Tech
Tesla Robotaxi reveal: What to expect
Tesla is gearing up to reveal its Robotaxi this Thursday, and everyone wants to know what it will look like, whether Tesla will unveil a commercialization strategy, and what outrageous timelines Elon Musk might announce to bump Tesla’s stock.
The “We, Robot” event will take place at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio in Burbank, California, and we’ve got details on how to watch it here. Plus, you can follow along with our own reactions to the Robotaxi event right here via our live blog.
Musk had originally planned to reveal the Robotaxi – which he has also referred to as a Cybercab – on August 8. That’s a deadline Musk set for himself and Tesla a few hours after a Reuters report found that the automaker shelved its plan to build a lower-cost EV and would instead focus its resources on a robotaxi.
While Musk initially accused Reuters of lying, over the next couple of weeks, Tesla indeed laid off 10% of staff to usher in a “next phase of growth,” and Musk said Tesla would be going “balls to the wall for autonomy.”
Tesla has seldom stuck to Musk’s timelines, and as expected, this Robotaxi event ended up getting pushed back to October after Musk requested “an important design change to the front.”
Investors who have backed Tesla’s vision for autonomy have been waiting for Tesla to finally reveal a Robotaxi. But the timing might not be great. Tesla’s margins have taken a hit over the past year or so due to ramped up Cybertruck production, among other factors. Its third-quarter deliveries were somewhat disappointing, and Tesla has issued its fifth Cybertruck recall within a year of launching the vehicle.
A new vehicle would mean more investment into production lines, factory downtime, and other potentially costly issues – things investors don’t love to hear about.
Whether it’s all hype or at least some substance, we will soon find out. But here’s what we expect to see.
A Cybercab prototype
The main thing we expect to see is a prototype for a new vehicle concept, which will be Tesla’s first since it announced the Cybertruck back in November 2019.
Musk has referred to the robotaxi as a Cybercab, which seems to confirm the design concept revealed last year in Walter Isaacson’s biography of the executive – a two-door, two-seater, Cybertruck-like compact vehicle, complete with angular edges and a stainless steel finish.
The vehicle will also likely be built without a steering wheel or pedals. While Tesla engineers have advocated against this at launch, Musk has been firm in his desire to bring a purpose-built vehicle to market, per Isaacson’s book.
Tesla may run up against regulatory issues for that design choice, which don’t align with federal motor safety standards, and we partly expect Musk to use that as a reason why getting the Cybercab to market will be difficult.
Tesla’s lead designer, Franz Von Holzhausen, told TechCrunch’s Kirsten Korosec that the company’s existing vehicle portfolio has laid the foundation for what’s to come with the Robotaxi.
“In a strange sort of way, we’ve been working our way — in a very public way — to what an autonomous future will look like,” Von Holzhausen said. “So you see the big interface that we have, the way it’s configurable and upgradable, and we bring a variety of entertainment pieces to it, and some humor as well. And I think that will continue to evolve.”
Smoke and mirrors
Tesla usually hosts its big reveal events at one of its facilities, so the Hollywood studio choice is a step-change that signals Musk’s showmanship will be on display.
The studio in question is open to the public for tours, so visitors (who are mainly Tesla shareholders and superfans) will get the chance to be dazzled by the sets of Batman, Friends, Gilmore Girls, The Big Bang Theory, Harry Potter and other titles.
It also allows Tesla to take advantage of the large sound stages and sets, some of which resemble a slice of suburbia and even a small downtown area. This could be the perfect place for Tesla to do a demo of its Cybercab in autonomous action – it’s a controlled, closed environment with no other traffic where the car will be able to drive itself at low speed.
We think the demo could feature the ride-hailing app that Tesla teased during its first-quarter earnings call in April.
Other vehicle and product announcements
The title of the event, “We, Robot”, is a nod to Isaac Asimov’s series of science fiction short stories called “I, Robot” which explores the relationship between robots and humans. As such, many believe the event will feature updates on Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. That said, Asimov’s stories revolve around three laws of robotics that prioritize human safety – 1) A robot may not injure a human being or allow a human to be injured through inaction; 2) A robot must obey orders given by a human being unless that conflicts with the first law; 3) A robot must protect its own existence unless that contradicts the first and second laws. Those fit neatly into autonomous driving.
Deepwater Asset Management predicts that in addition to a Cybercab prototype, Tesla will provide previews (but crucially not a prototype) for the $25,000 EV, which fans are calling the Model 2. Analysts Gene Munster and Brian Baker said they expect the Model 2 to have a similar look and feel to the Cybercab, likely based on past comments from Tesla that the two would share a vehicle platform.
The firm also thinks Tesla will provide more details on a Cybervan, a fully autonomous passenger van that could in the future augment public transportation. This prediction is based on Tesla’s March 2023 investor presentation that featured a lineup of Tesla’s current and future vehicles, including a teaser of a van-sized car.
Some potential wildcards
Building a robotaxi is one thing. Commercializing it is another. Tesla may be able to rely on the uniqueness of its vehicles and the company’s general fan power to attract customers for a ride-hail service, but many won’t want to make the switch to a service that will likely be less reliable at launch.
One wildcard prediction we have is that Tesla could announce a partnership with Uber, which has demonstrated that its existing global ride-hail platform is attractive to autonomous vehicle companies. Over the past few weeks, Uber has been signing on AV companies at a rapid clip, including Waymo, Cruise, Wayve, and others. While Musk seems to want to go it alone, partnering might be the best way to actually commercialize these vehicles.
Another potential wildcard is that McDonald’s is involved in this somehow, based on an X post from the fast food chain last week that said, “chat’s about to pop off 10.10.” Musk replied with the laugh-crying emoji, so we might expect to see some kind of autonomous food delivery demo or announcement with McDonald’s on Thursday.
What we don’t expect to see
There will be plenty of hype and chatter about Musk’s vision of an autonomous future, during which the executive will likely make the same argument that Uber made a decade ago about the possibilities for shared rides – it will be so easy and cheap to hail an AV, that people won’t need to own their own vehicles.
A rosy picture, but one that we don’t expect to be backed up Thursday with a clear path to commercialization.
In the past, Musk has said Tesla vehicles on the roads today would be able to progress to autonomy with merely a software update, allowing owners to add their cars to Tesla’s ride-sharing app and rent them out to make extra cash. Tesla has said it would take something like 25% to 30% of the revenue from those rides, and in places where there aren’t enough people to share cars, the automaker would provide a dedicated fleet of robotaxis.
Musk has been promising a fully autonomous Tesla for years now, but has yet to introduce one. Despite Tesla’s advancements in its advanced driver assistance system, named Full Self-Driving (FSD), the tech is still not fully self-driving. It requires a human driver to be attentive behind the wheel and take over if needed.
This might be why Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, who is an undeniable Tesla bull, said he expects Tesla will offer a “‘dual’ approach with respect to autonomous ridesharing.” There will be a ‘supervised’ autonomous/FSD rideshare service, and a fully autonomous app-based Cybercab, he said, with an expected initial commercial launch slated for late 2025 or 2026.
When it comes to production of the Cybercabs themselves, the analysts at Deepwater point to the lag between Tesla’s unveiling of products and ramping production. The minimum gap of 10 months was with the Model Y, whereas the Cybertruck took 48 months, and the Semi is at 79 months and counting. Tesla delivered a handful of Semis in December 2022, but has yet to ramp up to volume production.
“This suggests the start of production for any of the vehicles announced in August would begin in June of 2025 at the earliest,” Deepwater wrote.
And since the robotaxi event got pushed back so Tesla could “make some important changes,” then the product is still likely a long way off from being ready to go to production.
This article has been updated to include comments from Tesla’s lead designer. It was originally published October 8 at 12:22 pm PT.
Tech
Volkswagen’s cheapest EV ever is the first to use Rivian software
Volkswagen’s ultra-cheap EV called the ID EVERY1 — a small four-door hatchback revealed Wednesday — will be the first to roll out with software and architecture from Rivian, according to a source familiar with the new model.
The EV is expected to go into production in 2027 with a starting price of 20,000 euros ($21,500). A second EV called the ID.2all, which will be priced in the 25,000 euro price category, will be available in 2026. Both vehicles are part of the automaker’s new of category electric urban front-wheel drive cars that are being developing under the so-called “Brand Group Core” that makes up the volume brands in the VW Group. And both vehicles are for the European market.
The EVERY1 will be the first to ship with Rivian’s vehicle architecture and software as part of a $5.8 billion joint venture struck last year between the German automaker and U.S. EV maker. The ID.2all is based on the E3 1.1 architecture and software developed by VW’s software unit Cariad.
VW didn’t name Rivian in its reveal Wednesday, although there were numerous nods to next-generation software. Kai Grünitz, member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for Technical Development, noted it would be the first model in the entire VW Group to use a “fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture.”
“This means the future entry-level Volkswagen can be equipped with new functions throughout its entire life cycle,” he said. “Even after purchase of a new car, the small Volkswagen can still be individually adapted to customer needs.”
Sources who didn’t want to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to TechCrunch that Rivian’s software will be in the ID EVERY1 EV. TechCrunch has reached out to Rivian and VW and will update the article if the companies respond.
The new joint venture provides Rivian with a needed influx of cash and the opportunity to diversify its business. Meanwhile, VW Group gains a next-generation electrical architecture and software for EVs that will help it better compete. Both companies have said that the joint venture, called Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, will reduce development costs and help scale new technologies more quickly.
The joint venture is a 50-50 partnership with co-CEOs. Rivian’s head of software, Wassym Bensaid, and Volkswagen Group’s chief technical engineer, Carsten Helbing, will lead the joint venture. The team will be based initially in Palo Alto, California. Three other sites are in development in North America and Europe, the companies have previously said.
“The ID. EVERY1 represents the last piece of the puzzle on our way to the widest model selection in the volume segment,” Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand and Head of the Brand Group Core, said in a statement. “We will then offer every customer the right car with the right drive system–including affordable all-electric entry-level mobility. Our goal is to be the world’s technologically leading high-volume manufacturer by 2030. And as a brand for everyone–just as you would expect from Volkswagen.”
The Volkswagen ID EVERY1 is just a concept for now — and with only a few details attached to the unveiling. The concept vehicle reaches a top speed of 130 km/h (80 miles per hour) and is powered by a newly developed electric drive motor with 70 kW, according to Volkswagen. The German automaker said the range on the EVERY1 will be at least 250 kilometers (150 miles). The vehicle is small but larger than VW’s former UP! vehicle. The company said it will have enough space for four people and a luggage compartment volume of 305 liters.
Tech
The hottest AI models, what they do, and how to use them
AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming.
Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them.
To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what they’re best for. We’ll keep this list updated with the latest launches, too.
There are literally over a million AI models out there: Hugging Face, for example, hosts over 1.4 million. So this list might miss some models that perform better, in one way or another.
AI models released in 2025
Cohere’s Aya Vision
Cohere released a multimodal model called Aya Vision that it claims is best in class at doing things like captioning images and answering questions about photos. It also excels in languages other than English, unlike other models, Cohere claims. It is available for free on WhatsApp.
OpenAI’s GPT 4.5 ‘Orion’
OpenAI calls Orion their largest model to date, touting its strong “world knowledge” and “emotional intelligence.” However, it underperforms on certain benchmarks compared to newer reasoning models. Orion is available to subscribers of OpenAI’s $200 a month plan.
Claude Sonnet 3.7
Anthropic says this is the industry’s first ‘hybrid’ reasoning model, because it can both fire off quick answers and really think things through when needed. It also gives users control over how long the model can think for, per Anthropic. Sonnet 3.7 is available to all Claude users, but heavier users will need a $20 a month Pro plan.
xAI’s Grok 3
Grok 3 is the latest flagship model from Elon Musk-founded startup xAI. It’s claimed to outperform other leading models on math, science, and coding. The model requires X Premium (which is $50 a month.) After one study found Grok 2 leaned left, Musk pledged to shift Grok more “politically neutral” but it’s not yet clear if that’s been achieved.
OpenAI o3-mini
This is OpenAI’s latest reasoning model and is optimized for STEM-related tasks like coding, math, and science. It’s not OpenAI’s most powerful model but because it’s smaller, the company says it’s significantly lower cost. It is available for free but requires a subscription for heavy users.
OpenAI Deep Research
OpenAI’s Deep Research is designed for doing in-depth research on a topic with clear citations. This service is only available with ChatGPT’s $200 per month Pro subscription. OpenAI recommends it for everything from science to shopping research, but beware that hallucinations remain a problem for AI.
Mistral Le Chat
Mistral has launched app versions of Le Chat, a multimodal AI personal assistant. Mistral claims Le Chat responds faster than any other chatbot. It also has a paid version with up-to-date journalism from the AFP. Tests from Le Monde found Le Chat’s performance impressive, although it made more errors than ChatGPT.
OpenAI Operator
OpenAI’s Operator is meant to be a personal intern that can do things independently, like help you buy groceries. It requires a $200 a month ChatGPT Pro subscription. AI agents hold a lot of promise, but they’re still experimental: a Washington Post reviewer says Operator decided on its own to order a dozen eggs for $31, paid with the reviewer’s credit card.
Google Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental
Google Gemini’s much-awaited flagship model says it excels at coding and understanding general knowledge. It also has a super-long context window of 2 million tokens, helping users who need to quickly process massive chunks of text. The service requires (at minimum) a Google One AI Premium subscription of $19.99 a month.
AI models released in 2024
DeepSeek R1
This Chinese AI model took Silicon Valley by storm. DeepSeek’s R1 performs well on coding and math, while its open source nature means anyone can run it locally. Plus, it’s free. However, R1 integrates Chinese government censorship and faces rising bans for potentially sending user data back to China.
Gemini Deep Research
Deep Research summarizes Google’s search results in a simple and well-cited document. The service is helpful for students and anyone else who needs a quick research summary. However, its quality isn’t nearly as good as an actual peer-reviewed paper. Deep Research requires a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription.
Meta Llama 3.3 70B
This is the newest and most advanced version of Meta’s open source Llama AI models. Meta has touted this version as its cheapest and most efficient yet, especially for math, general knowledge, and instruction following. It is free and open source.
OpenAI Sora
Sora is a model that creates realistic videos based on text. While it can generate entire scenes rather than just clips, OpenAI admits that it often generates “unrealistic physics.” It’s currently only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus, which is $20 a month.
Alibaba Qwen QwQ-32B-Preview
This model is one of the few to rival OpenAI’s o1 on certain industry benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. Ironically for a “reasoning model,” it has “room for improvement in common sense reasoning,” Alibaba says. It also incorporates Chinese government censorship, TechCrunch testing shows. It’s free and open source.
Anthropic’s Computer Use
Claude’s Computer Use is meant to take control of your computer to complete tasks like coding or booking a plane ticket, making it a predecessor of OpenAI’s Operator. Computer use, however, remains in beta. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input and $4 per million tokens of output.
x.AI’s Grok 2
Elon Musk’s AI company, x.AI, has launched an enhanced version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot it claims is “three times faster.” Free users are limited to 10 questions every two hours on Grok, while subscribers to X’s Premium and Premium+ plans enjoy higher usage limits. x.AI also launched an image generator, Aurora, that produces highly photorealistic images, including some graphic or violent content.
OpenAI o1
OpenAI’s o1 family is meant to produce better answers by “thinking” through responses through a hidden reasoning feature. The model excels at coding, math, and safety, OpenAI claims, but has issues deceiving humans, too. Using o1 requires subscribing to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 a month.
Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5
Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a model Anthropic claims as being best in class. It’s become known for its coding capabilities and is considered a tech insider’s chatbot of choice. The model can be accessed for free on Claude although heavy users will need a $20 monthly Pro subscription. While it can understand images, it can’t generate them.
OpenAI GPT 4o-mini
OpenAI has touted GPT 4o-mini as its most affordable and fastest model yet thanks to its small size. It’s meant to enable a broad range of tasks like powering customer service chatbots. The model is available on ChatGPT’s free tier. It’s better suited for high-volume simple tasks compared to more complex ones.
Cohere Command R+
Cohere’s Command R+ model excels at complex Retrieval-Augmented Generation (or RAG) applications for enterprises. That means it can find and cite specific pieces of information really well. (The inventor of RAG actually works at Cohere.) Still, RAG doesn’t fully solve AI’s hallucination problem.
Tech
Not all cancer patients need chemo. Ataraxis AI raised $20M to fix that.
Artificial intelligence is a big trend in cancer care, and it’s mostly focused detecting cancer at the earliest possible stage. That makes a lot of sense, given that cancer is less deadly the earlier it’s detected.
But fewer are asking another fundamental question: if someone does have cancer, is an aggressive treatment like chemotherapy necessary? That’s the problem Ataraxis AI is trying to solve.
The New York-based startup is focused on using AI to accurately predict not only if a patient has cancer, but also what their cancer outcome looks like in 5 to 10 years. If there’s only a small chance of the cancer coming back, chemo can be avoided altogether – saving a lot of money, while avoiding the treatment’s notorious side effects.
Ataraxis AI now plans to launch their first commercial test, for breast cancer, to U.S. oncologists in the coming months, its co-founder Jan Witowski tells TechCrunch. To bolster the launch and expand into other types of cancer, the startup has raised a $20.4 million Series A, it told TechCrunch exclusively.
The round was led by AIX Ventures with participation from Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Floating Point, Bertelsmann, and existing investors Giant Ventures and Obvious Ventures. Ataraxis emerged from stealth last year with a $4 million seed round.
Ataraxis was co-founded by Witowski and Krzysztof Geras, an assistant professor at NYU’s medical school who focuses on AI.
Ataraxis’ tech is powered by an AI model that extracts information from high-resolution images of cancer cells. The model is trained on hundreds of millions of real images from thousands of patients, Witowski said. A recent study showed Ataraxis’ tech was 30% more accurate than the current standard of care for breast cancer, per Ataraxis.
Long term, Ataraxis has big ambitions. It wants its tests to impact at least half of new cancer cases by 2030. It also views itself as a frontier AI company that builds its own models, touting Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun as an AI advisor.
“I think at Ataraxis we are trying to build what is essentially an AI frontier lab, but for healthcare applications,” Witowski said. “Because so many of those problems require a very novel technology.”
The AI boom has led to a rush of fundraises for cancer care startups. Valar Labs raised $22 million to help patients figure out their treatment plan in May 2024, for example. There’s also a bevvy of AI-powered drug discovery firms in the cancer space, like Manas AI which raised $24.6 million in January 2025 and was co-founded by Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder.
