Tesla Robotaxi To Cost Under $30,000: Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Robotaxi will be available for purchase before 2027.

Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi

Photo by: InsideEVs

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Oct 10, 2024 at 11:14pm ET

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The Tesla Robotaxi will start at under $30,000, according to CEO Elon Musk.
He claimed the per-mile cost of Tesla's autonomous cars would be about 30-40 cents when deployed en masse in the future.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the sleek Robotaxi today at the Warner Bros. Hollywood studio near Los Angeles. He hopped into the smoothly-sculpted vehicle with butterfly doors, which has no steering wheels or pedals, and then drove around the Warner Bros. lot to showcase its capability.

Musk said customers will be able to buy the self-driving cab at under $30,000—that's something several automakers are trying to achieve with their regular electric cars to address the lack of affordability and make EVs more appealing to a broader set of car buyers.

That's much cheaper than the Model 3 sedan currently on sale which starts at over $42,000 after Tesla discontinued the base rear-wheel-drive version after tariffs on Chinese-sourced components kicked in last month.

It's worth noting that Tesla has infamously promised cheap EVs which ended up being pricier. The Cybertruck was supposed to cost under $50,000 but now starts at $80,000. It would be available in 2026, but Musk admitted that he tends to be optimistic about the time frames.

Gallery: Tesla Cybercab

Tesla Cybercab

Tesla Cybercab Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi

Source: Tesla

It could be game-changing if Tesla can stick to that sub-$30,000 price tag. But before any of that, Tesla will have to prove that its Robotaxi is safe and legal on U.S. roads.

Several AI and autonomous vehicle experts told InsideEVs that Tesla's technical approach with its self-driving cars is flawed. Tesla only uses cameras and AI on the Robotaxi whereas rivals like Waymo use a more comprehensive sensor suite including radar and LIDAR. Plus, there are unanswered questions regarding the Robotaxi's business model and operations.

We don't have any official platform details and how that factors into the cost of the vehicle, so it's unclear how Tesla will hit that ambitious price bracket. But the automaker has the manufacturing capacity to produce it at scale and knows a thing or two about driving down costs.

Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi

InsideEVs

Tesla buyers won't necessarily have to wait till 2026 to experience autonomy. The Model 3 and Model Y are expected to get unsupervised self-driving capability in California and Texas by the end of next year, contingent on regulatory approvals. Eventually, the Cybertruck, Model S and Model X would apparently get that capability too.

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The automaker said the Cybercabs would be "most affordable" and "cheapest to operate." As per Musk, the average cost of a bus ride is about a dollar per mile, whereas the Cybercab would cost 20 cents per mile. After factoring in taxes it would probably be 30-40 cents per mile.

His justification for the Robotaxi was that average car owners only drive about 10 hours per week, which has 168 hours in it. So autonomy, according to Musk, would help people save both time and money. Of course, this is only in theory so far and we'll have to see how it materializes over time.

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