- Tesla's upcoming Robotaxi has been slimmed down to have just half the components as a Model 3
- This has led to substantial cost savings for Tesla, and likely the reason it projects it will be able to price the car so low
- There are still hurdles Tesla will need to overcome before the steering wheel-less car can hit public roads
Tesla's Robotaxi concept is all about doing more with less. Whether that be parts, humans behind the wheel, or dollars spent on the car itself—the goal is to strip down the car as much as possible to drive down the cost of production.
Tesla has gotten very good at this, as it revealed at the first stop on a public showing tour of the Robotaxi at its flagship showroom at Santana Row in San Jose, California. During a discussion with the principal engineer of the Robotaxi project, it was revealed that engineers have managed to cut the number of parts in the Cybercab prototype down to just half of what's found in the production version of the Tesla Model 3 today.
"Two seats unlocks a lot of opportunity aerodynamically," said Eric, Tesla's lead engineer on the Robotaxi project. "It also means we cut the part count of Cybercab down by a substantial margin. We're going to be delivering a car that has roughly half the parts of Model 3 today."
The most obvious cost-cutting method is ditching that pesky steering wheel and pedals. Who needs those in a car that's supposed to drive itself, anyway? And while we're at it, let's just remove the entire rear seat assembly (and the two doors for the rear passengers). But there are also smaller changes, like only featuring three physical switches: two on the center console—the purpose of which has been argued to be either for the windows or doors—and one for the dome light.
Another example is the roof, which you'll notice is metal rather than glass. Folks on Twitter who were at the event say that while the metal roof may be cheaper and easier to unpack in Tesla's new "unboxing" production method, a Tesla engineer reportedly revealed that it proved to be quieter as well.
And perhaps one of the most behind-the-scenes ways that Tesla saved on parts count is the vehicle structure. According to a user on X who attended the event, the Robotaxi reportedly has just 80 parts in the body structure compared to the current Model Y's 200. Couple that with the car only supporting wireless charging and you'll quickly start to see how all of these tiny corner-cuts add up.
"This product is meant to be of extreme efficiency and we work really hard to deliver that. The efficiency isn't just on energy consumption-based, it's on the concept of cleaning," Tesla's engineer continued. "It's also on the concept of reliability and service as well."
The mantra behind Tesla's cybercab isn't the same as Colin Chapman's old adage "simplify, then add lightness”—it's "simplify for the sake of simplifying."
Think of all the potential benefits of fewer parts: lower production cost, ease of repair, and greater reliability. Tesla is really flexing its production and engineering know-how with the Robotaxi project; a subtle brag and explanation of how Tesla projects that it can price the car under $30,000 without racing the rest of the world to the bottom. Now let's see them apply that same logic to solving panel gaps and alignment issues on existing new cars.
Of course, all this is for naught if Tesla can't solve self-driving. While its latest FSD v13 release is said to bring some major advancements, it still isn't perfect. If it wants to keep its ambitious Robotaxi release timeline of 2026, the automaker needs to fix a lot of edge-case scenarios very quickly. And that's something it's been trying to do since CEO Elon Musk first promised a fully autonomous coast-to-coast drive in 2016.
