Painting: at dawn a woman in a dressing gown waves from her porch as a gold Cybercab leaves the driveway by itself.

Your car could
have a job.

What it costs, where it works, when it could pay you back.

See the honest price

Dawn. A driveway in the Hill Country.

One day in the working
life of a Cybercab.

On November 13 Tesla began inviting select customers to buy one for personal use: two seats, no steering wheel, no pedals.

Follow it from the driveway at dawn to the charger at three in the morning, and see what it costs, where it can go and who gets paid.

Painting: a kitchen table with a mug, glasses and a notebook of tally marks; through the window a gold Cybercab in the driveway.

$47,631.

What a $29,990 Cybercab costs after 5 years of the subscription.

Change the years

The kitchen table. Somebody is doing the sums.

Change the years.
Or the fee.

Monthly fee
Sticker price
$29,990
Subscription, 59 billed months at $299
$17,641
5 years, all in
$47,631
The same years at $115 a month
$36,775

Before taxes, insurance and charging. The first month is included in the price, so five years is 59 payments.

Painting: four keys on a rack in a hallway; one carries a paper tag that reads $299.

The key is rented.

Without the monthly subscription, the car does not move.

Read the eight clauses

The hallway. One key has a tag on it.

Eight clauses,
in plain English.

What you agree to with the $1,000 deposit. It is not refundable.

    Painting: a white picket fence running through a Texas subdivision under a noon sky; a gold Cybercab on the near side.

    Eight cities. One fence.

    A Cybercab works only inside the line.
    1,277 square miles of it.

    Check the zones

    Noon. A subdivision at the edge of the zone.

      All eight zones1,277 sq mi

      Listed as coming soon: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville. Tesla can expand, shrink or change a zone. The service runs 24 hours.

      Painting: the River Walk in San Antonio.
      San Antonio274 square miles. Where the service runs, and where it stops.
       Painting: longhorns crossing a brick street in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
      Fort Worth144 square miles. Live since November 2026.
       Painting: a freeway overpass with the Houston skyline behind.
      Houston254 square miles. The third-largest zone.
       Painting: pastel hotels and palms on Ocean Drive, Miami.
      Miami31 square miles. One of three small Florida zones.
      Painting: a man with a broom beside a gold Cybercab in a car wash, palms behind.

      Robots still need washing.

      The local businesses every fleet will pay for.

      Find the openings

      Mid-afternoon. A car wash on the Gulf coast.

      Six ways to earn.
      Three are open.

      Owning the car is the one way that is still closed. Most of the work around it is not.

      Painting: a gold Cybercab parked alone at a drive-in cinema at dusk, facing a blank screen.
      In this scenario the owner keeps $1,261 a month. It is a projection.

      Coming in the second
      quarter of 2027.

      Tesla’s stated target for letting owners earn. A target, not a promise.

      Run the scenario

      Dusk. The drive-in outside town.

      Does it pay?
      Not yet.

      Owner earning is not open. Tesla’s stated target is the second quarter of 2027, and no revenue split has been published. Until then this is arithmetic, not income.

      A scenario, not a forecast.

      Assumes 30 days, 40% extra unpaid miles, charging at 5¢ a mile, $180 insurance and $150 cleaning and parking a month.

      Fares collected
      $3,000
      Network share
      −$900
      Autonomy Subscription
      −$299
      Charging, insurance, cleaning
      −$540
      The owner keeps, per month
      $1,261
      Months to earn back $29,990
      24
      Painting: a small depot at night, doors up, three gold Cybercabs charging while a worker wipes a windscreen.

      Somebody has to
      keep them running.

      Land, power, cleaning: the businesses behind the robotaxi.

      Start at step one

      Night. A depot with the doors up.

      A fleet, in seven steps.

      For people who would rather run the cars than own one.

        Six playbooks to read tonight.

        See every guide
        Painting: a gold Cybercab plugged into a charger outside a motel at three in the morning.

        It never clocks off.

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