Tesla submitted applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday to register the terms “Cybercar” and “Cybervehicle,” according to documents published to the USPTO website. The electric vehicle company has previously filed applications for Cybercab and Cyberbus, two products that don’t actually exist yet, as well as Cybertruck, the official truck of middle-aged dads without child visitation rights.
The big question is whether the Cybercar and Cybervehicle are intended to be something that eventually gets a public release or remains vaporware and serves little purpose beyond juicing Tesla’s stock price. Both options seem equally likely in this moment.
The law firm Gerben IP, which was the first to report on the trademark applications, notes that once USPTO reviews and approves a trademark, companies like Tesla typically have about three years to begin using the name in commerce before they risk losing it. Put another way, you can’t just park a trademark like a web domain indefinitely. Eventually, you have to sell the product, or it’ll get taken away.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on an earnings call Wednesday that he was discontinuing the Model S and X. “We expect to wind down S and X production next quarter and basically stop production,” said Musk. “That is slightly sad, but it’s time to bring the S and X programs to an end, and it’s part of our overall shift to an autonomous future.”
What does an autonomous future mean? For Musk, it means a focus on things like humanoid robots. He’s been hyping up his Optimus robot like crazy, despite the fact that Tesla is well behind competitors when it comes to capabilities. Anytime he rolls out Optimus to demonstrate some impressive feat like pouring beer or folding laundry, it typically turns out that there’s a human controlling the robot remotely. Sometimes with hilariously bad results.
But the question is what that means for Musk’s new names, the Cybercar and the Cybervehicle. One possibility is that these are names that are somehow related to the Cybertruck and will be vehicles with more boxy designs. Another possibility is that these are going to be more closely related to the Cybercab, a concept car Musk unveiled in late 2024 that seats just two people and doesn’t have a steering wheel.
The Cybercab shouldn’t be confused with the Robotaxi, which is the vehicle shuttling passengers in Austin, Texas. Those Robotaxis have a steering wheel and are basically just regular Tesla vehicles with human minders. Is the Cybercar and Cybervehicle envisioned as something without a steering wheel? We simply don’t know yet.
The other option is that these vehicles will have something to do with the flying car that Musk teased on Joe Rogan last year. The Tesla CEO said he would demo the mysterious vehicle before the end of 2025. That didn’t happen, obviously. But whenever things are looking rough for Tesla’s business, Musk will often try to dangle another shiny object in front of Wall Street to keep his stock price afloat.
Gerben IP seems to favor the theory that the new filings are somehow related to the Cybertruck: “Given Tesla’s track record, it wouldn’t be surprising if one of these names eventually ends up on a smaller, more accessible cousin to the Cybertruck.” But we’re skeptical. Cybertruck sales have been in the toilet, and it seems much more likely that it would be related to some vaporware more in line with the Cybercab.
Tesla didn’t respond to questions emailed Thursday, though that’s not exactly a surprise. Every company under Musk’s control is actively hostile to the press, and the billionaire shut down Tesla’s PR department years ago. We’ll update this article if, by some miracle, we hear back from Tesla.
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