The Robotaxi Experience in Austin

MotorTrend recently sent social media editor Jofel Tolosa to Austin, Texas, to experience Tesla’s official Cybercab launch. During a 24-hour period in the only city where the service is currently open to the public, Tolosa utilized the Tesla Robotaxi application to complete five distinct trips around the city center to evaluate the platform's viability.


Understanding the Costs

Pricing for the Cybercab service is dynamic, shifting based on supply and demand. Across five trips covering a total of 11 miles, the total cost came to $33, averaging approximately $2 per mile. This rate is competitive with industry rivals such as Uber, Lyft, and Waymo, which typically fluctuate between $1 and $2 per mile depending on traffic, surge pricing, and wait times.

Silvio Brugada, Tesla’s head of vehicle software for Cybercab, noted the company's strategy: «We also use dynamic pricing to balance supply and demand. As we add more and more Cybercabs to our network, our average wait times are going to get lower and lower and lower, largely due to dynamic pricing. And our pricing is going to be very competitive.»


How the Service Functions

To secure a ride, users rely on the Tesla Robotaxi app. Upon requesting a vehicle, the car approaches and prepares the cabin according to user-defined profile settings, including seat positioning, temperature, and entertainment preferences. The vehicle also uses external and internal lighting cues to ensure the passenger identifies the correct unit.

As Tolosa observed, «Hailing a Cybercab was easy and similar to Lyft and Uber. The cool part of the app is it will direct you to your Cybercab with arrows. This is useful if there are many Cybercabs picking up people nearby.»


Cabin Design and Comfort

The Cybercab features a minimalist interior—lacking a steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedals. The butterfly doors operate automatically, and the cabin houses two seats upholstered in black leatherette. However, the passenger experience in terms of comfort is mixed. Tolosa noted that the seats felt somewhat flat and lacked lumbar support, though he praised the interior for being surprisingly spacious for such a compact vehicle.


Autonomous Performance

The vehicle operates using an advanced iteration of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system. While the ride quality is described as smooth and familiar to anyone who has been in a Tesla, passengers can expect the occasional bump on rougher terrain. Regarding the autonomous driving capabilities, Tolosa remarked: «The self-driving is amazing. It's a smooth and quiet ride. The signal lights don't make a sound either.»


Current Limitations

While impressive, the technology is still in its early stages of public deployment. Key limitations observed during testing include:

  • Drop-off precision: The vehicle sometimes finished the route a few minutes' walk away from the exact destination.
  • Route restrictions: Cybercabs are currently restricted to surface streets and do not operate on freeways.
  • Coverage areas: Services are not yet available for routes to locations like the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Despite these minor hurdles, the integration of multimedia features, such as YouTube streaming and personalized music accounts, ensures that the ride remains engaging while the vehicle handles the navigation.