https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-eK72ioDk
I just watched this video from Tesla's latest event, the "We, Robot" party. And as much as Elon Musk annoys me with his questionable antics and politics - I have to admit this was an amazing showcase. The Musk stood on a futuristic stage to introduced a lineup of products that blew my mind. Here's a breakdown of the main highlights:
The Cybercab
Musk kicked off the event by arriving in the Cybercab, a new model designed for fully autonomous operation. It looks like the stylization of the Cybertruck, but a little more curvy like the model 3. I first noticed it had no rear view window, then he announced that it has no pedals or steering wheel either. It is being made specifically for autonomous transport. He described it as "individualized mass transit" and claims it will significantly reduce the cost of transportation - citing that current public transport methods cost around ~$1 per mile, the Cybercab will only end up costing around 20 cents per mile. He also mentions that these will be available for purchase at around $30,000 when in mass production (which he estimated 2026). I assume this means that you can buy one and deploy it like an autonomous Uber driver working on your behalf - in which I am certain Tesla will take "fees" much like Uber and Lyft do so it honestly sounds like a really good business model for them on paper. He also mentions it has no plug, and uses inductive charging. He finally mentions they brought around 50 autonomous vehicles for the crowd to get rides in after the event - as they all parade by.
The Robovan
Following the Cybercab, they then roll out this futuristic looking pod-van thing and introduced the Robovan, or “Roboven" as Elon called it and continued to succeed in his attempts to be annoying. It is definitely a unique design, kind of looks like a train car. It's designed to carry up to 20 passengers or large quantities of cargo. He explained that this vehicle could lower travel costs even further, potentially to as low as $0.05 to $0.10 per mile. Like the Cybercab, the Robovan is fully autonomous, with no steering wheel or pedals.
Optimus
The finale was reserved for Tesla's humanoid robot called Optimus. He waltzes out a group of them, and also had them serving drinks and interacting with guests (but the robot's conversational interactions were seemingly done remotely by a human, like a really expensive autonomous robot cellphone. Here is an example of someone talking to one of them to see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YvEdEAX1uP4) During his presentation, Elon claims that all of the tech they are using to develop the autonomous vehicles - the electronics, motors, and AI - directly correlates to these robots, it's just a different medium, one with arms and legs instead of wheels. He claims that these robots will be able to do "anything you want" including watch your kids, mow your grass, get your groceries, or be your friend. He estimates that these will retail between $20,000 - $30,000 and be cheaper than the cost of a vehicle, before making the claim that this "will be the biggest product ever, of any kind."
On top of all this, there is a scheduled SpaceX Starship launch for this weekend as well - which I am excited to watch. Even though I despise Elon as a person, the companies he owns do really cool shit.
Here is the CNET recap video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-eK72ioDk