly doors that open and close on their own.
The vehicle is built around efficiency and low cost. Its drag coefficient (a measure of how much air resistance a shape creates) is under 0.20, lower than the Tesla Model 3's 0.22. It runs on a 48-kWh battery pack using Tesla's 4680 battery cells, and the electric motor is smaller, lighter, and more efficient than other top EV drive units, according to Tesla. To cut manufacturing costs, Tesla uses a shortened assembly process and molds the body panels from gold-colored plastic instead of painting conventional materials.
This is industry news about a robotaxi service, not a home upgrade program, so there's nothing here that changes rebates, incentives, or equipment choices for your house. It's worth knowing about mainly as a sign of where Tesla's battery and EV manufacturing technology is headed, since some of that same cost-cutting and efficiency engineering can eventually show up in the broader EV market, including cars people charge at home.
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