RobotaxiProfit
A gold two-seat Cybercab with both butterfly doors raised, parked on a wet Austin street at blue hour. The Texas Capitol and the skyline stand behind it.

The robotaxi is for sale. The profit isn’t. Yet.

Tesla will sell you a Cybercab for $29,990. We work out what it really costs and when it can earn.

See the real costRun the earnings math

What Tesla is selling

On November 13, 2026, Tesla began inviting select customers to buy a Cybercab for personal use. Two seats, no steering wheel, no pedals.

It is invite only. The deposit is $1,000 and it is not refundable. Delivery is estimated for December 2026, in Austin.

The Autonomy Subscription is mandatory. The first month is included; without it the car does not operate. Musk has called the fee “too high” and said it should be about $115.

$47,631

Cost by the end of year 5, at $299 a month

What it really costs

The sticker is the first payment. The subscription is every payment after it, for as long as you want the car to move.

5

Monthly subscription

Sticker price before taxes
$29,990
Subscription 59 months at $299; the first month is included
$17,641
Total by the end of year 5
$47,631
The same years at $115 a month
$36,775
The difference the fee makes
$10,856

Before taxes, insurance and charging.

The Cybercab in a dark studio with both doors raised. Two cream seats are visible and there is no steering wheel.
No subscription, no car.

The strings attached

Eight clauses from the order terms, as published or as reported. Read them before the $1,000 deposit.

    Inside the Cybercab: two cream seats, a screen on the dash, and no steering wheel or pedals.

    Nobody’s driving. Who’s earning?

    The independent arithmetic of the Tesla Cybercab.

    See the numbers

    $1,261

    What an owner would keep in a month.
    A scenario, not a forecast.

    What an owner could keep

    Owner earning is not open. The order terms bar commercial use, Tesla’s stated target is Q2 2027, and no revenue split has been published. So this is a scenario, and the sliders are its guesses.

    100
    $1.00
    30%
    Fares in a month 100 paid miles a day at $1.00 a mile
    $3,000
    The network’s share 30% of fares
    −$900
    Autonomy Subscription
    −$299
    Charging, insurance, cleaning and parking
    −$540
    The owner keeps, in a month
    $1,261
    In a year
    $15,132
    Months to earn back the $29,990 sticker
    24

    Assumptions: 30 days, 40% extra unpaid miles, charging at 5¢ a mile, $180 insurance and $150 cleaning and parking a month. The network’s share is a guess, because none has been published. The subscription stays at $299. Before taxes and financing.

    Six ways to earn. Three are open.

    Owning the car is the one way that is not open yet. The other five sit around it.

    The Texas Capitol at the end of a wet Austin street at blue hour, with a raised Cybercab door at the edge of the frame.
    Austin, TX. 443 square miles, the largest of the eight.

    1,277

    Square miles the car can drive in, across eight cities

    Where it works

    A Cybercab runs only inside Tesla’s Robotaxi service areas, in Texas and Florida. Service runs 24 hours. Tesla can expand, shrink or change the zones.

      Listed as coming soon

        Starting a robotaxi business, in seven steps

        For fleets, depots and service firms, in the order an operator would do it.

          Playbooks

          Six guides to the money around a car with no driver.

            Streetlights reflected in wet asphalt.

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