Tesla Inc.’s robotaxi has finally arrived — sort of — after a decade-long wait.

In pure Hollywood fashion, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk hitched a ride via the autonomous vehicle on a backlot set with private roads. Another 20 were lined up outside the “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio in Burbank, Calif., late Thursday.

Tesla’s Cybercab comes with no steering wheel or pedals, two front seats, butterfly-wing doors, inductive charging and Full Self-Driving (FSD) assistance software. The models use a combination of cameras and computing power to navigate roads — Musk dismisses General Motors Co.’s Cruise and Waymo vehicles, which rely on Lidar that he considers too costly and unnecessary.

“The solution we have is AI in vision,” he said. “Our autonomous future is here.”

Musk believes the Cybercar will cost less than $30,000. But it won’t be available until at least 2026. “I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames,” he said. All of Tesla’s models will be geared with FSD software in California and Texas next year.

Wall Street was initially underwhelmed with the event, which was skimpy on details and preceded by a 45-minute video experience straight out of the Stargate sequence in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Tesla shares slumped 9% in trading Friday.

Musk has described the autonomous cab as a technology offspring of Uber Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc. [Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia is a Tesla board member.]

The late-night extravaganza had no shortage of futuristic stuff. Tesla showed off Robovan that can carry up to 20 people, or be used as an autonomous delivery vehicle to haul goods, and Musk did not disappoint. He also shared updates on a humanoid robot called Optimus.

The late, late arrival of the autonomous cabs belatedly makes good on a promise by Musk, but may be too little too late.

In the years since Musk’s promise of driverless vehicles, several competitors have made them in pursuit of a predicted $50 billion in annual robotaxi bookings by 2030, according to Raymond James. Alphabet Inc.-backed Waymo operates a service in several U.S. cities. Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox plans to launch a similar service. And in China, Baidu and Pony.ai are operating robotaxi fleets.

In a note to investors Wednesday, financial analyst Dan Ives said he “firmly believe that Tesla remains a robotics/AI play in the future rather than just an EV vendor.”

“We believe Robotaxi Day will be seminal and historical day for Musk and Tesla and marks a new chapter of growth around autonomous, FSD, and AI future at Tesla,” Ives wrote. “We continue to believe Tesla is the most undervalued AI name in the market and we expect Musk & Co. to unveil some ‘game changing’ autonomous technology at this event.”

Musk had hinted at an event in April but that date was pushed back, he said, by “an important design change to the front.”

Thursday night’s launch apparently came at the cost of a $25,000 EV that Musk had promised. For years, Musk has promised to deliver autonomous Tesla vehicles, but the company’s advanced driver assistance system, called Full Self-Driving (FSD), requires a human onboard to take over if something goes awry. Tesla has sold an FSD package for up to $15,000 since 2016, with the promise of  software updates.

Conversely, Waymo and Cruise have deployed fully self-driving vehicles in geo-fenced areas and operate ride-hailing services similar to Uber.

Tesla’s robotaxi fleet may be providing eye candy, but analysts are as much focused on the likelihood the company will record its first-ever decline in annual car sales. It racked up deliveries of about 463,000 cars and trucks in the third quarter, missing the estimates of analysts.

More affordable models — possibly cheaper versions of the best-selling Model 3 sedan or Model Y sport utility vehicle — are scheduled for production in 2025.

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