Tesla says it is preparing to launch its shiny gold Cybercab in new markets outside its home of Austin, Texas, in a bid to “literally take over every part of terrestrial transportation.”

“We’re starting with getting people from one place to the other, but we want to basically own transportation of any kind on Earth,” Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday.

Tesla has previously shown a concept version of a multi-passenger vehicle it calls the “Robovan,” but it’s unclear if Taneja’s bombastic comments mean the company is working on other types of transportation.

What was clearer on the call is that Tesla’s Cybercab expansion will begin in Dallas next month and spread to other cities by the end of this year. Tesla already operates robotaxi versions of its Model Y SUV in small fleets in Dallas, Houston, and the Florida cities of Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. The company also said on its earnings call that it will start selling Cybercabs to fleet operators by the end of this year.

Broader expansion of the Cybercab could set up a real fight with Waymo, which is currently the market leader for robotaxis in the United States, with more than 4,000 of them deployed across more than a dozen cities. Tesla has argued that its Cybercab is cheaper and easier to build, which should allow it to undercut Waymo and other robotaxi operators on price. But the company has to reach real scale outside Austin in order to prove that point.

Source link