Tesla has started selling its steering wheel free Cybercab to private buyers, inviting select customers to order the two seat autonomous vehicle for personal use at $29,990 before taxes. The headline price makes it the cheapest vehicle Tesla has ever sold, but the car will not move without a $299 monthly Autonomy Subscription, a running cost that reshapes what owning a driverless car actually means.

What Tesla announced

Tesla announced the move on Friday, November 13, through its Robotaxi account on X: “Select customers are now being invited to purchase Cybercab for personal use.” Screenshots of the order page shared with the announcement list the two seater at $29,990, with an estimated delivery date of December 2026 in Austin, Texas, and a $1,000 non-refundable deposit to place an order.

The invitation email sent to selected customers says initial availability is limited and that the car can only be used in supported service areas. It is not yet clear when, or whether, sales will open to the general public. Bloomberg first reported the invitations, and the announcement was covered the same evening by InsideEVs, Electrek and other outlets.

What the $299 a month buys

The Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, so its owner cannot drive it. To operate, it needs Tesla’s Autonomy Subscription, which costs $299 a month, with the first month included with the car. The order page states plainly: “Subscription and regular vehicle maintenance required to operate.”

The subscription terms, published as Tesla’s Autonomy Subscription Agreement, add important limits. The vehicle is for personal, non-commercial use only, and it cannot be used for Tesla Robotaxi, third party ride hailing, delivery or rental platforms unless Tesla authorizes that use in writing. It will operate only within Tesla enabled Robotaxi geofences and supported limits. The subscription includes autonomous driving, vehicle connectivity, remote support, roadside assistance and covered services. It renews monthly, can be cancelled at any time, and payments are not prorated, though Tesla says it will give one month’s notice before a price change.

At $299 a month, the subscription adds $3,588 a year to the cost of owning the car. Electrek estimates that five years of ownership would cost about $47,600 before insurance, maintenance, taxes and charging. For comparison, Tesla owners currently pay $99 a month for the Full Self-Driving subscription on cars they can still drive themselves.

Tesla Cybercab interior with two seats and no steering wheel.
The Cybercab has two seats and no steering wheel or pedals. Image: Dllu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A car built to be driverless

The Cybercab was unveiled in October 2024, when Elon Musk said it would cost under $30,000. At $29,990, the listed price meets that target, though the subscription was not part of the original pitch. Musk reaffirmed the sub $30,000 target in February, along with plans to deliver vehicles to customers before 2027.

Tesla’s Robotaxi service now runs without a safety monitor in eight US cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio in Texas, plus Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida. Cybercab rides are only offered in Austin for now, where Tesla has more than 300 of the vehicles in service. That means the first private buyers will, in practice, be Austin customers who live and work inside the existing geofence.

Cybercab ownership at a glance: price, subscription, deposit and delivery.
Graphic: GPTOnline, from Tesla’s order page and reported terms.

Why it matters

If deliveries begin as planned, the Cybercab would be the first steering wheel free, Level 4 autonomous vehicle that ordinary people can actually buy, rather than hail. That is a genuine milestone for self driving technology, moving autonomy from a fleet service into private ownership.

But the business model is the real story. Tesla is not just selling a cheap car, it is selling a car that only works while the owner keeps paying. The $29,990 sticker price gets the attention, while the $299 monthly subscription is what keeps the car running, and Tesla can change that price with a month’s notice. For now, the combination of invite only sales, a single delivery city and geofenced operation keeps the Cybercab an experiment in how driverless ownership might work, not yet a car most people can buy and use anywhere.

Sources

Note: Tesla’s announcement was made on its official Robotaxi account on X. The exact post URL could not be retrieved (x.com is blocked for direct fetch), so no X embed is included.