Tesla Cybercab Now on Sale by Invitation at $29,990 — With a $299 Monthly Fee to Drive It

Tesla has started selling its Cybercab to private buyers — but only to customers it invites, and only on terms that make the headline price look very different from the real cost of owning one. The company's Robotaxi account announced on X on Friday, November 13, that "select customers are now being invited to purchase Cybercab for personal use" at an estimated $29,990 before taxes. The catch, printed in the fine print of the order page itself, is that the car will not move without a $299-a-month Autonomy Subscription.

It is the first time Tesla has offered the driverless two-seater to individual buyers. Until now the Cybercab, which has no steering wheel and no pedals, existed only inside Tesla's own robotaxi fleet. The invitation turns a vehicle that was a symbol of Tesla's autonomous ambitions into something a customer can actually order — provided Tesla picks them, and provided they accept the monthly bill that comes with it.

What the order page actually lists

According to Electrek, which reviewed the order page and the invitation email, the Cybercab is listed at $29,990 excluding taxes, with an estimated delivery of December 2026 in Austin, Texas. A buyer must put down a $1,000 non-refundable deposit to place an order. The Autonomy Subscription is pre-checked on the order page at $299 a month, with the first month included, and the fine print reads: "Subscription and regular vehicle maintenance required to operate." The invitation email is blunter still: "Only available in supported service areas. Subscription required for operation."

The price itself is no accident. When Elon Musk unveiled the Cybercab in 2024, he promised a vehicle "below $30,000" — and at $29,990, Tesla has technically kept that promise. What he did not mention on stage was the running cost. At $299 a month, the subscription adds $3,588 a year after the included first month, which Electrek calculates at about $47,600 over five years, before insurance, maintenance, taxes and charging. The Wall Street Journal, which also reported the invitations, confirmed the same figures: a $29,990 estimated purchase price, a $299-a-month subscription and a $1,000 non-refundable deposit, with deliveries estimated for December.

A car that only works where Tesla says it works

The second limitation is geography. A privately owned Cybercab can only operate inside Tesla's Robotaxi service areas — eight cities across Texas and Florida: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio in Texas, and Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida. Outside those geofenced zones, the car cannot drive itself anywhere. Tesla says wider availability will depend on regulatory approval, and the company has not announced when invitations might expand beyond the first selected customers, or when a public order page might appear.

Even inside those zones, the usable area is smaller than Tesla advertises. Independent tracker Koby Pierce tested thousands of addresses in the Robotaxi app and found that the areas where Tesla actually accepts pickups and drop-offs run at only 59 to 78 percent of the advertised geofences in the six cities he checked. In Austin — the very city where Tesla is delivering these first cars — the figure is about 59 percent. Electrek also notes that routing around railroad crossings has produced long detours in Houston, and that San Antonio's airport sits inside Tesla's polygon but is not served.

Personal use only — and a regulator still to satisfy

The terms also draw a hard line on what owners may do with the car. The Cybercab is sold for personal use only, and the order agreement explicitly prohibits commercial use — no ride-hailing, no delivery work, and no putting the car on Tesla's own Robotaxi network. That rules out the income stream many early enthusiasts imagined when Musk first described owners sending their cars out to earn money while they slept.

There is also an open regulatory question hanging over the car. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered Tesla to prove under oath that a vehicle with no brake pedal meets federal safety standards that require one. Tesla answered by the October 30 deadline and asked for its entire response to be kept confidential. The agency has not yet ruled — and Tesla is now selling the car to consumers anyway.

For all that, the Cybercab itself is a striking piece of engineering. It seats two, with a 21-inch centre touchscreen and 20.1 cubic feet of cargo space, and Tesla describes it as "fully autonomous", with owners managing their rides through an app. Tesla vice-president of vehicle engineering Lars Moravy said in October that the company aims to start public Cybercab sales by the end of 2026 — and these invitations are the first step toward that.

Why the monthly fee matters

The $299 subscription is already a point of argument inside Tesla. Gizmodo reported that Musk himself has said the fee is too high, suggesting it should sit closer to what Tesla charges for Full Self-Driving — around $115 a month. Whether the price moves before the first deliveries land in December remains to be seen, and Tesla can change the subscription price with notice under the agreement.

The Cybercab's arrival also closes a loop for Tesla's Texas factory. The company announced earlier this month that it will wind down Cybertruck production there around mid-2027 so the line can be repurposed to build more Cybercabs — a bet that the robotaxi, not the pickup, is the future of the plant. Tesla is winding down Cybertruck production in Texas by mid-2027 as the Cybercab takes over.

For now, the Cybercab is a $29,990 car that costs $299 a month to use, drives only in eight cities, and can only be bought if Tesla invites you. It is a genuine milestone — the first driverless car sold to private owners — but it arrives with more conditions attached than any car Tesla has sold before.

Sources

• Electrek — Tesla Cybercab orders open at $29,990 + $299/mo, only in Robotaxi zones
• The Wall Street Journal — Tesla Opens Sales of Autonomous Cybercab for 'Select' Customers
• Make Tech Easier — Tesla is inviting select customers to buy a Cybercab for personal use at $29,990 (citing The Verge)
• Notebookcheck — Tesla opens $29,990 Cybercab orders, but owners face $299 monthly fee to drive
• Gagadget — Tesla opens Cybercab orders at $29,990, with a $299 monthly catch (citing Gizmodo)