Key Points
- Tesla invited select customers to purchase its two-seat Cybercab for personal use, priced at $29,990.
- Ownership requires a $299 monthly Autonomy Subscription, a fee Elon Musk publicly called too high.
- The move extends Tesla's robotaxi push from fleet service to privately owned driverless cars.
The latest:
Tesla has begun inviting select customers to buy the Cybercab for personal use, its first step toward putting a purpose-built autonomous vehicle in private driveways. The company set the price at $29,990 plus a $299 monthly Autonomy Subscription. Chief Executive Elon Musk said the offering would roll out nationwide as regulatory approvals arrive.
Details:
- The vehicle: Tesla announced the invitation on X alongside an image of the two-seater, which features gold-colored butterfly doors. The Cybercab was designed from the outset without conventional driver controls, making it the company’s first model built specifically for autonomous operation rather than adapted from an existing platform.
- The pricing: Tesla listed the purchase price at $29,990, with an Autonomy Subscription billed at $299 per month. The company did not detail what the subscription covers beyond autonomous capability, nor did it say whether the fee is required for the vehicle to operate.
- Musk’s objection: In a post on X, Musk said the monthly fee was too high and argued it should instead match what Tesla charges for Full Self Driving and connectivity on its other models, which he put at roughly $115 per month. He did not say whether or when the price would change.
- The rollout: Musk said the offering would become available nationwide as Tesla secures regulatory approval, tying expansion to state-by-state clearance rather than a fixed calendar. Tesla has not named which states or customers are included in the initial invitation round.
- The timeline: Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said last month the company aimed to begin selling Cybercab robotaxis to the public by the end of this year. Friday’s invitation to select buyers arrives inside that stated window.
- Where it drives: Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of artificial intelligence, said in a separate post on X that the Cybercab will operate unsupervised in all the same geographic locations as the existing robotaxi service, limiting privately owned cars to the same mapped zones as the fleet.
- The network: Tesla launched its unsupervised robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June 2025. It expanded to Dallas and Houston in April 2026 and added Miami in July 2026, giving the company four metropolitan markets where a privately owned Cybercab could currently drive unsupervised.
Background:
Tesla unveiled the Cybercab as a dedicated robotaxi intended to run on the company’s own ride-hailing network, rather than as a consumer car. Selling it to individuals shifts the vehicle from a fleet asset into a retail product while keeping the autonomy layer on subscription.
Between the lines:
Two constraints sit beside the invitation. Elluswamy’s note that the Cybercab operates only in existing robotaxi zones means a buyer outside Austin, Dallas, Houston or Miami is purchasing a car whose core function is not yet switched on locally. And Musk’s own statement that the $299 fee is too high signals the pricing announced on Friday is not settled.
What’s next
Watch for whether Tesla lowers the $299 subscription toward the $115 Musk cited, which states grant approval next, and whether the first deliveries land before the end-of-year target Moravy set.
