Musk unveils Tesla ‘robotaxi’ (VIDEO)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has showcased a prototype of the electric vehicle maker’s long-awaited self-driving ‘robotaxi’. The new car is projected to hit the road as soon as the next two years.

The Cybercab, unveiled on Thursday at Warner Bros Studios in Los Angeles, features two gull-wing doors and no steering wheel or pedals. It is expected to go into production in 2026, and will be priced at less than $30,000, according to Musk, who also presented Tesla’s new Robovan that can carry 20 people.

“Probably, well I tend to be little optimistic on time frames, but in 2026,” the CEO said, speaking to the assembled crowd. “Before 2027, let me put it that way.”

The tech entrepreneur emphasized that operation of the vehicle, which is “highly optimized for autonomous transport,” would eventually cost $0.2 per mile as charging would require no plugs.

Musk pledged to transform the Tesla transportation experience into supervised full self-driving that will allow people “to fall asleep and wake up at your destination.”

Discussing safety, the billionaire entrepreneur compared the shift to autonomous vehicles with the switch from human-operated elevators to automatic ones.

 “We’ll see autonomous cars become ten times safer than a human,” Musk said. “The autonomous future is here, we have 50 fully autonomous cars here tonight. You’ll see model Ys and the Cybercab. All driverless.”

Tesla first started beta testing of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, the latest version of Autopilot technology, four years ago. The feature, however, has faced intense scrutiny from US federal regulators. Earlier this year, the US Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated it had opened an investigation after receiving reports of 20 crashes involving vehicles that had Autopilot software updates installed. Tesla had already recalled the vehicles.