Astro Hacker News - Tesla Opens Cybercab Orders to 'Select Customers' at $29,990 Plus $299 per Month

iBelieve |next [-]

Sure, it's geofenced right now. Sure, the subscription is triple what supervised FSD is right now. Sure, Elon's been overhyping and overpromising for a long time (though I appreciate that he's willing to dream big!). And will Tesla actually deliver this on time and as promised? We'll see. But I think it's super cool to see a company offering fully autonomous self-driving cars to private individuals. I think that's a pretty big milestone. I really look forward to someday being able to privately own a vehicle where it can drive me places unsupervised while I sleep or work or relax.

bikvfeee |root |parent [-]

> But I think it's super cool to see a company offering fully autonomous self-driving cars to private individuals

Wait, hasn't Tesla always claimed to sell fully autonomous self-driving cars to private individuals? How is this new?

iBelieve |root |parent [-]

Sure, that's been the goal, but now they're actually close to delivering on that promise. A privately owned vehicle with unsupervised self driving seems like a major milestone after supervised self driving like current Tesla FSD or company-owned unsupervised driving like Waymo or Robotaxi and the like.

MiroslavPokorny |root |parent |next [-]

Close by what definition ?

Waymo and others are hardly FSD, they have hoardes of Phillipinos ready to take over as reported by papers like the NYT.

ElProlactin |root |parent [-]

> they have hoardes of Phillipinos

What are Phillipinos?

nsoam |root |parent [-]

I suppose a misspelling of Filipino?

bikvfeee |root |parent |previous [-]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

jordanb |next |previous [-]

Can people roll their roadster deposits over to it?

uhoh-itsmaciek |next |previous [-]

Do you need a license to drive it?

dan_grec |root |parent [-]

You do not need a license to ride in a cybercab now, and have no ability to “drive” it anyway. It has no controls.

I can only assume you do not need a license.

uhoh-itsmaciek |root |parent [-]

But do you have to be over... What? 16? 18? To ride alone?

dan_grec |root |parent [-]

Yes. Over 18 to ride alone.

13-17 with an adult.

Under 13 not allowed.

Obviously the service is changing rapidly, and we don’t know of the “ownership” version will be different from the Tesla taxi version.

Utterly game changing for disabled people. I remember how much my blind uncle’s life changed with Uber.

loceng |next |previous [-]

Such a situation with an upcoming hyper-centralization that is now possible-plausible - even worse than current oligopolies-monopolies - will require the general population to actually rally to make sure there are controls in place to manage and keep pricing in check.

Quibblingeek |next |previous [-]

So it’s a car. That you can’t drive yourself. That you have to pay a subscription fee just for the privilege to be able to use it. Even though you purchased the hardware (the car). It doesn’t work if you don’t give Tesla a continuing revenue stream and is geofenced to select areas and isn’t useful outside of those areas?

To top it all off, you have to be “invited” to purchase it. You know what at this point I’d happily watch this fail.

There isn’t anything that I find appealing about this value proposition because unless you’re a true believer and are willing to lose money on this, this shouldn’t appeal to consumers. I’d have happily watched this never been released at all and to be honest given Elon’s track record it might not.

duskwuff |root |parent |next [-]

For that matter: how does "self-driving only" even work for a personal car, from a practical perspective - e.g. how do you get it to park in a particular spot? Can you take it through a drive-thru, or a toll booth? How about a car wash? Will it respond appropriately to a police car trying to pull it over or guide it around an accident? Etc, etc.

All of these are problems which can be ignored or worked around for a taxi, or for a car with an optional self-driving mode - but if there's really no way to control the car manually, the car needs to be able to handle everything itself. And I'm not sure it can.

dan_grec |root |parent [-]

Today it is already driving paying people around real cities 24x7 handling many of those things you listed.

Train crossings are still a no go, but clearly it continues to get better, geofences are increasing in size and it’s expanding to new cities.

The expansion to 24x7 was just yesterday or the day before.

dan_grec |root |parent |next |previous [-]

It’s very clear the geofence will get bigger and bigger until it’s everywhere. That could be a year from today, it could be ten. Very likely it’s in that range. They just made the cybercabs operate 24x7 in cities that have them.

Obviously not everyone wants this, but of course not everyone wants a bugatti veyron or a minivan either. We each get to choose how we spend our money on goods and services that meet our needs, we perceive as good value and bring happiness.

I’ll never own a track car. I’ll never own a cybercab. But I wouldn’t want to stop other people from doing so if they choose.

j-walker |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I think of it as having your own personal driver.

Where are you going to get that for less than $30,000 / year in the Bay Area?

Now consider you're giving your personal driver (available 24/7) a hiring bonus of $30k and then only pay them $3600/year.

onlypassingthru |root |parent [-]

It's even better than that. Presumably you will be able to recoup some of that $30k if you decide to sell it.

qwerpy |root |parent |previous [-]

Grouchy people like you were saying the same thing about FSD. It'll never work, it'll never work outside of straight highways, it'll never work in traffic, it'll never work on city streets, it'll get shut down by the govt, it'll never work in construction, it'll never work in parking lots. Not sure where the goal posts are now, but you guys can continue being grouchy while you manually drive your dinosaur juice cars around.

onlypassingthru |next |previous [-]

For those who can afford one, you're looking at the first mass market kids' chauffeur.

m463 |root |parent |next [-]

Let's say you bought one for personal use.

I think this car doesn't have an inverter to charge from AC, so it requires a supercharger.

I wonder if there will be a home dc fast charger?

dan_grec |root |parent [-]

Or it just takes itself to a supercharger and back in the middle of the night when you don’t need it.

Tesla are paying people to plug them in and unplug them at select superchargers.

Quirk93 |root |parent |previous [-]

Over 18 to ride alone.

13-17 with an adult.

Under 13 not allowed

jmpman |next |previous [-]

So I pay $299 a month for a car that has no steering wheel, and that doesn't include insurance? Am I allowed to "drive" it while intoxicated? Trying to understand the value proposition. Maybe for my mother inlaw who shouldn't be driving?

kbmr |root |parent [-]

> Am I allowed to "drive" it while intoxicated?

Yes, just like you can currently use Tesla's robotaxi service while intoxicated

rationalist |next |previous [-]

How much will it cost in AI credits to jailbreak it and plug in an Xbox controller to drive it?

BatchJob |next |previous [-]

Isnt this just a way of saying, "Yes its not really self driving, but you can rent it and let someone ELSE die!"

Anyone who buys this is going to shoulder so much liability I would be surprised any ins company would cover it.

Classic Tesla.

laweijfmvo |next |previous [-]

lmao it needs a subscription to operate, and there’s no steering wheel? so you’re essentially buying a brick and paying a subscription to hope they let you continue using it.

TheAlchemist |next |previous [-]

"Select Customers", aka Tesla influencers.

Robotaxi was supposed to cover 50% of US population by the end of 2025, how is that going ?

30k + 300/month makes absolutely no sense given that they are restricted to smallish areas of operation. Just another Tesla PR stunt.

consensus1 |root |parent [-]

It's really not bad when you think about it. Basically a private chauffeur around town for $30K + 300 bucks a month. If it had a steering wheel to go outside of the autonomous zone I would buy one. If I was richer I would buy one without a steering wheel as a second car so I don't have to drive for 90% of my trips.

MiroslavPokorny |root |parent [-]

Whats to stop Elon getting greedy and changing the price ?

zombocomvibes |root |parent [-]

Based on my experience with Starlink: nothing

archagon |previous [-]

Just as a reminder, Musk's hacking apart of USAID led directly to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the third world. He's also a white supremacist actively funding and promoting the global far-right. But yes, new product release, what fun, whee.