US EV maker Tesla has unveiled the long-awaited Cybercab robotaxi, a fully autonomous vehicle with no human controls, and a surprise robovan that can carry up to 20 people.

At an event in Hollywood, ceo and co-founder Elon Musk also presented the Tesla Bot – a humanoid robot that he says “will basically do anything you want… be a teacher or babysit your kids, it can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get your groceries, just be your friend.”

It is expected to cost between $20,000 and $30,000, or “less than a car,” Musk said. The Cybercab is also projected to be priced below $30,000, with production starting before 2027.

“The cost of autonomous transport will be so low that you can think of it like individualised mass transit,” Musk tells the audience.

Tesla reckons the Cybercab will, in the long term, achieve $0.20/mile, compared to the average cost of a bus, which is $1/mile. Charging would cost $0.30-0.40/mile, Kallanish learns. The robovan could have travel costs of $0.05-0.10/mile.

Musk claims autonomous vehicles will be safer than human driving because Tesla’s global fleet collects 500,000 miles worth of data every 3.5 minutes, compared to 50 years of driving for the average person. As such, they are expected to build enough experience to deal with unusual scenarios.

Unsupervised full self-driving (FSD) in Model Y and Model 3 could start next year in California and Texas, but RBC Capital Markets reckons it will be a service in a car with steering wheels and pedals, and compliant with regulations.

Tesla and its FSD competitors, such as Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, are under intense regulatory scrutiny following crashes, injuries, and even deaths. This year, General Motors paused the development of the Cruise Origin vehicle, which does not have any type of human control, following a safety review.

Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, welcomed Musk’s statement that the robotaxis could be purchased by fleet operators, a change from the previous narrative of making it an end-to-end ecosystem all within Tesla’s control.

“Investors we spoke to at the event thought the event was light of real numbers and timelines,” Narayan notes. “These typically come at Tesla events. This one seemed focused on branding and marketing Tesla’s vision, rather than giving concrete numbers for us to model out… We are still bullish on Tesla’s long-term prospects and on robotaxis in general.”

At the time of writing, shares were down by 6% in premarket trading on Friday.