GoKawiilIn another unusual company crossover arrangement, Tesla has revealed its upcoming Cybercab design with a built-in SpaceX Starlink V5 dish. In a post on X, Tesla showed off a Cybercab cutaway with multiple ways to connect to the outside world including a GPS antenna and 5G LTE, along with the Starlink integration. "High-speed internet from space for the future of autonomous vehicles," the company wrote in a separate post.
Tesla said that the integrated dish will be the Starlink V5 just announced last week. The V5 dish is smaller and more energy-efficient than past models, but offers slightly lower speeds of 375+ Mbps, compared to 400+ Mbps for the V4 model. Oddly, Starlink describes the V5 as having "home internet" capabilities only, unlike the Starlink Mini that's also designed for use "on the go."
Another strange detail is that the few Tesla Cybercabs that exist operate only in cities, where 5G cellular networks are widely available (US cities average 175 Mbps, around half the Starlink V5). And with a built-in 5G antenna as well, the upcoming Cybercab will have redundant internet access, which seems like overkill for relatively short trips.
However, Starlink integration could offer other benefits for a taxi fleet like inter-vehicle communication, navigation and remote support, without the need to depend on a cellular signal. It's also a way for Elon Musk to transfer benefits (and business) from one of his companies to another.
Tesla has yet to say exactly when the new Cybercabs will appear. The company fleet to date is tiny, consisting of just 39 unsupervised rider vehicles, according to the Robotaxi Tracker site, with 770 total including including supervised vehicles.