Notes from the dock.
Most of these posts reference the owner dashboard, it runs publicly: live map, telemetry, earnings. No login, no email, no card.
What we're learning building the depot for autonomous fleets in Orlando: the operations, the economics, and the questions investors and owners keep asking us.
Every post shows when it was published and last updated. See how we research and update these pages, including how we separate confirmed fact from our own targets and projections. Cover robotaxis on YouTube, X or a podcast? See the DockDuty creator program.
Flat fee or revenue share? Price the whole month, not one line
A $40 software plan and a retainer plus a percentage are different products. The whole monthly cost of each, at five revenue levels, using one per-job platform’s own published prices and defaults plus our stated assumptions, with our percentage applied to the full fare. Including the two cases where the per-job model costs less.
Can you own a Cybercab if you live outside the US?
For owners who live outside the US: what a US LLC, an EIN without an SSN, a Florida title and insurance require, what Tesla has not said, and what is still unknown. Not legal, tax or immigration advice. Not affiliated with Tesla.
How much can a robotaxi make, city by city?
Austin, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and San Antonio on one page. No city has its own earnings number, because no privately owned Cybercab has completed a paid ride anywhere. What differs is whether Tesla’s network runs there: it does in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and it does not in Phoenix or San Antonio. The shared model stated once, what actually runs in each metro, and what a buyer there can do today.
Can I charge a Cybercab at home with a wall connector?
Cars seen so far: NACS, DC only, no onboard AC, so a home Level 2 wall connector cannot charge them. Inductive pads are Tesla’s long-term design (as reported). Between-rides charging for private owners belongs at a DC-equipped, pad-ready dock. Sister to the park-and-charge post.
Where do I park and charge a Tesla Cybercab between rides?
Tesla hubs serve Tesla’s fleet. Private owners still need a contracted dock for parking, charging and turnaround between rides. What that gap is, why a home wall connector fails for DC-only cars, and where DockDuty stands on the Orlando depot targeted for Q4 2026.
What can a Cybercab be used for?
Ride-hail is the default. The other nine: hotel, airport and event shuttles, campus and employee runs, medical rides, parcels, community circulators, transit feeders and the owner’s own trips. Which fit a two-seat car, which are live in September 2026, and which of three doors each comes through.
Who manages a privately owned Cybercab?
“Third party” is not a different kind of building. It describes who is holding the keys. The manufacturer, owner and depot-operator roles pulled apart, self-operating compared with a depot line by line, the twelve things a real depot needs, and a plain statement of what is not operating yet and why.
Texas robotaxi law, in plain English
Texas has more metros running driverless robotaxis than any other state (four) and it got there on a law written in 2017. SB 2205 authorized driverless operation statewide and barred city-by-city rules; SB 2807 added a TxDMV authorization for commercial operators, enforceable May 28, 2026, free, non-expiring, with personal-use vehicles exempt. Why preemption is the part that actually matters, the question SB 2807 leaves open for someone who wants to own a robotaxi rather than ride in one, what runs in each of the four metros, and why preemption stops at zoning, which is the whole reason a depot is a harder project than a fleet. Not legal advice.
A Cybercab ride is half the price of an Uber, for now. The first fare, and what it means for owners.
One day after public Cybercab rides began in Austin, a rider posted the same 15-minute trip priced three ways: $21 by Uber with tip, $16.99 in a Model Y robotaxi, $9.65 in a Cybercab. The Model Y quote matches Austin’s reported card at about ten miles, which puts the Cybercab near a dollar a mile. What one trip proves, what it doesn’t, the introductory-pricing objection, and why the cheap car is the one an owner would run.
What the Robotaxi app shows when your Cybercab arrives: the color, the arrow, and the clock.
The pickup screen posted the morning of the launch: a glow that matches the Cybercab’s RGB front light bar, an arrow and a distance to the car, the plate, a “Vehicle Leaving Soon” line, and buttons to flash and honk. Where each piece came from, what Uber Beacon and Waymo’s Car ID did first, and what each line means for the owner: the color is the network’s, the plate is yours, and the clock is the one to watch.
Five things that have to happen before your Cybercab can join a fleet.
Per Tesla’s fleet team: a VIN insured through Tesla Insurance, financed through Tesla Finance, or leased through Tesla Lease Trust cannot join the business fleet platform. Plus the commercial livery coverage you actually need, who signs the order, title, and the nightly work.
Tesla Cybercab launch: what’s confirmed, and what to watch as an owner.
The September 3 Austin event, invite-only with a public livestream. Forty-five Cybercabs registered to Tesla’s Texas fleet on August 31 alongside 269 Model Ys, the Austin geofence expanded the same day, and reporting that the car joins the existing Robotaxi app. The five owner questions the event could answer (order book, network terms, production rate, charging, next cities) each with its status on the record. Updated after the livestream.
How to ride a Cybercab in Austin: the app, the hours, the fares, and what is still unknown.
Reporting expects the Cybercab to show up inside the Tesla Robotaxi app Austin riders already use. The app, the 6 AM to 10 PM hours, the roughly 264-square-mile zone, the current Austin fare card, the two-seat cabin, and the five things Tesla has not said: when, whether you can pick it, what it costs, where, and where the bags go.
How much does a Cybercab ride cost? Tesla’s fares today, and the number Musk promised.
Tesla has not priced a Cybercab ride. What exists: the $4.20 flat fare from June 2025, the March 2026 jump to a reported $3.00 base plus $1.40 per mile in Austin, Florida's roughly $3.25 plus $1 a mile, and Musk's 2024 claim of 30 to 40 cents a mile. Why the $10 five-mile ride and the 40-cent mile are different promises.
What Tesla’s first robotaxi launch tells you about tomorrow’s Cybercab launch.
June 22, 2025: about ten Model Ys, a $4.20 flat fare, a safety monitor in the passenger seat, a small zone, invited riders. Fourteen months later: seven metros, six with nobody in the car. The dated pattern, and the four ways tomorrow's launch is different from the last one.
When does the Cybercab come to Florida? What Orlando, Tampa and Miami owners should watch for on September 3.
Tesla runs Model Y robotaxis in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Every Cybercab registered so far is in Texas. Why Florida is the easy second state, what a real Florida announcement would contain versus a slide, how the Orlando zone fits a two-seat car, and what has to exist on the ground before one earns here.
Our Cybercab launch predictions: six calls, each with a number, graded in public after the stream.
Public hailing within a week, 70%. No order book, 85%. A cumulative number but no weekly rate, 75%. No charge-port answer, 60%. Florida on a slide, 55%; with a month, 20%. Same fare as a Model Y or free at first, 65%. The evidence behind each, and a promise to grade them the day after.
What happens after the Cybercab launch: the seven things to watch in the next 90 days.
Tomorrow is a start line. Seven things through early December, each with its date where one exists: public hailing in Austin, a second Cybercab metro, Tesla's first Nevada rides, the Q3 production report, the Q3 earnings call, NHTSA's brake-rule decision, and an order book. What an owner can do meanwhile.
Cybercab vs Zoox vs Waymo Ojai: the three purpose-built robotaxis, compared the day before one of them launches.
Tesla's two-seater with no wheel, Zoox's four-seat pod with no wheel, and Waymo's Zeekr-built van that kept a wheel for nervous riders. Legal path, sensor cost, charging, scale, and the one thing only the Cybercab is designed for: being sold to a private owner, someday.
Why does the Cybercab have only two seats? The fleet math behind the smallest robotaxi.
Average US vehicle occupancy is 1.67 people per trip. Build for that and you get a 3,113-pound car with a 47.6 kWh battery and a sub-$30,000 target. Lose it and you lose the family, the luggage run and the wheelchair. How a mixed fleet handles that, and what an owner should watch.
What happens when a Cybercab gets stuck? Remote assistance, the 10 mph limit, and who fetches a car with no wheel.
Nobody inside a Cybercab can drive it. Tesla told a US senator its remote operators take control only as a last resort, at 2 mph, or 10 mph where the software allows, to get the car out of the way, not to finish the trip. How that compares to the 2025 launch's passenger-seat monitor and Waymo's version, what a rider sees, and who physically fetches the car.
How many Cybercabs has Tesla built? The production ledger.
Tesla has never published a count, so here is everyone else’s, in date order: 60 at Giga Texas on April 8, 70-plus in May, over 100 on June 14, about 250 on July 18, and 45 registered to the Texas robotaxi fleet on August 31. What lot counts, registrations, and Tesla’s own “very slow” each actually measure, a labeled back-of-envelope on the weekly rate, and why the number matters to anyone waiting to own one.
What does robotaxi maintenance actually cost?
Tires every 25,000–40,000 miles are the biggest routine line, brakes are nearly free thanks to regen, and cleaning is the cost almost every model forgets. The EV baseline from Consumer Reports and AAA, Tesloop’s 300,000-mile bill, what Musk’s $0.20 per mile does and doesn’t cover, and the list of what nobody has measured yet.
How much does it cost to build a robotaxi depot?
A single 150kW fast-charge port runs $90k–$150k installed, the transformer takes 12 to 18 months, and the charger hardware is the smallest line item. The full cost stack with 2026 sourced figures, from a team building one, including what we won't disclose about our own budget, and why.
The best US cities to own a robotaxi.
Three layers have to stack: permissive law, live networks, and dense short-ride demand. The ranked 2026 list, the friction column of cities working against you, and the Florida wildcard, every claim dated and cited.
Tesla robotaxi in Las Vegas: approved for 5,000 cars.
Nevada cleared Tesla for up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County on August 20; as of October 10, 2026, public Tesla rides there are not confirmed. What was actually approved, the four-network Vegas scoreboard, and why a 5,000-car ceiling is a ground-infrastructure story.
What is unsupervised FSD, and where is it actually live?
Six metros run Teslas with nobody in the driver's seat, on newly widened 6am–10pm hours, and not one of them is a customer's car. The city list with dates, the HW3 hardware gate, and what would have to change for your car to qualify.
Tesla Robotaxi owner program: what Tesla has published, and what it hasn’t
Can you add your car to Tesla’s Robotaxi network? Not yet. Tesla’s written record on owner cars, quoted from its filings and pages with dates, the six terms it still hasn’t published, and the history of the 2016 Tesla Network idea.
Is there a robotaxi index fund?
One robotaxi ETF now trades (CABZ, since January 2026) but it is actively managed, so technically not an index fund; the real index funds cover the whole AV and EV shelf. The four tickers with dates and fees, and what paper exposure can never do.
How many rides does a robotaxi actually give per day?
Every earnings model on the internet stands on this number, and no operator publishes it. Waymo's disclosed rides divided by its disclosed fleet gives roughly 23–24 a day, with the division shown, plus the empty-miles problem nobody puts in the spreadsheet.
How to vet a robotaxi depot company.
Ten checks to run before you hand anyone a deposit or a Cybercab: registered entity, named founders, the real refund window, who holds title, every recurring fee, and what happens to your car if the company fails. We answer all ten for ourselves, including where the honest answer is “not yet.”
Cybercab vs Model Y: which robotaxi should you actually buy?
One robotaxi you can order tonight, one you cannot buy at all, and Tesla’s own fleet is still every bit Model Y. Real prices, the price-per-seat arithmetic that runs against the purpose-built car, the seven-year ledger of “owners can add their cars,” and the HW3 gate nobody prices in.
Add your Tesla to the robotaxi fleet: what cut does Tesla take?
Every “Tesla takes 25%” table you have seen traces to one aside from April 2019: never reaffirmed, never retracted, and absent from every earnings call since. The dated ledger of what actually exists, and how to model ownership with the split labeled as the unknown it is.
Should you put your Cybercab in an LLC?
Florida is the only state that makes a vehicle’s owner strictly liable for what it does. So the entity question hits a robotaxi harder than a normal car. What an LLC shields, what pierces it, and the real cost ($125 to form, $138.75 a year).
What if your robotaxi operator goes out of business?
You hold the title, but the car sits behind someone else’s gate. The HyreCar and Getaround precedents, Florida’s possessory-lien statute, the bankruptcy stay, and the eight clauses to demand. Including where our own contract is weakest.
Can you write off a Cybercab?
The luxury-auto depreciation cap, the taxi carve-out that may lift it, 100% bonus depreciation after the July 2025 tax law, and the recapture bill nobody models. Every rule cited; not tax advice.
How to finance a Cybercab: what actually exists today.
No Cybercab loan product exists, because no order book exists, and this post says so in the first paragraph. The four lanes you’ll choose from, the day-one borrower checklist, and the unknowns no lender can underwrite yet.
Waymo vs Tesla robotaxi: the honest scoreboard.
Waymo runs ~500,000 paid rides a week across 11+ metros; Tesla runs six driverless cities with ~21 tracked cars. The dated scoreboard, the two engineering bets, and the difference that matters here: you can’t buy a Waymo.
Tesla Cybercab specs: what the EPA filing actually revealed.
47.6 kWh, ~293 miles, 5.5 mi/kWh, 3,113 lbs, 219 hp, two seats, no steering wheel. The dated spec sheet. Read the way a fleet owner should read it, plus everything the filing still doesn’t tell you.
Can you own a robotaxi in another state? Remote ownership, explained.
Yes, the car’s address matters, yours doesn’t. Whose name stays on the title, who insures what, how the money reaches you, and the four things a remote owner actually needs. You never have to fly in.
Fractional robotaxi shares vs. owning the car outright.
Three products all say “own a robotaxi”: shares of a company, units of an LLC, or a title with your name on it. The title test, the accreditation question, eight questions to ask any platform, and what happens to each holder if the platform folds.
How do robotaxis charge? Wireless pads, hidden ports, and the depot power problem.
Nobody’s in the car to plug it in. The Cybercab’s wireless-only bet with observed 19–25 kW numbers, the NACS port hiding behind a bumper door on validation cars, worked charging math from the EPA filing, and why the scarce depot resource is the transformer, not the land.
How many Tesla robotaxis are there, really? Promised vs. deployed.
Seven metros live, six of them driverless, and community tracking counts roughly 21 active unsupervised cars. Both columns of the ledger, every number dated and sourced.
Is the Cybercab street legal? What the Zoox approval changes.
Not yet, and Zoox’s July 30 federal exemption shows the exact door Tesla still has to walk through. The no-steering-wheel legal map: what got approved, the 2,500-a-year cap, and the brake rule that could end it.
When will Cybercab deliveries start? The honest August 2026 answer.
Employee rides at Giga Texas, hundreds of cars staged, and a 2026 volume target that quietly disappeared. The dated ledger of every Cybercab promise, and what to do with the wait.
Where do robotaxis operate? The US city tracker.
Every US metro with live robotaxi service, with dates: Tesla’s seven markets (six unsupervised), Waymo’s eleven plus four announced, Zoox’s first paid city, and the infrastructure question every new city raises.
Cybercab fleet owner insurance and depot: who insures what.
The owner’s policy, the depot’s coverage, Florida’s $1 million autonomous-vehicle liability rule, and our $400–800/month budgeting estimate, with sources.
Why Florida became robotaxi country.
Three driverless metros turned on in one month. The plain-English read of Florida’s AV law (no human required, no permit gauntlet, one statewide rulebook) and why our lead market is here.
Is a Cybercab a good investment? Honest answer: nobody knows yet.
We're biased and we lead with the bear case anyway: no order book, no owner earnings history, infant insurance market. Plus the bull math, who it fits, and how to test the thesis for $0–450.
How to start a robotaxi business in 2026 (what's actually possible today).
You can't deploy a robotaxi today. Nobody can. The five positioning moves that matter before the order book opens: models, skeptic's budget, the capped resource, and day-one readiness.
Robotaxi in Miami: two networks, two zones, one guide.
Miami has two robotaxi networks, Waymo since January, Tesla since July. Where each zone runs, what rides cost, and how owners eventually join.
Robotaxi in Tampa: service area, fares, and how to ride.
Live since July 21 across downtown, Ybor, Tampa Heights, and West Tampa: the zone, the fares, what’s not covered yet, and if owners join.
Robotaxi in Orlando: service area, fares, and how to ride.
Driverless Model Ys started carrying passengers in our depot’s home metro on July 21. No one in the driver’s seat, running the airport corridor. What launched, why the zone is a tell, and the infrastructure question the ownership era brings.
Can you buy a Tesla Cybercab yet? Price & order status.
The honest, dated answer: where availability really stands, how ordering is expected to work, fleet vs. personal ownership, and how to be ready on day one.
Cybercab earnings calculator.
Set fleet size, utilization, and financing: see monthly gross, depot fees by tier, owner-side costs, and an estimated take-home range. Live, as you change your assumptions. Projections, not guarantees.
Robotaxi and Cybercab management companies, compared, with sources.
Fleet operators managing Waymo robotaxis today, and the pre-launch companies offering to run your Cybercab, DockDuty included, on the same columns with a source and check date per row. Plus the DIY, flat-fee, SPV and revenue-share math.
How much does a Cybercab actually make? Owner economics, netted honestly.
Conservative revenue assumptions, every cost line owners forget, a worked monthly P&L at three duty cycles, and real breakeven math. A projection, not a promise, here's how the numbers actually pencil.
Where to park your fleet of Cybercabs.
A practical guide to depot options for Tesla Cybercab fleet owners, what a Cybercab depot actually does, physical depots vs. fleet management software, what to look for, what it costs, and why Orlando, FL is one of the strongest markets in the country.
Robotaxis vs Uber & Lyft: why autonomous transportation could dramatically lower ride costs.
The single largest cost in most ride-share trips is human labor. That's the pricing floor Uber and Lyft have to maintain to keep drivers on the road. A plain-English breakdown of where the dollars go, what changes when you remove the driver, and what cheaper-per-mile transportation could mean for consumers, owners, and investors.
Owning a Cybercab as a fleet vehicle: a primer.
How is owning a Cybercab different from owning a Model 3? The three ownership styles, what you own versus what the network controls, and the operational tax that surprises people. Ordering and price status checked October 9, 2026.
What is a robotaxi depot? The 2026 guide.
Robotaxis are launching, but no one's building the place they go between rides. Here's what a robotaxi depot actually does, why gas stations and parking lots don't fit, and where this category is heading.