Tesla supremo Elon Musk has made a bold claim about the company’s future vehicles.

Musk said there will be only one Tesla people can drive in the future, with the rest being fully-autonomous.

“It’s going to make sense for our whole line-up to be different autonomous vehicles of different sizes,” Musk said on an earnings call.“In fact, long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster.”

That means future Model 3 and Model Ys will be autonomous vehicles.

The big problem is the Roadster does not currently exist.
The Roadster was first revealed in 2017, but has been delayed numerous times, with no current concrete plans for when it will enter production.

Tesla Roadster

Musk claims it is close.

“It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo, but I think it will be one of the most exciting product unveils ever,” he said.

The American EV brand’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen told the Ride the Lightning podcast in 2025 that the Roadster would definitely break cover in the next two years.

Tesla Roadster

That doesn’t mean it’ll enter production then but should soon after it is locked in.

Initially Tesla claimed the Roadster would arrive by 2020, but the COVID pandemic was blamed for delays.
In Tesla’s July 2024 earnings call Musk claimed it would be reaching production by “next year”.

Tesla Cybercab

Late in 2024, it became clear that Roadster buyers will need a lot more patience.

“I’d like to thank our long-suffering deposit holders,” Musk said.

“The Roadster is not just the cherry on the cake but also the icing on the cake. We’re close to finalising the design.”

Musk also said the company’s Cybercab autonomous vehicle had entered production.

He also shot down the potential for a smaller drivable vehicle in the brand’s line-up.

“Cybercab is the compact vehicle,” said Musk.

“It’s very roomy, but it’s a two-person vehicle. And 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.”