Tech and AI
Tesla invites some buyers to order a Cybercab for personal use at $29,990, plus a mandatory $299 monthly subscription
Developing
- What happened
- Tesla is inviting “select customers” to buy its steering-wheel-free Cybercab for personal use, but only in cities where its Robotaxi service runs, The Verge reports.
- Why it matters
- The fine print adds a $299 monthly fee without which the car can’t drive on public roads, bans commercial use and comes while US regulators are still auditing the design.
- What’s next
- Buyers pay a $1,000 non-refundable deposit for a December delivery window Tesla does not guarantee; a safety regulator’s ruling is pending.
Full story
The offer
Tesla has started inviting “select customers” to buy a Cybercab “for personal use”, The Verge reported on Saturday. The two-seater has no steering wheel or pedals, and it will “only be available in supported service areas”, which means buyers must live in one of the cities where Tesla already runs its Robotaxi service. Tesla’s Robotaxi account on X announced the offer, with screenshots of the order page and the invitation email, which warns that “initial availability is limited”.
The car is listed at $29,990, plus a mandatory “Autonomy Subscription” of $299 a month. Tesla began offering rides in Cybercabs in Austin in September and now has 278 of them in operation, about 40 percent of its fleet, according to the crowd-sourced Robotaxi Tracker cited by The Verge.
The fine print
Over a five-year ownership period the subscription adds $17,940, putting the real starting cost at roughly $47,600 before taxes, charging and insurance, The Verge calculated. Because the car has no manual controls, cancelling the subscription leaves it unable to drive on public roads at all.
“In effect, the car becomes a brick.”
The Verge, The Verge
Buyers must also pay a $1,000 non-refundable deposit to join the queue for a December delivery window that is not guaranteed. The order terms bar owners from commercial use, so the car cannot be rented out through ride-hailing apps or put on Tesla’s own Robotaxi network. Tesla’s AI chief Ashok Elluswamy has floated the second quarter of 2027 as a possible date for letting customer cars join the network, The Verge said. Elon Musk himself called the $299 fee “too high” on X, arguing it should be closer to $115 a month.
Questions for regulators
The subscription covers autonomous driving, maintenance and towing but not insurance, and Tesla has not explained how insurers will cover a car with no human driver or how liability would be split after a crash, The Verge reported. Nor has it said how invited buyers are chosen or how many cars are set aside for private sale.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a formal audit into how Tesla self-certified a vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals or side mirrors. Tesla sent its legal justification in October and asked for the whole response to be kept confidential, and it is taking deposits while the ruling is still pending, The Verge said.
