Tesla’s design boss shows us how Cybercab will develop

Tesla has big plans for Cybercab, and it plans to start building an all-electric, fully autonomous robotaxi by 2027. Not only does the company hope they’ll be ferrying passengers across the U.S. by the end of the century, but Elon Musk envisions a world where people can own multiple online taxis and manage a fleet.

When the car was unveiled two months ago, one element that really caught the world’s attention was its bold design. Not only is it unlike any other Tesla before it, it’s also unlike most other four-wheeled vehicles. Of course, if you ignore the 2013 VW XL1, that’s a different story. To give us a glimpse of the Cybercab’s design, Tesla design director Franz von Holzhausen recently spoke with the Peterson Automotive Museum, where one of the electric vehicles is on display.

Read: Tesla Cybercab is a $30,000 robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals

The discussion begins at the back of the car. Like the Polestar 4, the Cybercab has no rear window. Von Holzhausen said that in self-driving vehicles designed to transport passengers from point A to point B, passengers don’t actually need to see what’s going on behind them. By ditching the rear window, Tesla was also able to make the storage compartment as large as possible.

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For the first time in a Tesla vehicle, the Cybercab uses dihedral doors usually reserved for high-priced supercars. Von Holzhausen says the doors make it feel like “you’re stepping into the future.” The wheels feature solid aerodynamic discs designed to maximize efficiency. Tesla also painted strips around the tires the same color as the discs to make the wheels appear larger than they actually are.

The EV’s interior is more minimalist than other Tesla models. The cabin is dominated by a large central screen that provides entertainment for passengers, and there’s a pair of seats that look more reminiscent of recliners than traditional car seats.

Whether Cybercab will be successful remains to be seen. It must sell, and regulations governing self-driving vehicles without traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals, which currently limit their licenses to 2,500 vehicles per year, must change drastically. If reports about incoming President Donald Trump’s intentions prove accurate, that may actually happen sooner rather than later, as his transition team reportedly says plans for self-driving cars will A federal framework (and the possible lifting of existing restrictions) is a “top priority”.