Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company’s upcoming Roadster sports car will be the electric vehicle (EV) brand’s last ‘manually-driven’ model, as it builds out its autonomous vehicle lineup led by the Cybercab robotaxi.
Speaking during an earnings call in which the brand reported a 17 per cent increase in net profit to US$422 million (A$590m), Mr Musk said the second-generation Roadster – announced almost a decade ago – was nearing production.
In doing so, as Automotive News reported, the CEO added further insight into the future of Tesla’s autonomous vehicle business.
“It’s going to make sense for our whole lineup to be different autonomous vehicles of different sizes,” Mr Musk said on the call.
“In fact, long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster.”
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Tesla has been at the forefront of autonomous driving – and often in the midst of controversy around its safety – in the US, and its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system was switched on in Australia in September 2025.
It also launched its robotaxi program with the unveiling of its Cybercab in 2024, a specialised butterfly-door taxi not designed to be operated by a human driver.
The Cybercab has been designed for both fleet use and private ownership, with initial robotaxi programs running in Dallas and Houston, and later expanding to San Francisco.
At the Cybercab announcement, Mr Musk said he hoped to see Full Self-Driving (FSD) rolled out to the Model Y and Model 3, essentially enabling owners to turn them into robotaxis.
At this week’s earnings call, the Tesla boss said an upcoming update to the FSD software would enable all vehicles using the Hardware 4 package – standard since 2023 – to drive autonomously.
However, beyond the promised Roadster, Mr Musk did not elaborate on any future showroom models due to join the brand’s vehicle lineup.
But he did confirm the Cybercab is the affordable compact electric car the brand had previously promised, with the company planning to ramp up production.
“Cybercab is the compact vehicle. It’s very roomy, but it’s a two-person vehicle,” Mr Musk said on the call.
“We do think that most of our production long term will be Cybercab, because 90 per cent of miles driven are with one or two people.”
Last year, Tesla updated its Model Y – the best-selling EV in Australia, the US, UK and Norway in 2025. It also updated its Model 3 sedan, which currently offers a driving range of up to 750km.
The EV maker recently also announced the end of production of its Model S large sedan and Model X large SUV, which have not been on sale in Australia since 2020, with a batch of Signature Edition vehicles offered in the US to mark the occasion.