Montana’s First Cybercab Bid Starts With Six Cars in Missoula

MISSOULA, Mont. - A Montana company wants to be first in line for Cybercab outside the cities that already have robotaxis on the map. CubCloud AI, based in Missoula, has applied through Tesla’s fleet operator interest program to purchase an initial six Cybercabs and operate them locally under the name CubCab.

The application sits on Tesla’s commercial track for third-party Cybercab fleets - the same interest path Tesla opened around the Austin launch on Sept. 3 - and it is still pending. CubCloud has not received public confirmation of acceptance, delivery dates, or a Montana start window. What it has done is put a concrete bid on paper: six cars, a Missoula campus first, then a statewide ambition.

Local television amplified the plan this week. KPAX and Montana Right Now both reported that CubCloud intends to buy six Cybercabs at about $30,000 each, matching the U.S. price talk Tesla has used for the purpose-built two-seater. Timing, both outlets stressed, remains with Tesla. CubCloud’s own Sept. 9 statement, carried by MATR, says deployment depends on Tesla’s review plus state and federal approvals.

That caution is the honest frame. Austin is where Cybercab already mixes into the live Robotaxi app when a car is available. Missoula is asking to join the ownership and operations chapter of the same product story - not claiming rides are already booking on Higgins Avenue.

CubCloud’s first customer would be CubCloud itself. The company says the initial fleet would carry its team, clients, and visitors to and from its Missoula campus, building operating experience in Montana conditions before any wider public service. Founder and chief executive Joshua Rhines, a fourth-generation Montanan, put the winter and the roads at the center of the pitch.

"Montana passed a law last year saying we want to be a showcase for this technology. Somebody from Montana should be the one to prove it works here, on our roads and in our winters," Rhines said in the company release. "We already build and run electrified sites in Montana. We will be the first ones riding in these cars, and we will know they work before we ask anyone else to trust them."

The law he nods to is Montana Senate Bill 67, which local reporting credits with giving the state a clearer lead role on autonomous-vehicle rules. Drew Surratt, CubCloud’s chief community officer, told KPAX and Montana Right Now that the company already runs Teslas with the same autonomy software stack Cybercab uses in service, and that he trusts the system for most of his own driving - including a long autonomous trip from Spokane back toward Missoula through mountain passes.

Surratt’s public case is practical. Cheaper point-to-point rides for people leaving downtown. Local operators instead of a distant tech office dictating terms. Maintenance and upkeep jobs around a small fleet even as human-driven ride-hail roles change. "Missoula is where we prove it. Rural Montana is where it matters," Rhines added in the release.

From Missoula, CubCloud’s stated expansion map runs through Billings, Bozeman, and Butte, then later to Great Falls, Kalispell, and rural Montana. The company is soliciting partners - hospitals, airports, colleges, employers, resorts, cities, transit agencies, and tribal governments - and inviting Montanans who want early public rides to get in touch. None of that is a timetable. It is a wish list hanging on Tesla’s yes and on regulators clearing the path.

Tesla, for its part, has been open about wanting commercial capital in the Cybercab story. After the Austin debut, the company circulated a Robotaxi interest form that includes a checkbox for Cybercab fleet vehicle purchasing alongside mobility hubs and event collaboration. Earlier coverage framed that form as a handshake with third-party fleet owners: Tesla runs the network and autonomy stack; operators put cars on the road. CubCloud is one of the first named applicants to step into that frame with a headcount, a brand, and a home city.

Keep the scale honest. Six cars is a pilot-sized order, not a statewide takeover. CubCloud’s release is careful to say the company is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tesla, and that the application is pending review. KPAX’s Zach Volheim and Montana Right Now’s Ryan Toohill both treated the story as ambition plus paperwork, not as an imminent launch party.

For readers watching Cybercab’s Techtember run, the Missoula bid still matters. It shows the fleet-sales idea moving from a web form into a specific American city outside Texas - a mountain-state AI firm that already runs electrified sites, wants campus miles first, and is willing to put its own people in the cars before it asks the public. Austin remains the place you open the app today. Missoula is the place a company just asked to own the next six.

Harper Quinn is a senior correspondent covering Robotaxi launches, Austin fleet ops, and the day-to-day of Cybercab rides. Previously reported transport and consumer tech for independent trade titles; based in Austin.