Marques Brownlee Keeps His Hair (For Now)
The Cybercab and its mythical cousin, the Robovan
ICYMI: In 2024, Marques Brownlee, the creative powerhouse behind the MKBHD and AutoFocus tech and car review YouTube channels and professional ultimate frisbee champion, attended the initial Tesla Cybercab and Robovan launch event.
Shortly after the event, he posted a video in which he “bet” that if the Cybercab actually went on sale for regular folks like you and me, at the price that Elon claimed (under $30,000), and within the timeframe Elon suggested (by the end of 2026), he would shave his head.
In addition to being a great tech and car reviewer, Marques has fantastic hair. It would kinda be a shame if he had to shave it.
Marques has fantastic hair
In response to that “bet,” Tesla fans lost their minds and created endless AI-generated memes and videos of Marques getting his head shaved.
Elon Can’t Tell Time
Regardless of what the Tesla fans say out there on the tubes, it was a bold but safe bet.
Elon can’t tell time.
Not a single Tesla vehicle has launched on schedule.
Not one.
Robovan, where are you?
Cybercab Enters The Chat
This week, Elon inched Marques one step closer to a head shaving.
On September 3, 2026, Tesla’s new golden droplet-shaped vehicles began showering the streets of Austin, Texas, with their distinct look and nary a foot pedal or steering wheel in sight.
A handful of Tesla influencers were invited to the launch event to document their experiences.
On Thursday night, after the news embargo lifted, Kim Java, David Moss, Sawyer Merritt, Chris Lee and others counted among the Tesla-faithful posted about their first Cybercab rides.
Marques’s invite must have gotten lost in the mail.
Rendering Of The Tesla Cybercab
To be fair, the vehicles are real.
And from the video evidence, the Cybercab appears to drive itself.
That fact alone makes the launch an impressive technical achievement.
Tesla also included a lot of accessibility features, including braille on the buttons and controls in Cybercab (but kinda failed to explain how a person in a wheelchair might actually get their chair in and out of the truck).
Tesla did not name the next Cybercab cities, give a service-expansion calendar, or announce an official price or delivery window.
Waymo Throws Shade
Elon has been adamant that Level-4 (L4) autonomy only requires cameras and has mocked other automakers and robotaxi companies for years for their reliance on LiDAR and RADAR systems.
"People don't shoot lasers out of their eyes to drive," Musk wrote, sharing an old clip from Tesla's 2019 Autonomy Day. "Just try Tesla self-driving today, which just uses cameras and AI, and you will understand."
Outside of Tesla, the vast majority of robotaxi operators, from Waymo to Zoox to Motional, use LiDAR, in addition to RADAR, cameras, and other sensors as part of their onboard suite of AV tech.
Waymo overtly disagrees with Elon.
Srikanth Thirumalai, Waymo’s Vice President of Onboard Software, might not have explicitly called out Elon, Tesla, or Cybercab, but his intentions were clear.
In a blog post he wrote, entitled “10 AI Lessons from Driving 200+ Million Fully Autonomous Miles,” which was conveniently released the week before the Cybercab deployment, Srikanth argues that camera-only L2 systems are a “false summit” and that “true” L4 autonomy requires more sensors.
“The final lesson is that there is no substitute for actual fully autonomous miles. Simply improving a driver-assist system (L2) for full autonomy is a false summit. True L4 maturity can only be safely achieved by a purpose-built system, validated on closed courses and hardened by the uncompromising experience of driving without a human in the car.”
Across those millions of fully driverless miles, Waymo has logged zero fatalities.
For Tesla, it is a different story.
Death Cab For Elon
The website tesladeaths.com logs every instance where either Autopilot or Full Self-Driving was active during a Tesla crash that resulted in death.
The NHTSA has been keeping an eye on Tesla’s track record for a while as well.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a probe into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles in the United States after it received several reports of crashes involving the use of the so-called Actually Smart Summon–or ASS–remote driving feature.”
The day after the launch event, the NHTSA opened an audit query (AQ) into the Cybercab “to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.”
“Among other things, NHTSA will consider the extent to which Tesla’s certification depended on determinations that certain FMVSS are inapplicable to the Cybercab,” the agency said in a notice.
“At issue is the absence of certain design features such as sideview mirrors, pedals, and steering wheel — all of which are required under the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, or FMVSS.”
In one instance, Tesla’s own NHTSA filing says its driver-assistance systems were engaged when a Model 3 crashed in Clute, Texas, in 2025, killing the driver.
They recorded the vehicle driving at about 104 mph before the crash.
IMHO
For now, Marques gets to keep his hair.
But the year is not over, and Elon sounds weirdly motivated to hand him the clippers.
In the interim, the world waits for the Tesla Semi, Tesla’s 2nd-generation Roadster, the mythical Robovan, and the $30,000 Cybercab to be made available for sale.
Every Tesla owner I know has said their Tesla “tries to kill them” when using Autopilot or Full Self-Driving.
Occasionally, Tesla’s FSD mistakenly identifies a tree's shadow as an obstacle, causing it to drive its passengers into things like fences.
The FSD software in Cybercab is supposed to be more advanced.
But it’s unclear exactly how it is more advanced (beyond having a really fancy video game/mapping rendering engine).
Cybercab is only on the streets of Austin at the moment.
Tesla, with the addition of these 45 Cybercabs, has just over 250 vehicles operating in 6 cities.
Waymo has over 4,000 robotaxis on the road in 14 cities.
The autonomous driving race is now on.
People say you shouldn’t bet against Elon.
My bet is squarely on Waymo.
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BYD launched the new Sealion 08. Tesla launched the Cybercab. Ford took the Fathom to Vegas. Freedom Fuel isn't free. iRobot thinks two robots are better than one.