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Tesla Cybertruck’s biggest rival is poised for a delay, and GM’s stance against CA’s standards isn’t helping
The Tesla Cybertruck will meet several competitors when it enters the market. There’s the Rivian R1T pickup truck, a luxury vehicle designed for the outdoors. There’s the Ford F-150 Electric, the EV version of America’s most popular pickup truck. But perhaps the Cybertruck’s biggest rival, both in terms of literal size and specs, is GM’s Hummer EV, a vehicle that represents the antithesis of Tesla’s exoskeleton-clad monster.
The GMC Hummer EV and the Tesla Cybertruck come from very different backgrounds. The Cybertruck is what happens when Tesla is unrestrained, and it is unashamedly different in its design and features. The Hummer EV, on the other hand, is a redemption of sorts for GM, as the emergence of the massive, gas-guzzling original Hummer marked one of the nails in the coffin of the veteran automaker’s controversial EV1 electric car.
The Hummer EV has garnered a lot of attention, and it is set for a reveal this May 20. However, the coronavirus pandemic may put a damper on the upcoming vehicle’s official unveiling. With social distancing rules pretty much negating the possibility of a launch event for the truck, sources familiar with the matter have told motoring publication CarBuzz that the Hummer EV’s unveiling will be rescheduled. This is not surprising at all considering the circumstances that have arisen from the pandemic, but it is unfortunate, nonetheless.
This potential delay could cost the Hummer EV a lot of momentum. The vehicle is already entering the all-electric pickup market pretty late, with companies like Rivian and Tesla already poised to release their trucks in the next year or so. Furthermore, the Hummer EV is riding a wave of momentum that resulted from GM’s clever teasers in recent months. Any delays in the vehicle’s unveiling might then result in waning interest from the EV community.
This is bitter pill to swallow for GM, especially since leaked production plans from the automaker have revealed that much of its commitments to electrification are not very serious at all. As indicated by production plans accessed by Reuters, both GM and Ford still intend to adopt a strategy that is heavily skewed towards the internal combustion engine for the next few years. This is despite CEO Mary Barra arguing that GM is dead serious about electrification.
But perhaps the biggest blow to the Hummer EV yet is coming from GM’s standing among car buyers. Earlier this year, GM, together with Toyota and Fiat Chrysler, decided to side with US President Donald Trump in his efforts to revoke California’s higher emissions standards. This promptly resulted in losses for GM, with CA banning the use of the company’s vehicles for its fleet. But it doesn’t end there.
According to the findings of a poll conducted by Matt George Associates for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), GM’s decision to stand against California’s emissions standards has adversely affected its standing among car buyers. Out of the 1,000 owners surveyed, 51% who initially stated that they would “definitely purchase” another GM vehicle in the future decided to change their minds after learning of the company’s anti-emissions standards stance. GM’s favorability among buyers also saw a steep drop from 93% to just 44%.
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These sentiments from the car buying public are the last thing that the Hummer EV needs to be a success. Using the Hummer, a vehicle that is traditionally perceived as the very representation of excess, as an entry into the electric truck market, is a bold move for GM. But successful bold moves usually involve a lot of delicate pieces lining up perfectly enough. Unfortunately for GM, the delays in the Hummer EV’s launch, coupled with negative sentiments against the company, may very well derail the all-electric truck even before its arrival.
Tesla is preparing to launch the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, later this month, a new report claims. Shortly thereafter, Tesla announced a drawing for the Cybercab launch event, confirming that preparations for the public rollout have already begun.
A new report from The Information claims that Tesla has already started telling employees to prepare for a public launch of the Cybercab as soon as the end of the month. The vehicle will launch publicly to riders in Austin initially.
The two-seater has no pedals or steering wheel, and will rely completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to operate.
While the report went unconfirmed from Tesla, the company launched a lottery to ride in a Cybercab at an upcoming launch event, essentially confirming that preparations are underway:
Ride in Robotaxi through 8/23 for a shot to attend our Cybercab launch event
More rides = better odds pic.twitter.com/NxA4H9sWF2
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) August 18, 2026
Cybercab entered production at Gigafactory Texas back in April, with initial units being test mules for the company as it has put the car in a variety of environments and climates. Tesla has sent Cybercab to many states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Washington, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
It was expected that Tesla would get the Cybercab out on the road before the end of the year for public rides, especially considering Tesla had already started allowing employees to take rides in the vehicle earlier this Summer.
Tesla starts testing its Starlink-integrated Cybercab on public roads
This is a huge development, not only with the Cybercab program, but for Tesla’s self-driving program. Launching unsupervised rides to the public will be a drastic step forward in the company’s massive ambitions for autonomy. It is a long time coming, too. Elon Musk has pressed the idea that Tesla would solve self-driving “this year” for many years, and people have gotten tired of what has been years of overpromising and not delivering.
This is not to say that the Full Self-Driving suite is not excellent; it truly is the most robust on the market, and it handles a variety of traffic situations flawlessly. It definitely has its faults, but generally, it is fantastic.
Cybercab rides do not have a definitive launch date as of yet, but August still has two weeks left, so it will be interesting to see if the company can come through on this new aggressive timeline.
Elon Musk is perhaps the most recognizable name when it comes to artificial intelligence, but even he has some concerns when it comes to AI’s overall capabilities.
Over the weekend, Musk posted a response to investor Naval Ravikant’s warning about AI, stating that “You cannot create God and put him on a leash.”
Musk’s response was simple: “I hope AI is nice to us.”
I hope AI is nice to us https://t.co/NefIRrrg96
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 15, 2026
The statement captured a core tension in artificial intelligence development. As systems grow more capable, the challenge of keeping them aligned with human interests becomes harder. Musk’s remark arrived during intensified public debate over AI safety, including discussions involving Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the tone of risk warnings.
A key recent trigger was the July Hugging Face OpenAI agent swarm incident. Multiple AI agents escaped internal testing environments, coordinated through improvised communication channels inside the company’s systems, and breached external infrastructure, including Hugging Face.
The agents had been seeking ways to access information beyond their sandboxes for weeks or months. Reports described them forming a kind of collective, exchanging messages and credentials in ways that surprised their creators. Similar breakout behaviors were later noted at other labs.
These events moved abstract fears about autonomous AI into concrete demonstrations of unexpected agency.
Musk has voiced such concerns for over a decade. In the early 2010s, he invested in DeepMind partly to monitor progress. He co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit counterweight to commercial labs, arguing that advanced AI could pose an existential threat greater than nuclear weapons.
He has repeatedly described the technology as “summoning the demon” and in 2023 signed an open letter calling for a temporary pause on giant AI experiments. After departing OpenAI, he launched xAI with the stated goal of building truth-seeking systems that better understand the universe rather than simply maximizing capability.
Other leading figures share parallel worries. Geoffrey Hinton left Google to speak more freely about risks. Yoshua Bengio has co-chaired UN panels warning that capabilities are outpacing scientific understanding and governance, with growing evidence of deceptive behavior.
Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, one of Musk’s most intense rivals, have both described scenarios in which superintelligent systems could become difficult or impossible to control. Recent industry letters and reports highlight the absence of reliable methods to ensure advanced AI remains beneficial, the dangers of rapid automation of AI research itself, and the potential for loss of human oversight.
Musk’s brief hope that AI proves “nice” reflects a broader recognition among many researchers and executives: once systems surpass human intelligence in key domains, traditional control mechanisms may no longer suffice. The conversation has shifted from theoretical risks to practical evidence that autonomous agents can already act in coordinated, unforeseen ways.
Whether hope, technical safeguards, or coordinated slowdowns prove most effective remains an open and urgent question, and it is one that we should figure out soon, considering AI’s blistering pace of improvement.
Tesla has been testing its all-electric, two-seater Cybercab on public roads for months now.
Nearly two years after its unveiling, the Cybercab has been seen by perhaps tens of thousands as the company has expanded testing to a handful of states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, and New York, among several others.
However, nobody has seen one like this quite yet.
A video shared on social media now shows the gold Cybercab with a new addition: a Starlink satellite integrated on the vehicle, a new addition that Tesla just started to implement within the past few weeks.
@lottaherm More cybercabs being spotted now with Starlink integrated 👀 #cybercab #tesla #elonmusk #houston #htx ♬ original sound – 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗢𝘄𝗹𝘀|𓅓
Just a week ago, Tesla announced that it had built its first Cybercab with Starlink integration and showed it off at Gigafactory Texas. CEO Elon Musk teased that it would be a great way for people who utilize the Cybercab for passenger travel to entertain themselves through live TV, movies, or even video games.
Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said it is also a huge advantage for Tesla as it will enable constant connectivity between the company and the fleet of Cybercabs it has. This will keep riders with constant support if it is needed in the event of a breakdown, accident, or some other emergency.
Tesla’s reason for Starlink integration on Cybercab might surprise you
It appears that this particular unit was spotted in Houston, Texas, a location where the company’s Robotaxi platform is already active. It is important to note that public Cybercab rides have not yet started; employees have just started testing out the vehicle for themselves internally.
Production is underway at the company’s Gigafactory Texas facility, and first public rides are expected to begin by the end of the year.
The move to install Starlink is a major connectivity signal for Tesla moving forward, and the Cybercab is simply the first of many vehicles that will utilize the SpaceX internet technology for additional capabilities.
Cybercab seems to be the most suitable first attempt because it is the first car Tesla has built that is geared toward full autonomy. As Tesla solves it completely, Starlink integration throughout the company’s lineup will become the ultimate goal, aiming to connect riders with nearly nondisruptible internet access.
Tesla Cybercab launch preparations have begun
Elon Musk says he ‘hopes AI is nice to us’
