Tesla sells robotaxis for $29,990, plus a $299 fee per month. But not to all customers. But it works (just not everywhere)

Elon Musk's current pet project has no steering wheel or pedals. His car manufacturer Tesla called the vehicles Robotaxis. The company announced that selected customers in the USA will now be able to pre-order some of the cars. The price for a Cybercab is estimated at $29,990 (currently around 27,000 euros).

However, it is not yet entirely clear what exactly the car manufacturer's business model with the robotaxis should look like. Musk had originally said that the majority of the vehicles, also known as cybercabs, would be on the road in the company's own Tesla fleet. At first it was not clear how many cars Tesla wanted to deliver to private customers. For autonomous operation, buyers must pay a monthly subscription fee of $299 in addition to the purchase price. The delivery date is December.

Tesla wants to fulfill an earlier promise to make the robotaxi available to private individuals. However, there are further restrictions for the few buyers. Autonomous driving will only be available in the areas where Tesla's robotaxi service is offered, wrote the responsible manager Ashok Elluswamy on Platform The group also expressly emphasizes that only private use is permitted.

The US traffic regulator advocates a brake pedal

Musk had announced that Tesla's future would lie in the production of humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles. Musk wants to use only cameras for autonomous vehicles. This approach is considered more cost-effective, but has so far been prone to disruption. Competitors such as Google's sister company Waymo, on the other hand, also rely on laser radars that scan the vehicle's surroundings even in poor visibility.

Some experts and rivals criticize that autonomous operation using only cameras as sensors is not reliable enough. Waymo has also announced that it plans to bring its own technology for autonomous driving into private cars over time.

Tesla also took issue with the US traffic regulator NHTSA over the Cybercab. In the USA, some physical controls such as a brake pedal are generally mandatory. With an exemption from NHTSA, manufacturers can put up to 2,500 vehicles on the road without a steering wheel or pedals. Tesla did not request such permission, but stated that the cybercabs met safety requirements. The authority asked the company to explain how this could be.

Musk recently announced that production of the Cybertruck electric pickup truck would be phased out in the middle of next year - according to him, also in order to have more capacity for the Cybercabs. The Cybertruck with its futuristic-looking, angular stainless steel body was once announced with a price starting at around $40,000. It came onto the market years late and cost $82,490 in the cheapest version.

Musk had promised production capacity for up to 250,000 of the pickups per year; experts estimate that Tesla sold around 20,000 of them last year.