Tesla invites customers to buy robotaxi for personal use

Tesla said on Friday (13) that it was inviting selected customers to purchase the Cybercab robotaxi for personal use in an initiative to advance the delivery of fully autonomous vehicles designed for this purpose to consumers.

The automaker published the ad on the

Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a post on X that the offering would be available nationwide as Tesla obtains regulatory approvals.

"The monthly fee is too high," admitted Musk, adding that it should be equivalent to the cost of Tesla's Full Self-Driving and connectivity for other models, which is around US$115 (R$650.32) per month.

The Cybercab will work unattended in all the same geographic areas as the robotaxi, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of artificial intelligence, said in a separate X post.

The announcement comes a week after the company said it will phase out production of the Cybertruck at its Texas factory around mid-2027, following years of persistently weak sales of a futuristic model that was touted as a competitor to traditional pickup trucks.

Last year, Tesla debuted its autonomous cars in Austin, USA, using Model Y sports utility vehicles, and the Robotaxi service has gradually expanded to several other cities in the states of Texas, Florida and California.

However, state laws require that many of these vehicles have a human supervisor or driver ready to take control if necessary.

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company, offers its services in 11 North American cities.

In September, U.S. auto safety regulators opened an investigation into the Cybercab, questioning how Tesla concluded that a vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals or mirrors meets federal safety standards.

Tesla highlighted what it called the vehicle's safety and ease of use for people with disabilities and claimed the Cybercab was "democratizing clean transportation for everyone."