DID-YOU-KNOW · Did you know
Eight Straight: Cybercab Is Often the Quicker Tesla to Hail in Austin
Tesla's Robotaxi app quoted a shorter wait for the Cybercab than for the Model Y on eight checks in a row from Monday to Wednesday, by one tracker's count. On one cross-town trip, the Cybercab was quoted nine minutes sooner.
Riley Cho, Features writer, Live desk
Published · 3 min read
AUSTIN, Texas - Here is something Austin riders may have noticed this week: the Cybercab has been getting to the curb first. Several times a day, Robotaxi Radar, an account that tracks Tesla's driverless rollout, posts the fares and wait times that Tesla's Robotaxi app quotes for the same Austin trip, often drawing on screen recordings from Abhimanyu Yadav, who posts on X as WorldlyReviewer. From Monday through Wednesday afternoon, the Cybercab beat the Model Y on wait time eight checks in a row.
The app gives riders a choice. Enter a destination and it shows two Tesla vehicles side by side: the Cybercab, marked for two passengers, and the Model Y, marked for four. Each comes with its own fare and its own wait.
Wednesday showed the pattern. Early in the morning, the app quoted 12 minutes for a Cybercab and 17 for a Model Y. Around the morning rush, it was 13 minutes against 15. In the middle of the afternoon, the Cybercab came in at 12 minutes and the Model Y at 15. Radar counted that as the eighth straight check going back to Monday.
The quicker car usually cost a little more. On those three Wednesday checks, the Cybercab fare ran between $1.02 and $1.69 above the Model Y. In the afternoon, riders were paying $1.29 extra to save three minutes.
The widest gap Radar has logged came on a different route. Tyler Jon Warnecke, who is in Austin for this weekend's X Takeover fan event, priced a late-morning trip on Wednesday from West Lake Hills to Terry Black's Barbecue. The app offered a Cybercab in 7 minutes for $12.49, or a Model Y in 16 minutes for $10.83. That is nine minutes sooner for $1.66 more. Both Tesla options came in under UberX, which quoted $15.94.
Radar has a theory about why. Wait times quoted from different parts of the service area, it wrote, suggest that Cybercabs sit closer to downtown while Model Ys cover the outskirts. That fits another of its notes from Wednesday: at the 6 a.m. service open, Cybercab waits were still running long near the outer edges of the Austin geofence.
The streak ended in the Wednesday evening rush, when the Model Y quoted 9 minutes, its quickest rush-hour pickup of the week by Radar's count, and the Cybercab quoted 12.
Eight in a row is a small sample from one tracker, and quotes move by the hour. Still, it says something about how far the Cybercab has come. Barely a month after public rides began on Sept. 3, the two-seater built for this job is often the first Tesla to arrive. Austin remains the only city where the public can hail one.
Riley Cho covers Cybercab product details and the numbers behind the rollout. Based in Austin.
