{"id":908963,"date":"2026-09-28T20:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908963\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T20:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:38:20","slug":"tesla-cybercab-in-australia-our-man-corby-meets-the-future-and-comes-away-disturbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908963\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Cybercab in Australia: Our man Corby meets the future and comes away disturbed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fear and dread mixed with a crushing, cruel sense of inevitability. It\u2019s what I should have felt the first time I beheld an iPhone, and it\u2019s what I did experience the first time I used ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely the vibe I got as I slid into Tesla\u2019s surprisingly cheap and plasticky Cybercab.<\/p>\n

Of course, just sitting in one is nowhere near as freaky as it must be to take a ride in one of these entirely autonomous vehicles \u2013 no steering wheel, no pedals \u2013 around Austin, Texas, where Tesla officially launched its Robotaxi service on September 4 this year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Tesla bounces back with record Q2 deliveries: But what\u2019s going on with the share price?<\/a>
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READ MORE: Tesla Model 2 back on the menu? Tesla races to develop small SUV to cash in on demand for affordable EVs<\/a><\/p>\n

This shiny, slightly silly looking and very gold Cybercab (hmm, can you think of anyone who really loves things painted in gold? A good friend of Elon\u2019s perhaps?) was brought to Australia so the media could sit in it and come to terms with the fact that this autonomous shit is getting real.<\/p>\n

Tesla \u2013 or at least someone from Tesla who can\u2019t be quoted directly because \u2026 Elon \u2013 says that Australia is very much part of the market rollout for the Cybercab technology, and they point out that, for once, we don\u2019t have to wait for Tesla to build a right-hand-drive version, because the Cybercab would be good to go on our roads tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"TeslaAn angry man in a Tesla Cybercab<\/p>\n

My tip is you\u2019ll be seeing them on your streets \u2013 or at least those in Sydney (can even the world\u2019s most powerful AI deal with a Melbourne hook turn, I doubt it) some time next year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

NSW Premier Chris Minns has already expressed support for a robotaxi trial in Sydney and said he\u2019d personally be happy to ride in one.<\/p>\n

And a spokesman for the Federal Department of Transport recently confirmed to EV Central that transport ministers around the country have agreed to \u201cnew implementation timeframes for Australia\u2019s automated vehicle regulatory framework. This will enable conditional deployment of automated vehicles in select locations by 2027\u2033.<\/p>\n

For now, though, even though the Cybercab I was sitting in, quietly weeping, was a full production-ready vehicle, there was nowhere in Australia we were allowed to drive it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we did notice was that it has silly, Lambo-style doors, which no-one will enjoy as they stand on a busy road in the rain, waiting for them to slowly open at the push of a button (they are sci-fi lovely, of course, but practical, not so much).<\/p>\n

This bit of wankery is a surprise when you consider how much thought has gone into making the rest of the Cybercab seem practical. <\/p>\n

Yes, it only has two seats, but Tesla says more than 80 per cent of all ride share journeys have only one or two passengers. in Austin, they have fully autonomous Model Ys on the fleet \u2013 with steering wheels \u2013 for those who need a larger Robotaxi. <\/p>\n

\"20272027 Tesal Cybercab.<\/p>\n

This design decision also leaves room for a very large, and robust feeling, load area at the rear, which is long enough for a wheelchair or something called \u201cbicycles\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the front, the seats have no bolsters and are as slippery as a cheap couch, so you can slide in and out quickly, once you\u2019ve waited for the showy doors. <\/p>\n

In front of you is some very cheap, or rugged, carpet that should be good for soaking up kebab sauce, and vomit. <\/p>\n

And, of course, a massive screen on which you can watch Netflix, YouTube, etc, so that you don\u2019t have to think about the fact that you are being driven around entirely by a computer and you have no recourse to take over if things go sideways (there is a big Hazard button in the roof, but that\u2019s it).<\/p>\n

Weirdly, Tesla claims it\u2019s given the car those ugly plastic wheel covers because they\u2019re cheap and easy to pop off and replace, and the same goes for its many plastic exterior panels. But surely, this car will never kerb a wheel, or have an accident, so why does it need cheaply replaceable bits and bobs?<\/p>\n

For now, Tesla has reached out to local fleet operators who\u2019d like to get on the Cybercab train, but a spokesman who couldn\u2019t officially say anything confirmed that it is Elon\u2019s belief that people will one day buy a Cybercab for day-to-day use, and then be able to turn it into a working slave by sending it out to make money for them as an Uber\/Robotaxi at night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hopefully, by then, we\u2019ll also have Tesla robots to clean up the mess when it gets home.<\/p>\n

Of course I can make all the shit jokes I like. The fact is, this Cybercab thing WILL work, and will probably justify Tesla\u2019s silly share price. In fact, in the words of that wonderful human Steve Jobs, \u201cthis (Cybercab) changes everything\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"TeslaHang on, whose driving? Tesla Cybercab.<\/p>\n

I did ask about the fact that Waymos \u2013 the already extant and super safe autonomous taxis run by Alphabet\/Google across America (and also coming here soon) \u2013 uses both cameras and LIDAR\/radar systems for extra safety and Tesla uses cameras only, which seems, let\u2019s see, maybe half as safe? And I was told that Elon says cameras are all you need for autonomous driving.<\/p>\n

Next week, I\u2019m going to give his Full Self Driving (Supervised) a go. Because I like to feel existential dread, apparently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fear and dread mixed with a crushing, cruel sense of inevitability. It\u2019s what I should have felt the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,18851,44,3122,477264],"class_list":["post-908963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cybercab","tag-news","tag-tesla","tag-tesla-cybercab-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}