Musk calls Tesla's $299 Cybercab monthly fee too high and says it should be $115

First buyers signed at $299 a month

On Friday, November 13, 2026, Tesla▼−2.61% — Tesla, down 2.61 percent today began inviting select customers to buy the Cybercab, the two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals, for personal use at $29,990 ¹². The order takes a $1,000 nonrefundable deposit, one vehicle per customer, and estimates December delivery in Austin ¹³. The catch is pre-checked on the order page↗: a mandatory Autonomy Subscription at $299 a month, first month included, with fine print reading "Subscription and regular vehicle maintenance required to operate" ¹. The car moves only inside Tesla's Robotaxi service areas, eight cities across Texas and Florida ¹.

A day later, Musk called his own fee wrong

Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, posted the order page's limits↗: invite only, Texas delivery cities, geofenced operation, one vehicle per customer, a roughly $300 monthly fee ³. Musk replied that the Cybercab "will be available nationwide, as we receive regulatory approval," then conceded the pricing: "But the monthly fee is too high. Should match the cost of Tesla FSD and connectivity for other models, which is more like ~$115/month" ³.

He gave no date. The Inference traced the Cybercab's payment problem in September (Tesla's Cybercab Is Here. The Hard Part Is Paying for It.↗); the new fact since is the number Musk himself put on it.

What $115 does to the subscription line

At $299 a month, autonomy costs $3,588 a year per cab ¹; at Musk's $115, it costs $1,380, a 62% cut. The target has a basis: Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Tesla's driver-assistance software on its other models, runs $99 a month↗, and Premium Connectivity adds $9.99↗, together the parity Musk named ³⁴⁵.

Tesla closed Friday at $390.22, near 193 times forward earnings↗ ⁶. The stock fell nearly 2% in the regular session and about 1% after hours ³; it is down 12% this year and 13% over the past twelve months, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 tracker ETFs are up 12% over the same twelve months ³.

Retail sentiment stayed bullish ³. If autonomy subscriptions are part of what that multiple pays for, the CEO just marked the per-vehicle revenue line down 62% ³.

The case for $299, for now

The sticker undercuts the Model 3 by $7,000 as the cheapest Tesla ever↗ ⁷, the fee can move as the service area grows ², and Musk has promised unsupervised driving for existing cars around the second quarter of 2027 in Robotaxi areas ⁷.

A cut has winners: a future buyer at $115 pays $184 a month less, $2,208 a year, and Tesla widens the pool of buyers who can justify a car confined to eight cities ³. But invited owners cannot yet put a personal Cybercab to work on the Robotaxi network to earn the fee back ³, and the deposit is nonrefundable at a number the CEO calls wrong.

Whether $299 stands depends on the order page and NHTSA

Two readings decide this: whether the $299 line changes before December deliveries, and whether the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which ordered Tesla to prove under oath that a car with no brake pedal meets federal safety standards and has not ruled, lets the sales stand ¹. The fee Musk calls too high is still on the order page, pre-checked.