Autonomous driving

Tesla wants to protect “Robotaxi” as a trademark

View of the interior of the "Cybercab"(Bild: Tesla)

Tesla wants to have "Robotaxi" and "Robobus" protected as brand names. The electric car manufacturer's applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cover both vehicles and transportation services. 

In recent years, the term robotaxi has come to be used to describe self-driving cars that transport people. Tesla's applications were submitted last week for the presentation of a Robotaxi model and the concept for a self-driving bus for up to 20 people by company boss Elon Musk. They were first reported on by the blog "Electrek", which specializes in electromobility.

Musk himself repeatedly referred to the vehicles as "Cybercab" and "Robovan" during the presentation. There is currently no application for "Cybercab" in the USPTO database. Meanwhile, the name "Robovan" was already secured in 2019 by Starship Technologies, a company that develops delivery robots that drive on sidewalks.

Production expected to start in 2026
Musk had announced that Tesla's self-driving robotaxi is expected to go into production in 2026. It will also be available to buy privately at a price below 30,000 dollars. At the same time, he himself admitted that he tends to be too optimistic when it comes to deadlines. Investors were disappointed by the lack of concrete details about the plans and caused Tesla shares to fall by around nine percent after the event.

At the same time, industry observers continue to doubt whether Tesla can achieve reliable autonomous driving with cameras alone. Competitors such as Google's sister company Waymo also use more expensive technology such as laser radars that scan the vehicle's surroundings. Waymo already operates a driverless robotaxi service in four US cities and makes more than 100,000 trips with passengers per week.