Tesla will start producing the Cybercab, an autonomous electrical automobile with no pedals or steering wheel, this April at its manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, CEO Elon Musk stated throughout the firm’s shareholder assembly Thursday.

His feedback on Cybercab got here simply moments after shareholders overwhelmingly authorised a compensation package deal for Musk that could possibly be price as a lot as $1 trillion in firm shares — the biggest in company historical past.

“We’ve bought the primary automobile that’s particularly constructed for unsupervised, full self-driving to be a robotaxi known as a Cybercab — it doesn’t even have pedals or steering wheel,” Musk stated, including there will likely be no facet mirrors both. “It’s very a lot optimized for the bottom cost-per-mile in an autonomous mode and manufacturing is occurring proper right here on this manufacturing facility, and we’ll be beginning manufacturing in April subsequent yr.”

Tesla has but to exhibit that its automobiles are able to driving themselves at scale with out a security monitor, regardless of years of guarantees.

Musk’s feedback appear to battle with Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm, who just lately informed Bloomberg the Cybercab would come with a steering wheel and pedals as a backup plan. Tesla as soon as deliberate to make a model of the Cybercab with a wheel and pedals, however Musk killed the thought and opted as a substitute to make very stripped-down variations of its most cost-effective automobiles.

Musk went on to tout how the Cybercab could be produced, claiming the manufacturing line would have a 10-second cycle time — an enormous acceleration from the one-minute cycle time to assemble a Mannequin Y. Musk stated this might imply producing 2 million to three million Cybercabs in a yr.

“So these will likely be in all places sooner or later,” he stated.

Tesla first revealed the Cybercab in October 2024 throughout its splashy “We, Robotic” occasion at Warner Bros. Discovery studio in California with a promise to finally promote the automobiles for private use.

Since then, Tesla has launched a really bare-bones robotaxi service, however not with the proposed Cybercab. The service, which launched in June in sure elements of Austin, makes use of Mannequin Y SUVs outfitted with what Musk has described as a brand new, “unsupervised” model of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software program. A Tesla worker sits within the passenger seat on these driverless rides.

Placing a Cybercab — or any automobile — on the highway with out customary gear like a steering wheel would require approval from federal regulators. Earlier this yr, Amazon-backed Zoox managed to get an exemption and even then it has been solely to exhibit its custom-built robotaxis on public roads. Zoox remains to be searching for an exemption that may enable it to function a industrial robotaxi service.

The regulatory course of for these exemptions is an extended and sticky one. Basic Motors tried and didn’t get approval for its custom-built Cruise Origin automobile, for instance. Waymo, the dominant robotaxi service supplier within the U.S., has caught to its modified Jaguar I-Tempo automobiles that also have conventional controls. Waymo can be creating a automobile with Zeekr.

Musk didn’t appear fazed by the potential for regulators to thwart his plans and thanked Waymo for “paving the trail.”

“I believe we’ll be capable of deploy all of the Cybercabs that we produce,” he stated in response to a shareholder query on the annual assembly. “As soon as it turns into like, extraordinarily regular in cities, it’s simply going to turn into like… the regulators could have simply fewer and fewer causes to say no.”