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Tesla just confirmed the Cyber 
Cab production will begin in 

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April of 2026, and Elon Musk 
says the vehicle will have no 

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steering wheel and no pedals. 
Manufacturing will look more 

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like a high volume consumer 
electronics line like Apple and 

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iPhone than a car factory. 
And the goal is to produce 1 

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unit every 10 seconds. 
But right now, the Cyber Cab 

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prototypes spotted testing on 
public roads in Austin over the 

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past few weeks all have steering
wheels. 

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Human drivers are sitting behind
the wheel with our hands on it. 

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This is normal for engineering 
validation and you need manual 

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controls for safety during this 
testing phase. 

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Now the question is what happens
after the testing ends? 

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Test bedding its future on a 
vehicle? 

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It cannot legally deploy a scale
unless regulators approve 

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steering wheel less cars, and 
Tesla has not demonstrated the 

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unsupervised autonomous driving 
capability that would justify 

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that approval. 
So is the cyber cab going to 

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launch as promised or is Tesla 
building a backup plan? 

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We're going to walk through the 
production timeline, the 

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regulatory constraints, the 
state of Tesla's Full Self 

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Driving software, and what these
prototype sightings actually 

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tell us about where the Cyber 
Cab program is headed. 

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But first, let me take care of 
one quick thing now. 

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Elon Musk dropped the April 2026
timeline at Tesla's shareholder 

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meeting in November 2025. 
He described a manufacturing 

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process unlike any car 
production line Tesla has built 

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before. 
The Cyber Cab will use Tesla's 

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unboxed process, which assembles
the vehicle in large modules and

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brings them together Near the 
end of the line. 

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Giant aluminum front and rear 
and giga casters replace many 

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smaller stamp parts and the 
initial target is a 10 second 

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cycle time with a longer term 
goal of five seconds per 

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vehicle. 
And at those speeds, Tesla 

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projects production capacity of 
at least 2 million cyber cabs 

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per year once the line matures. 
That would make it the highest 

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volume single model in Tesla's 
history. 

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And the starting price is 
expected to be around $30,000, 

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which would also make it the 
cheapest Tesla. 

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Now the vehicle is A2 seater 
with butterfly doors, no rear 

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windows, no mirror, no steering 
wheel, no pedals and a 20.5 inch

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center display. 
The passengers sit back and let 

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the car drive itself. 
And that's the vision. 

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But reality right now looks a 
little bit different. 

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In the last week of 2025, 
multiple cyber cab prototypes 

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were spotted driving in downtown
Austin. 

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The two prototypes were 
traveling in tandem on South 

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Lamar. 
Another cyber cab approach and 

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intersection on Congress Ave. 
And every sighting of the cyber 

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cab, you can see a steering 
wheel through the side window. 

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A human driver has their hands 
on it. 

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The prototypes are marked with 
engineering decals that read 

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Cyber cab Tesla Engineering 
Prototype V-001 Now this is 

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standard for development 
vehicles. 

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Regulations require manual 
controls when testing autonomous

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vehicles on public roads. 
A safety driver must be able to 

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take over if the system fails. 
And seeing steering wheels in 

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prototypes is totally expected. 
What matters is whether the 

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production vehicle will still 
have them. 

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And. 
I've been digging through our 

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analytics of the show recently 
and noticed that around 37% of 

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you are following this channel. 
And I appreciate you. 

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For you, I am forever grateful. 
And the other 63% haven't hit 

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00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,280
the follower subscribe button. 
And I've been an independent 

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journalist covering Elon Musk, 
SpaceX, Tesla, all of his 

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companies and surrounding 
technology for the last six 

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years. 
And I'll continue for the next 

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10. 
And all I ask from you is one 

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second of your time to hit the 
follower subscribe button on the

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platform you're watching or 
listening on right now. 

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I'm extremely for you and 
blessed to have you in this 

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community. 
So thank you. 

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Now, let's get back into it. 
Let's talk about Tesla's 

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chairwoman, Robin Denno. 
They admitted in late October 

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2025 the Cyber Cab might get a 
steering wheel if needed. 

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It was a rare break from Musk's 
rhetoric. 

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At the WE Robot unveiling in 
October 2024, Musk was explicit,

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he said. 
No mirrors, no pedals, no 

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steering wheel. 
But Denholm's comment 

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acknowledged the regulatory and 
technical hurdles. 

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Federal rules kept the number of
vehicles without traditional 

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controls at 2500 units per 
manufacturer per year. 

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That limit exists because 
regulators have not certified 

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that any company can safely 
operate steering wheel less 

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vehicles at scale. 
Now Tesla would need an 

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exemption to sell millions of 
cyber cams without manual 

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controls. 
The exemption depends on 

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demonstrating that the 
autonomous system is reliable 

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enough that manual controls are 
necessary, and Tesla has not 

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demonstrated that yet. 
The current version of full self

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driving in consumer vehicles is 
called supervised FSD. 

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It requires constant driver 
attention. 

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Drivers must keep their hands on
the wheel and be ready to 

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intervene, and it is not a 
technicality or regulatory 

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formality. 
Tesla uses this language because

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the system is not reliable 
enough to operate without 

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supervision. 
It makes mistakes. 

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Sometimes those mistakes are 
dangerous. 

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The system struggles with 
construction zones, unusual Rd. 

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markings, and edge cases the 
human drivers can handle 

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intuitively. 
In the Model Y Robotaxi is 

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operating in Austin since June 
of 2025 have logged over 250,000

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miles in the city across 
1,000,000 miles in the Bay Area 

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with a safety driver present. 
Now the service has reported 4 

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incidents to NHTSA. 
That works out to roughly one 

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crash every 312,000 miles. 
Now that that's not bad for an 

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early stage autonomous service, 
but is not good enough to remove

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the person in the car, the human
backup. 

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Now the standard for 
unsupervised operation is not 

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just being better than average 
human drivers. 

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Standard is being reliable 
enough that removing the 

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steering wheel does not create 
an unacceptable risk. 

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Now Tesla is preparing to expand
its robo taxi service beyond 

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Austin too. 
Musk announced that Miami, 

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Dallas, Phoenix and Las Vegas 
are next. 

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These cities have different 
traffic patterns, weather 

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conditions, and road 
infrastructure than Austin. 

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Each expansion test the limits 
of a system trained primarily in

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one environment in Austin. 
And if the Model Y robotaxi 

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still need safety drivers in 
Austin after six months of 

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operation, it's unclear how the 
Cyber Cab will operate without 

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any driver at all in cities 
where the system has even less 

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experience now. 
Tesla delayed its next 

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generation AI5 chip to mid 2027.
That means the Cyber Cab will 

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launch on the current AI 4 
hardware. 

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And if AI4 has not achieved 
unsupervised autonomy in the 

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millions of Model Threes, and 
Model Y is already on the road, 

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it's hard to argue it will 
magically do so in the cyber 

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camp by April of 2026. 
Whusk acknowledged during the 

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shareholder meeting that 
regulatory approval and 

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production rate will need to 
match that. 

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He said the rate at which Tesla 
receives regulatory approval 

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will roughly match the rate of 
cyber camp production. 

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He described it as maybe a 
little tight, and that's an 

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understatement. 
Tesla is betting that by the 

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time the production line is run,
regulators will have approved 

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the vehicle for operating 
without manual controls. 

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History suggests that that is 
very optimistic, and Elon Musk 

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has been promising full autonomy
for years, and it has always 

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been a year away when he says 
things about it. 

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Now, crash testing of Cyber Cab 
prototypes is already underway 

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in Giga. 
Texas drove footage from late 

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December showing multiple units 
in a storage lot after frontal 

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inside impact tests. 
Giga castings for the Cyber Cab 

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are piling up at the factory. 
Tesla is clearly moving toward 

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production. 
The company is also hiring for 

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the program and building out 
Cortex 2, the AI supercluster 

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that will train future versions 
of FSD and Optimist. 

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The infrastructure is coming 
together and the software is the

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question mark mark. 
Tesla cannot deliver 

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unsupervised autonomy. 
Cyber cab becomes A2 seat car 

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with no trunk, no rear window 
and awkward proportions for 

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consumer use. 
It was designed for robotaxi 

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operations, not personal 
ownership, and the steering 

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wheel and pedals would turn it 
into something it was never 

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meant to be. 
Now. 

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Elon Musk thanked Waymo during 
the shareholder meeting for 

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paving the regulatory path. 
Waymo has been operating fully 

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driverless vehicles in Phoenix 
and San Francisco since 2020. 

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The difference is the MO uses 
Lidar high definition maps in a 

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geofenced operating domain. 
Tesla relies on cameras alone 

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and claims the system will work 
anywhere regulators have allowed

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Waymo to operate because its 
approach is conservative and 

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transparent. 
Tesla's approach is ambitious 

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and opaque, and the company does
not publish detailed safety 

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data, does not restrict 
operations to mapped areas. 

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It promises A generalized 
solution that works everywhere. 

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Now if that's true, that's very 
compelling. 

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And the problem is that Tesla 
has not proven that this is 

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true. 
And the most likely outcome is 

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that Tesla launches a cyber cab 
with a steering wheel and 

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pedals, sells the vehicle 
possibly is a cheaper Tesla that

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can be a what taxi wants. 
The software is ready. 

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This is essentially what Tesla 
has done with every other 

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vehicle it sells. 
The Model 3 and Model Y were 

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sold with the promise that they 
would one day drive themselves 

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and that you could use them as 
cyber cabs and rent them out to 

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people for the day. 
And you can literally go to work

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and while you're at work for 8 
hours. 

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He has said in the past that you
could let your car make money 

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for you while you're working 
because it's just sitting in a 

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parking lot. 
You send it out so it could be 

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its own cyber cab. 
Now owners hit for full self 

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driving capability years ago and
are still waiting for the actual

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full self driving capability 
that's full. 

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And the cyber cab would follow 
the same pattern. 

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Buy the hardware now and then 
get the autonomy later if that's

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the route that they go. 
Maybe. 

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And the main concern is that the
cyber cab is poorly designed for

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consumers. 
It is a 2C vehicle with limited 

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storage. 
It has no mirrors and no rear 

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visibility. 
It was built for passengers, not

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for drivers. 
And adding a steering wheel does

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not change the fundamental 
limitations of the design. 

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Tesla may end up with a vehicle 
that works as neither a consumer

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car nor a robo taxi if that's 
the path they choose. 

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I don't think they're going to 
do that. 

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What I think I think is going to
happen is they're going to push 

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back the timeline a little bit 
for the very, very slow roll out

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of a cyber cab with a steering 
wheel. 

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And then they'll take the 
they'll have the capability of 

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taking the steering wheel off in
the future. 

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Now production is set for April 
2026. 

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Musk says the cyber cab will be 
unlike any other car. 

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He might be right, just not in 
the way that he intends. 

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The vehicle represents Tesla's 
biggest that yet on autonomy. 

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If it works, Tesla becomes the 
dominant market player in a 

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trillion dollar transportation 
industry. 

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If it does that Tesla has built 
a factory to produce millions of

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two seat cars and vehicles, then
nobody can legally use without 

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human controls. 
Steering wheels and those 

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awesome prototypes are more than
engineering artifacts at this 

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point. 
There are a glimpse into a 

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00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,040
compromise that tests may be 
forced to make due to 

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regulations. 
Hey, thank you so much for 

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00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,120
listening today. 
I really do appreciate your 

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00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:50,640
support. 
If you could take a second and 

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00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,800
hit the subscribe or the follow 
button on whatever podcast plat 

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00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,240
thing on right now, I greatly 
appreciate it. 

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00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:58,600
It helps out the show 
tremendously and you'll knit and

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00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,840
each episode is about 10 minute 
to get you caught up quickly. 

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00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:06,720
Please, if you support the show,
evenmore.com/stage Zero and 

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00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:08,720
please take care of yourselves 
and each other and I'll see you 

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00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:09,160
tomorrow.