Tesla Starts Selling Cybercab — $30,000*

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Well, it’s a big day in Tesla World. The company has officially launched Cybercab sales. You can now order a Cybercab for the starting price of $30,000 (technically, $29,900). That said, there is an asterisk here — actually, there are two asterisks here. First of all, only people who have been invited to order a Cybercab are able to order one right now — there’s no public ordering page. Secondly, if you do order one, you also need to pay for Full Self Driving — or just “Autonomy” as it’s named on the Tesla webpage. That is listed as $299/month.

So, if you extrapolate $299/month across five years (assuming the price is not going to go up in that time), that’s another $17,940. That would bring your total to $47,840. The $17,940 alone would be more than the cost of the used BMW i3 I recently bought (and for less passenger capacity).

Is nearly $50,000 over five years for a two-seater a good deal? Well, it’s all about that autonomous driving, isn’t it? If you can sit in the car and watch a movie or sleep or work while being driven, the car is clearly going to be worth more than a normal car. If you can send the Cybercab out for taxi services without riding along, it’s clearly worth more than a normal car you have to drive. But, still, is it worth $50,000 across five years? That is the question, and we should find out soon how many people or companies think that’s a good deal.

One important thing to consider, though, is that the car doesn’t come with a steering wheel or pedals (last we’ve heard). That means that once you have the vehicle, you are at the mercy of Tesla and its monthly Autonomy fee. If Tesla decides to raise the fee to $499/month, you presumably have to pay that much or sell the car (or let is sit parked and out of service).

The estimated delivery time for those ordering a Cybercab today is December of this year. You have to pay a $1,000 non-refundable deposit in order to place an order.

So, yes, it is a big, significant day for Tesla. What that ends up meaning, we’ll see….