Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian reports on Tesla ( TSLA ) launching Cybercabs starting on Sept. 3 in Austin. The company expects to roll out 2,500 robotaxis in 2026.
It's been been being built in Austin. It's been being seen testing everywhere. Um, and now we have the news that Tesla said that they're going to show their production launch vehicle on the September 3rd. So that's that's the news and that's what's going to happen and eventually, you're going to see these out on the road. They're going to start replacing all the Model Ys that Tesla has as the current Robo taxis that they use for now. This will eventually replace it and
weird part is or interesting part if you want to call it that is no pedals, no wheels, steering wheel, it's just going to be its own thing you sit inside for two people, not not more than that. So that's
Much smaller.
Much smaller but uh but they say it's it's actually quite big in the inside because of the way the the platform exists, right? So you don't have a transmission and an engine and things like that. It's all kind of open there. So, uh that's and it has these scissor-like doors, right? So it's pretty cool. So that's the big news. We're going we're going to see it potentially September 3rd on a big launch event. Everyone's excited about that because it's a big part of the growth story of Tesla. It's beyond the car business. It's all about autonomy and FSD. And this is the physical embodiment of FSD is this robo taxi.
Right. And I was just taking a look to see where Tesla is year to date. We've seen Tesla somewhat under pressure down about 23%. So maybe this perhaps could be a catalyst here to watch.
Yeah, I mean, the stock didn't really do much today. Uh probably because it was expected. We've been seeing these vehicles out on the road. So, uh that's why you're probably seeing that muted response there. But if you have a good event, you never know these things can help kind of help Tesla, but usually they're sell the news type of events.
All right. Now, at the same time though, we do have Nvidia giving the green light to Tesla, to Google's Waymo, to Ubers to have these self-driving vehicles within Las Vegas within that triangle. So, what does this mean for competition? Is there someone that can come out on top?
Well, so so Nevada did a a big thing with the their their version of the DMV or whatever entity it was approving this massive uh expansion of Robotaxi testing up to 8,000 vehicles uh can be in Clark in Clark County where Vegas is located. Uh Tesla got the lion share of 5,000 robot taxis. Uh they're they're they're
chief cyber cap chief told during this during they had a public hearing about it, uh said that he expects to have around 2500 within the year and that quote 5,000 has always been a ceiling for us. Uh which is a lot. I mean that's managing a big fleet. You need to have all the different centers to clean and charge and get them ready. And then you have to have the software make sure it's it can handle that many the load, right? It's a lot of people kind of requesting a robot taxi. So this is a big deal for them.
If they can launch 5,000 in one area, I mean, that's that's a proof is in the point, right? That's a that's a big deal that they can actually get that going for their Robo taxi ambitions.
I wonder if we'll see all those videos that we have been seeing about all the different Ubers getting stuck in one place or the Waymos.
Well, that's the That's probably the fear here. Yeah, I mean if you have 5,000 vehicles that they could get stuck somewhere, right? That's
Yeah.
amongst the regular traffic in Las Vegas.
Gosh.
So that's
All right, sounds like we won't be going to Vegas anytime soon.
Well, I mean I would I don't
We got to test it out, though. Yeah. All right. All right. So maybe there's a trip in our future for us.
Market domination Vegas.
Let's do it. Let's do it. Pras, thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it.