Musk Warns of “Agonisingly Slow” Production Ramp for Cybercab, Optimus Robots, Ahead of Q4 Earnings Call

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be setting expectations for the long-awaited debut of the company’s first fully autonomous vehicle. The Cybercab, a two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals, was unveiled in late 2024, and is reportedly now getting ready to enter production for an expected launch later in 2026. Musk has previously emphasised that self-driving cars and humanoid robots are a major focus for Tesla, helping make it by far today’s most valuable automaker, with a $1.49 trillion market capitalisation even as it continues to lose EV sales momentum across large parts of the world.

“For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast”, Musk said in reply to a post from a Tesla enthusiast commenting that mass production is expected to begin in April, less than 100 days from now. 

The Cybercab is expected to benefit from Tesla’s new modular “unboxed” manufacturing process, in which large sections of each car are put together separately and only combined towards the end of the process, rather than having a full car frame pass through a traditional production line.

Although the Cybercab has been hyped as a completely autonomous car, prototypes with a steering wheel have been spotted. The company has also walked back some of its initial fanfare, saying it might be necessary to add manual driving controls to comply with current regulations. The company continues to attract controversy for its Full Self Driving software, which has been implicated in multiple lawsuits resulting from crashes.

Tesla currently operates a small number of autonomous Model Y “robotaxis” in a limited area of Austin, Texas, and Musk has frequently promised to expand to more cities. Until this week, the cars had a human safety monitor in them, though limited rides without them have reportedly begun. A safety car has been seen following robotaxis without a human monitor inside. 

The company cancelled previous plans for a sub-$25,000 Tesla model to focus on the Cybercab. Musk has also shown demonstrations of the company’s Optimus humanoid robots, promising major disruption to industrial operations and even domestic routines, though mass production has not yet begun. 

Among his claims, Musk has said that once production ramps up, a Cybercab will roll off the production line every 10 seconds, and at least one million Optimus robots will be built in 2026.