Tesla opens Cybercab orders at $29,990, under Musk’s $30,000 promise
Tesla has opened Cybercab orders to “select customers” at $29,990, which is under the “below $30,000” figure Elon Musk gave when he unveiled the car in 2024. Electrek reports that Tesla’s Robotaxi account announced the invitations on X Friday evening, with screenshots of the order page and the invitation email. It is a two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals.
What Tesla is offering
- Price: $29,990 before taxes, per the order page Electrek saw.
- Delivery: an estimated December 2026, in Austin, Texas.
- The car: two seats, a 21-inch center touchscreen and 20.1 cubic feet of cargo space, with no steering wheel or pedals. Tesla calls it “fully autonomous,” and owners “manage your ride in the app.”
- To order: a $1,000 non-refundable deposit.
The fine print
- The subscription isn’t optional. The order page has a $299-per-month “Autonomy Subscription” pre-checked, with one month included. The page says: “Subscription and regular vehicle maintenance required to operate.” The email adds: “Only available in supported service areas. Subscription required for operation.” That is $3,588 a year.
- It works only in Tesla’s Robotaxi service areas. Electrek says that means eight cities in Texas and Florida: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio, plus Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
- The map may be smaller than advertised. Electrek cites an independent tracker, Koby Pierce, who tested thousands of addresses in the Robotaxi app and found Tesla accepts pickups and drop-offs in 59% to 78% of the advertised geofences in the six cities he checked, about 59% in Austin. We haven’t verified those figures.
- Regulators haven’t signed off on the design. Per Electrek, NHTSA has ordered Tesla to show under oath that a car with no brake pedal meets federal safety standards that require one. Tesla answered on October 30 and asked that the response stay confidential, and NHTSA hasn’t ruled.
PCGeek’s take
Sub-$30,000 is a real headline: a driverless two-seater with a price tag in compact-car territory. But the sticker is only part of the cost. The car is invite-only, deliveries are limited to Austin, and it doesn’t move without the monthly subscription, so the honest number is $29,990 plus $299 a month, before taxes, insurance and maintenance. Whether that works depends on how much of your driving falls inside a service area.
One caveat on our own reporting: we read Electrek’s account of Tesla’s order page and invitation, and saw the posts about it on X. We did not place an order or open the order page ourselves. Electrek’s commentary is its own opinion, and we’ve kept it out of the facts above.
Image: Steve Jurvetson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (Cybercab prototype file photo, not a delivery unit). Updated November 14, 2026.
Would you pay $299 a month to let a car drive itself inside a service area? Tell us in the comments. Follow @pcgeekinfo.
