Tesla Cybercab: Private Buyers by Year-End, Tesla Says

Tesla Cybercab

Tesla says first customer Cybercabs arrive by the end of 2026

On Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, engineering VP Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers before 2026 is out. Right now, every one coming off the Texas line goes straight into Tesla’s internal robotaxi fleet.

Then Musk reset expectations. He described the Cybercab as mainly a “transport as a service” product, meaning Tesla owns the cars and sells you rides. Private buyers will exist, but they’ll be the exception, and InsideEVs points out they’d effectively be beta testers.

That’s a big shift from the pitch. When Tesla first showed the Cybercab, Musk promised a price under $30,000 and floated a future where owners would send their cars out to earn money on Tesla’s ride-hailing app while they slept. On this call, that side-hustle dream barely came up.

Here’s where things stand. Tesla has built a few hundred Cybercabs for development. It already sells paid rides in them in Austin, Texas, and says Dallas is coming soon. Meanwhile, federal safety regulator NHTSA is investigating Tesla for running a vehicle that lacks some federally required equipment. Rival Zoox recently won NHTSA approval to charge for rides in a vehicle without the usual manual controls, so a legal path exists. Tesla just hasn’t finished walking it.

Why it matters to you: if you hoped to buy a cheap self-driving car and let it pay for itself, don’t hold your breath. The realistic near-term way to “own” a Cybercab is to tap an app in a city where Tesla runs them. And the big unanswered question remains: with no wheel and no pedals, what does a private owner do when the software can’t handle a dirt road, a flooded street or a police officer waving traffic around a crash?

Think of it like buying a ticket, not a car. Tesla wants to be the airline; it doesn’t really want to sell you the plane.

EV Sales

Rivian is now America’s No. 2 EV brand

Cox Automotive data shows Rivian sold 19,239 EVs in the third quarter, enough to pass Chevrolet for second place among US EV brands. Toyota came third with 12,904 and Cadillac fourth with 12,358. Perspective check: Tesla’s Model 3 alone (40,346) outsold Rivian and Toyota combined, and the Model Y moved 99,037. The new, cheaper R2 helped, but delivery vans built largely for Amazon still made up most of Rivian’s sales. The R1T pickup (5,852) also outsold the R2 (3,456) for now. Toyota in the top three is worth noting for East African readers who know the brand for bulletproof Land Cruisers and Hiluxes.

General Motors

GM: “We’re not walking away” from EVs

At a tech briefing in New York, GM President Mark Reuss insisted the company is sticking with electric cars, noting that one in four new vehicles sold worldwide is now an EV. GM previewed a fourth-generation EV platform aimed at mainstream buyers, built around its lower-cost lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery cells and a new centralized computer. GM says those cells could undercut LFP batteries on cost. No launch date, price or range was given, and the backdrop is rough: Ultium sales have missed targets and the Bolt is ending production early.

Charging

Electrify America’s biggest station skips the Tesla plug

Electrify America just opened its largest site yet: 24 stalls, each rated up to 350 kW, on South John Young Parkway in Orlando, close to I-4, the airport, Disney World and Universal. The catch is the connector. Every stall is CCS1 only, so drivers of most Teslas and Rivians, which now use the NACS plug, need an adapter. Florida ranks second only to California for registered EVs, so expect plenty of theme-park road trippers to notice.

Formula 1

FIA wants V8s back in F1 by 2030

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem wants V8 engines back in Formula 1 in 2030, a year earlier than rumored, and hopes for an answer within a few months. He needs at least four of the six engine makers to agree. V8s last raced in F1 in 2013. Today’s hybrids split power roughly 50/50 between electric and combustion, a formula that has drawn criticism, and the ratio was already due to shift toward combustion in 2027 and 2028. Ben Sulayem also wants smaller, lighter, cheaper cars. He spoke on the sidelines of the Rwandan Grand Prix announcement, a big moment for African motorsport.