Elon Musk Unveils Tesla Cybercab, Robovan and Updated Optimus Robot 73
At Tesla's "We, Robot" event at Warner Bros. Studios tonight, Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Cybercab, Robovan, and an updated version of the Optimus robot. Slashdot is at the event capturing photos and getting demos of everything announced. You can follow along on X. Below is a summary of each of the offerings.
Tesla Cybercab: The Tesla Cybercab is a futuristic, fully autonomous robotaxi designed without a steering wheel or pedals, positioned to revolutionize mass transit with extremely low operating costs. It features a sleek design with upward-opening butterfly doors and a compact cabin that seats two passengers. Musk said the Cybercab uses inductive charging instead of a traditional plug-in. "Something we're also doing is and it's really high time we did this is inductive charging. So the robotaxi has no plug it just goes over the inductive charger and charges so yeah, it's kind of how it should be." The vehicle is expected to cost under $30,000. Regulatory approval will be needed before it can go into production, which is projected to begin by 2026 or 2027. Tesla Robovan: The Tesla Robovan is a dustbuster-shaped electric passenger van featuring sliding glass doors, a bright interior, and carriage-style seating for up to 20 passengers. "One of the things we want to do and we've seen this with the CyberTruck is we want to change the look of the roads the future should look like the future," said Musk. Musk also claimed that autonomy will "turn parking lots into parks," as fewer cars will be needed and they won't sit idle for most of the day. Pricing and release details were not disclosed. Tesla Optimus: The updated Tesla Optimus robot is a humanoid designed to handle everyday tasks, such as retrieving packages or serving drinks. Optimus walked on stage and interacted with attendees, though its current capabilities are still limited. Elon Musk envisions the robot as a transformative product, with plans to produce millions of units at a price of around $20,000. "It'll be able to do anything you want. So it can be a teacher, babysit your kids, it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks. Whatever you can think of, it will do." Optimus is expected to start performing useful tasks by the end of the year, with broader availability projected by the end of next year. In closing, Musk said: "I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind. Because I think everyone of the 8 billion people of Earth, I think everyone's going to want their Optimus buddy." Developing...
Tesla Cybercab: The Tesla Cybercab is a futuristic, fully autonomous robotaxi designed without a steering wheel or pedals, positioned to revolutionize mass transit with extremely low operating costs. It features a sleek design with upward-opening butterfly doors and a compact cabin that seats two passengers. Musk said the Cybercab uses inductive charging instead of a traditional plug-in. "Something we're also doing is and it's really high time we did this is inductive charging. So the robotaxi has no plug it just goes over the inductive charger and charges so yeah, it's kind of how it should be." The vehicle is expected to cost under $30,000. Regulatory approval will be needed before it can go into production, which is projected to begin by 2026 or 2027. Tesla Robovan: The Tesla Robovan is a dustbuster-shaped electric passenger van featuring sliding glass doors, a bright interior, and carriage-style seating for up to 20 passengers. "One of the things we want to do and we've seen this with the CyberTruck is we want to change the look of the roads the future should look like the future," said Musk. Musk also claimed that autonomy will "turn parking lots into parks," as fewer cars will be needed and they won't sit idle for most of the day. Pricing and release details were not disclosed. Tesla Optimus: The updated Tesla Optimus robot is a humanoid designed to handle everyday tasks, such as retrieving packages or serving drinks. Optimus walked on stage and interacted with attendees, though its current capabilities are still limited. Elon Musk envisions the robot as a transformative product, with plans to produce millions of units at a price of around $20,000. "It'll be able to do anything you want. So it can be a teacher, babysit your kids, it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks. Whatever you can think of, it will do." Optimus is expected to start performing useful tasks by the end of the year, with broader availability projected by the end of next year. In closing, Musk said: "I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind. Because I think everyone of the 8 billion people of Earth, I think everyone's going to want their Optimus buddy." Developing...
Doubled down on stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
The camera locations on the cybercab, like those on the model y and 3 etc. are shit. In FSD mode, on certain intersections .. Tesla vehicles have to jut about 3 feet further into it than a human driven car. And yes that 3 feet makes a difference, it's annoying to the cross traffic and causes them to stop and then if there are two lanes to cross it is another mess. It's really starting to look like someone like Benz may solve autonomous vehicles before Tesla.
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I'll stick to my JohnnyCab thanks. I mean, Musk got us to Mars years ago so he must have JohnnyCab technology in these new FSD cabs... right?
I thought he also had fleets of Model 3 FSD cabs on the streets already. I recall him promising that if you bought a Tesla for $30K you could use it as a FSD cab and make a fortune -- that was years ago so the numbers must be huge already.
It's not like this guy would promise the earth and deliver a hand full of dirt -- is it?
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Inductive charging! We're losing a lot of capital building chargers so we're gonna have the government build it out for us. The Future!
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Careful with posts like that, you might summom teh Rei
Same donkey different blanket (Score:2)
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It's really starting to look like someone like Benz may solve autonomous vehicles before Tesla.
Well given that Benz has certified level 3 autonomous driving systems and Tesla doesn't, yes they will. But in reality several companies are way ahead of Tesla when it comes to autonomous driving. When talking about Musk people seem to forget the millions of miles other companies have driven fully autonomous for years now. It's like the word Musk somehow makes Waymo cease existing.
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I can never quite get my head around these things. I just took a look at MB's description of what Level 3 enables, and it says this: "On suitable freeway sections and where there is high traffic density, DRIVE PILOT can offer to take over the dynamic driving task, up to the speed of 40 mph. The control buttons needed for this are located in the steering wheel rim, on the left and right above the thumb recesses. Once conditions are suitable, the system indicates availability on the control buttons. When the
Good ideas for public transport... (Score:1)
In a lot of areas on the US where normal buses just don't do the job, having robovans come around might be the only way to have any effective public transportation, especially areas that are not well serviced by traditional bus routes. For example, a student area that needs shuttle buses coming every 5 minutes, where 1-2 Robovans can be used for that, and at peak times, send larger buses.
The Cybercab can be useful as public transportation because it allows people to get use of a vehicle from their place to
Re:Good ideas for public transport... (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, for low capacity services, smaller buses exist. Just buy a smaller bus.
On a different note, the cybercab concept you have isn't a terrible idea, in fact it already exists here but just using regular cars with drivers. You can book a trip with a mobile app that you get on your phone and someone will come to pick you up at the scheduled time. People with disabilities get door-to-door service as well with wheelchair accessible transit vans.
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The advantage of driverless / autonomous cabs / vans will become evident some years in the future once there are a lot of them going around.
At present obviously it seems like having a driver is better but once these things scale up you will find that the costs go down drastically due to no driver, electric, cheaper vehicle with way more 24/7 utilization of each car. Then you will feel how did we ever live without these. Like cheap high speed internet.
Probably not so much for buses which are already cheap (t
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See, I agree that in theory costs could go down dramatically. In practice I can only see Tesla scooping up all the extra money and transportation ending up being more expensive than ever, but also more inconvienient. I would love to be proved wrong though.
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They want absolute control over every piece of their cars, from the sale to the maintenance and the warranty. They want payments up front for sight unseen 2nd hand vehicles where you have to trust that they won't ship you something wors
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You left out the fact outside of large cities, most locations refuse to fund public transport in the first place and any government program is perceived as some form of communist oppression or tyranny.
That's the USA you are talking about.
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That's isn't left out, that is tangential to the discussion. If you don't fund public transport then you can expect a private company to take up the role. If that role isn't profitable then it won't exist. We have a technical solution. The fact that it hasn't been adopted is evidence of the economics of the situation. The Cybercab will face those same problems.
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*Robovan
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Now what I could be made and I think it's easier to design, is to have smart tramways that are segregated from other traffic. Trams have also the big advantage that they don't require batteries to operate. By the way Skoda [youtube.com] is testing an autonomous tram system. There are a lot of things that h
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In a lot of areas on the US where normal buses just don't do the job, having robovans come around might be the only way to have any effective public transportation.... For example, a student area that needs shuttle buses coming every 5 minutes, where 1-2 Robovans can be used for that, and at peak times, send larger buses.
The Cybercab can be useful as public transportation because it allows people to get use of a vehicle from their place to a destination, 24/7.
You do realise that such things have been done for years,? At least outside the USA, with conventional vehicles. The Robovans are a driverless equivalent of Minibuses. My mother has used the ones provided (on-call and free of charge) to elderly people and everyone moans about them because they take all day to get anywhere, dropping or collecting people from all over the place en-route.
Make driving great again (Score:2)
I sense the dark maga in the styling of those vehicles.
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Take a run of the mill Tesla chassis, bolt on some stainless steel panels, don't ask any questions about why nobody does that or what'll happen when you get in a crash.
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The event was supposed to be based on I-robot - maybe the designs too. Which was an interesting choice because I thought that movie was an incredibly bland envisioning of the future and also one of the most plothole filled movies I've seen recently.
Swings up (Score:1)
The doors will bang into stuff.
From the video clips I saw, really more Lambo doors - maybe a bit out but more up.
Damn, Leader/Father, this Koolaid is ON POINT. (Score:2)
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Supposedly they've done very little at all to get regulators to approve their robotaxis so far, which seems to me like a blatant delay strategy.
They may be hoping that the regulatory delays can given them the time to actually make an autonomous driving system that works, or, if someone else makes one, they can buy them out.
So I'll bet you'll have a long wait till they're actually in production.
Re: Damn, Leader/Father, this Koolaid is ON POINT. (Score:2)
Cybercab seems OK (Score:2)
* Cybercab idea seems like a decent idea but it will need heavy initial investment, assuming it actually gets regulatory approval.
* Robovan seems to still be in the idea stage.
* Optimus will remain a plaything for the rich until they start making it more capable which requires a lot more R&D time.
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A Tesla van would be fine if he could get the cost down, but he can't. He's been doing absolutely nothing to improve his tech for over 5 years now.
His robotics division isn't even a joke, it doesn't exist. He's just making it up.
This is all silly hype and nothing else. He's getting ready to try and take that $55bn dollar pay package again and he's pumping the stock. That's what the Cybertruck was, but then that lawsuit completely screwed u
Re: Cybercab seems OK (Score:1)
Thoughts on these (Score:1)
Van and Cab - seem like great ideas and Tesla self-driving already beats out most driving by cabs I've been in over time.
I really like the model where just anyone can buy one and have them start servicing an area. The one thing I wonder is how often cleaning these things will be a problem, but then I guess that brings you to:
Optimus: If this can really do basic chore stuff like cleaning I really think it would have huge amounts of traction. Soemthing like this is badly, badly needed to take care of an ag
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Robots could also be used to raise the standards in assisted living homes.
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I really like the model where just anyone can buy one and have them start servicing an area. The one thing I wonder is how often cleaning these things will be a problem, but then I guess that brings you to:
Basically you will be running a taxi company. Have you ever wondered why that profession has tended to attract shady people in the past?
Even just having a vision that others can see and also work towards is worth a lot, and I thank Elon for that.
Do you seriously believe that Musk is the only person who has ever thought of this stuff? Robots, automatic cars : by the age of 8 most people have thought of them or seen them in sci-fi films and comic strips, which is no doubt where Musk picked up his ideas.
no steering wheel or pedals and low cost = owner d (Score:2)
no steering wheel or pedals and low cost = owner doing hard time when that thing kills some one.
And that owner may be like an amazon dps owner lots of liability but no real control.
put the Robovan in the las vegas loop (Score:2)
put the Robovan in the las vegas loop
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Have you seen what the ground clearance looks like on that thing? I don't know if they added a skirt to it or what, but it looks to me like it can't handle gradient change (which exists in the Vegas loop). I'm not sure how that thing can handle speed bumps.
So... we should really expect Cybercab in 2035? (Score:2)
If Musk says 2027, given his track record... I'll put money down on 2035 at the earliest. Although I'm betting the inductive charging is never going to happen, this will end up being a plug-in vehicle like the rest.
For the Robovan... given Musk's past non-Tesla vehicle announcements, I'm betting 4-5 years from now this "van" will have morphed into just another Tesla car model that holds 4-5 people. And all the fanbois here will claim "you are mistaken - it was never anything but a Tesla car model".
Optimus..
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"It'll be able to do anything you want. ... Whatever you can think of, it will do."
I can hear Elon now, "Robot, do the middle-out compression motion".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: So... we should really expect Cybercab in 2035 (Score:2)
I came in with low expectations (Score:5, Insightful)
He failed to meet them.
The trouble with the Cybercab is it needs unsupervised self driving. So I expected he'd do what Cruise and Waymo are doing, LIDAR and a carefully mapped section of a city and build from there. Instead it was a (hardcoded) demo on a studio lot. Instead it's going to be vision only and NNs top-to-bottom, so it will work in only a year for the next 30 years.
The Robovan, also autonomous. So again, not happening.
And then the Optimus, a robot that can currently walk slowly and awkwardly, and carrying out some dance moves that involve not moving its feet, is going to become a generalized personal servant.
Here's a question, if the Optimus is so close to being a domestic servant then why is Musk giving the Cybercab lossy inductive charging? Why not have a robotic charger that can automatically plug in the car?
And if the Cybercab is going to be under $30k then why can't he make a regular EV for under $30k?
The only part of the show I can see being an actual product line in the next decade is the the inductive charging. But except for people with enough solar and home battery storage that the power is basically free (or they don't care about the cost) I'm not sure that's useful.
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The reason Tesla will not build a regular EV below 30k, is for the same reason Apple will not release an iPhone below $400. There are just too many customers buying their more expensive products, there really is no need to go lower.
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if the Cybercab is going to be under $30k then why can't he make a regular EV for under $30k?
I expect the Cab has a much smaller battery, which is the most expensive part of a Tesla. An autonomous cab can have a 50 mile range and recharge between jobs. It is overall lighter and simpler. Does not need so much power if restricted to urban areas.
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The only part of the show I can see being an actual product line in the next decade is the the inductive charging.
In a world where we are increasingly trying to charge cars as fast and efficiently as possible I see inductive charging as a great example of early onset dementia of everyone involved. This is even more critical for commercial vehicles. Unless his Muskness intends his cars to sit around unused for most of the day it is a hugely stupid design decision.
The whole reason Tesla was at the forefront of the EV taxi industry was precisely because of the ability to have minimal downtime.
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And if the Cybercab is going to be under $30k then why can't he make a regular EV for under $30k?
The price of the Cybertruck doubled from what Musk promised at its launch event. So on that basis, the Robtaxi's production cost will be about the same as his regular EVs.
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Tesla has been trying and failing to build a robot charger since around 2012, that's why they went with inductive charging. Meanwhile Nio has had public battery swap tech for years now, with the car automatically parking itself in the correct spot and the process taking about 4 minutes.
The way Optimus walks tells us that they haven't mastered the basics yet. The reason it looks constipated is because it has to maintain balance at all times, so can only take very small steps. The big leap forward (pun intend
This is so obviously false (Score:2)
We all know he's lying to us, why do we let him do this?
Re: This is so obviously false (Score:2)
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Move along, nothing to see here (Score:2)
Re: Move along, nothing to see here (Score:2)
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It is really sad to see this shite, instead of a Model 2 that would actually have been compelling for Europe and SE Asia, and possibly could even have made smaller cars more alluring for US consumers after years of bigger being better. Instead, we got all this shite. It's absurd. It screams of a man who has lost his way, in every sense (because let's face it, Tesla's strategy is set by him, soup to nuts)
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It seems like he has some psychological block towards making a model 2. Its all anyone wants, its what the investors are always screaming about.
Weird because I suppose he could just copy a Chinese electric car that's better than a tesla anyway and sell it as the model 2 for that magical $30,000 price tag. Maybe that's harder to do than it sounds or maybe his mind is so busted now days he simply can't manage even that.
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I'm sure it's hard, but Tesla did already demonstrate the ability to scale and lower costs twice before (Roadster to S, S to 3), so it seems odd they can't manage it a third time. After all, the de-contenting is pretty straightforward and saves quite a bit of cost right from the off -- cheaper glass, manual seats without heating and ventilation, etc. And the BoM is obviously lower for a smaller car, and Tesla is great on mpkwh so they can use a smaller battery pack too. It really should have been feasible t
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The Cybertruck is the one he dreamed of and sketched when he was 8 years old and said he would get people to make for him when he grew up. That is now off his bucket list and he is switching to politics and feuding on Twitter/X. Lately he has been doing about 60 tweets per day, practically full time. That is in addition to the four or five other companies he is supposed to be running, plus attending the numerous court cases and hearings that he has incurred
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It is really sad to see. It was a genuine business success, which did some pretty fantastic things, by no means perfect, but undeniably leading the way on electrification of ground transport, and he's pissed it up the wall by focusing on new obsessions instead.
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What do we all want? A cheap efficient compact electric car.
Most auto manufacturers have dropped their low-end compact cars from the US market. They just don't sell well here, often because car buyers with a constrained budget are more likely to be shopping used rather than new in the first place.
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While that's true, wasn't the same also said of sedans? And the M3 did pretty well. The best thing Tesla had going for it, was that many consumers were willing to take a fresh look at how they thought about cars when they saw Tesla products. Tesla had the chance to change US perceptions of small cars again (little cars weren't always unpopular). And of course, if Tesla truly wanted to be global, then the smaller car segments are how they could have won across the rest of the world.
Optimus go to office and do what my boss says.. (Score:1)
When will this Optimus be good enough to go to office/work and do what my boss says.. ? I mean what my boss's optimus says
3 products, all of them probably a decepticon. (Score:1)
Musk can't even get self-driving cars to work... (Score:1)
Normal people figured out long ago that Elon Musk isn't a real-life Tony Stark, he's a real-life Lyle Lanley [nocookie.net]
Any article title that starts with the words "Elon Musk" should only contain variations of the words "worthless" and "fraud"
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"Trains suck, so I reinvented the train to replace the train, and my reinvention of the train sucks even more".
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"Trains suck, so I reinvented the train to replace the train, and my reinvention of the train sucks even more".
Musk's hatred of trains has been a long-standing motivation of his. I guess he got stuck at a level crossing one day while one of those slow mile-long freight trains went past. Similarly the LV Boring tunnel idea came to him while stuck in a traffic jam, so had the idea of a rat-run for millionaires - although it hasn't worked out anything like that because of practicalities. Musk doesn't cope well with practicalities.
The USA has a very different type of railway system from Europe, with very few passen
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I took a look at that article. The article pointed out the stupidity, the cost, the lack of accessibility, etc. But it didn't say that the cars actually failed at the self-driving, which is what you seem to be implying.
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The cars can only do the self-driving very slowly, which means the tunnel is actually a very slow way to travel down the length of Vegas. Yeah, the strip is often packed with cars, but there are parallel streets on either side so that's not a big problem.
Musk. (Score:2)
Hilarious that someone thought Slashdot would be the place to "reveal" this like we'd all be hanging on Musk's every words with credit card in hand.
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Hilarious that someone thought Slashdot would be the place to "reveal" this like we'd all be hanging on Musk's every words with credit card in hand.
I don't see anywhere that anyone thought that. In fact TFA sounded like a neutral and factual account of the event, with any claims preceded by "Musk said ...", which most people take as a red flag these days. Neutral as it was, TFA does gives the impression to anyone with half a brain that the presentation was another typical load of Musk BS. We've heard it before and it's getting tedious.
I haven't seen the presentation itself yet, but I don't have high expectations. The whole idea of buying a Robota
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Isn't it also quite heavily regulated in many US places? It certainly is in the UK. For example, in London, you have to get a licence to operate a private hire (taxi) company, and the duties are quite onerous.
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It's heavily regulated where there is a lot of competition. In other places it is not very difficult. Also, I don't know how it works in Europe, but in the US you can drive a taxi on your basic license. You don't need a commercial one until you are dealing with a heavy truck operated commercially (forget the number and too lazy to look it up but it's something like GVWR over 14k lb.) So you can operate a car or van as a taxi pretty cheaply in most places, unless you live in a state with expensive insurance.