To have an aggressive price, Tesla's autonomous taxi will have 50% fewer parts than a Model 3

For the Cybercab, Tesla's motto is clear: we must do more with less. Objective: to strip the car as much as possible to reduce its production cost and succeed in selling it for under $30,000.

Tesla will still have to overcome many obstacles before its autonomous car without a steering wheel can travel on roads open to all. But the project is moving forward. The head of Cybercab engineering spoke during the model's presentation in San Jose, California. During a discussion with journalists, he notably revealed that his teams managed to drastically reduce the number of parts in the prototype.

A body with only 80 parts for the Cybercab

« We will deliver a car that contains about half the parts of the Tesla Model 3 “, he clarified. No steering wheel, no pedals, no seats or doors in the back. That's it for the most obvious elements. But obviously, that's not all. There are also less visible changes. For example, the Cybercab only has three physical switches: two on the central console and one on the ceiling.

Everything comes down to the structure of the vehicle. On this subject, the chief engineer explains that the Tesla Cybercab does not include “ only 80 pieces » regarding the bodywork. A Tesla Model Y has 200. If we add to this the fact that the car does not have a charging port, but only an inductive charging system, we understand better how all these small savings add up.

Also readTesla Cybercab: we discovered Elon Musk's autonomous taxi in preview!

Tesla leverages its manufacturing and engineering know-how with the Cybercab. Of course, the question of the number of parts is of no interest until the manufacturer manages to solve the problem of autonomous driving. The latest version of FSD is still far from perfect. With a finished product expected for 2026, the American brand will have to accelerate if it wants to respect the announced schedule.