Is Minneapolis, Minnesota on Tesla’s punch list as the automaker eyes new markets for its robotaxi service?
On Saturday, an eagle-eyed reader named George with Victory & Reseda spotted a Tesla Cybercab in an unexpected location: Minneapolis, Minnesota. George said there were actually two units of the gold Teslas quietly sitting unattended in a parking lot. Why?
George told The Drive the two Cybercabs were sitting in a parking lot outside of a Tesla-owned office in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park and were clearly visible to anyone driving down MN Highway 610.
The two cars had VINs ending around 650, according to George, indicating these two cars might be early production models.
Both cars had steering wheels, but lacked a plastic shroud around the steering columns, according to George. The two production-intent-looking black leather seats we’ve seen before were onboard.
EPA documents revealed Cybercab specs that Tesla has held close to its chest. The filings indicated that the two-seat coupe has a 219-horsepower front motor and a curb weight of 3,113 pounds. A smaller battery pack of about 50 kWh is indicated as the power source and driving range nets around 280 miles per charge.
Currently, Waymo is actively laying its ground game to bring its autonomous robotaxi service to the Minneapolis area. Two weeks ago I spotted a few of the company’s next-gen robotaxis, sourced from Zeekr, charging with Waymo handlers in the western suburb of St. Louis Park.
Today, Tesla operates its robotaxi service in five U.S. markets including Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco. The obvious question is what are two Cybercabs doing in Minneapolis? Is Tesla planning to expand its robotaxi service to Minnesota?
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