Remember when Elon Musk pretended he played Diablo? This Cybercab situation feels eerily similar. Like yes, he sorta touched video games before. He just paid gamers from China to grind the game for him and then aimlessly bumbled around with the game — not even really seeming to know the stats of the advanced equipment he somehow had — while pretending he did it all himself on stream. Yes, the Cybercab sort of exists. But it’s not really what Musk has been saying it was.
I feel like every few days we get more news about the Cybercab that doesn’t really line up with the promises we were given or the hype from the fanboys on X. This time, the guy overseeing Cybercab assembly at “Giga Texas,” Mark Lupkey, is leaving. This is the third senior-level employee involved with the Cybercab who has left the company in the last 30 days or so.
Lupkey worked at Tesla for eight years, stating on LinkedIn that he was involved in the assembly of the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Cybertruck. He wrote: “What seems impossible at Tesla becomes reality when the right team comes together.”
Unfortunately, the Cybercab team is falling apart. While Lupkey claims he is leaving to spend time with his family, it can’t be ignored that three managers left within weeks of one another. Now, Tesla is missing its program manager, ride-hailing infrastructure director, and assembly leader for the Cybercab. It’s hard to believe this is just a coincidence. Rather, it seems the Cybercab proved “impossible” no matter who was on the team. And managers are jumping ship before disaster strikes.
Cybercabs issues are all coming together as production looms overhead
We are allegedly only days away from large-scale production of the $30,000 Cybercab, with people catching all kinds of glimpses of the vehicle at various stages of development (none of them impressive). It most definitely looks bare-bones and rushed, which makes sense since Musk has been promising big things for its robotaxi service, then missing every milestone.
He promised 500 Cybercabs in Austin, Texas by the end of 2025, but there are exactly zero. Instead, there are a few dozen modded Model Y’s. Despite this, Tesla claimed it would have robotaxi fleets in six or more cities across the United States within just a few months. Some Model Y robotaxis were spotted in Phoenix earlier this month, which feels mighty presumptuous when the robotaxi service is barely functional in the city it’s already in.
While the robotaxi service not ready on the business side (invited influencers can barely hail a cab when needed), the real setback has been the technology, which is nowhere near what Musk has been claiming. Most Model Y robotaxis have to be supervised at this stage, whether by a person sitting in the front or following behind in another car. Tesla’s robotaxis currently have a crash rate three to four times higher than that of a human driver, which doesn’t make most people comfortable taking a ride in one. It’s no surprise, however, when we look at the state of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature, which California even forced the company to rename, calling it misleading.
Whether you like Waymo or not, there is no denying that one is driving around fully autonomous across U.S. cities, while the other can barely pick up a passenger.
The Cybercab is a vehicle that Musk (sort of) showed off a few years ago, a futuristic vehicle made specifically for robotaxi services. More recent glimpses at the thing show that it has no steering wheel, no pedals, and no rear window. The Cybercab cannot function as anything other than a robotaxi. The issue? The technology is nowhere near ready for that. You’re basically sitting in a cheap, empty death trap, with no way to take over if anything goes wrong. I think the only people brave enough to get inside a Cybercab right now are the Tesla fanboys on X who keep saying the carmaker is “winning” every chance they get.
It can’t be proven, but it’s very likely these Cybercab manufacturing leaders are jumping ship because the Cybercab is a bit of a failure. At least right now. It’s about to be mass-produced in just a few days, but it can’t even function as a robotaxi. I think anyone with any sense would be worried about having their name attached to such a dangerous project. You would be embarrassed at minimum and possibly part of a massive lawsuit if things ramped up. Unless we can get some real news from Musk — rather than exaggerated claims and boasting — I think it’s safe to say that Cybercab plans are confusing at best, dangerous at worst.
