LOS ANGELES, Oct 10 (Reuters) - For a businessman who

perpetually struggles with broken promises, Elon Musk gave

himself quite a to-do list Thursday night at Tesla's

long-awaited Hollywood unveiling of its driverless robotaxis.

After traversing the fake streets of the Warner Bros movie

studio set in a sleek, silver two-door "Cybercab" prototype,

Musk promised that the company's popular Model 3 and Model Y

vehicles would be able to operate without driver supervision in

California and Texas by next year.

He said the company would start building the fully

autonomous Cybercab by 2026 at a price of less than $30,000, and

showed off a robovan capable of transporting 20 people around

town - products he said would reshape cities by "turning parking

lots into parks."

Later came the dancing humanoid robots that also mixed

drinks at the bar. Tesla will sell those, too, Musk said,

eventually for $20,000 to $30,000 a piece. "I think this will be

the biggest product ever, of any kind," he declared.

Thursday night's electronic dance music-infused event had

the signature trappings of Musk's salesmanship, but some Tesla

investors and experts said they were hoping for more concrete

details on how the company plans to transform from an automaker

into an autonomous driving and artificial intelligence titan

with a solid business plan.

"His vision is lovely, but somebody has to actualize it,"

said Ross Gerber, a Tesla shareholder and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki

Wealth and Investment Management. "For now, for the next 24

months, Tesla has to sell EVs. Why aren't we focused on that?"

Gerber said he was happy to see products like the Cybercab

and the robovan, but hoped to also see a more traditional,

lower-priced mass-market vehicle that the company could sell in

the near future.

Musk had for years pledged to sell a car expected to start

at about $25,000, a promise that investors saw as critical to

winning new customers. Reuters reported exclusively on April 5

that Tesla had abandoned this project, initially sending Tesla

shares down. Musk responded by posting later that day on X that

Tesla would unveil a robotaxi on Aug. 8, which was later delayed

to October.

'YEARS BEHIND'

Tesla is aiming to leapfrog incumbent self-driving players,

including Alphabet's Waymo, by pursuing a lower-cost

technological path that Musk believes will allow the company to

scale up its autonomous vehicles far quicker than rivals.

Tesla's strategy is simpler and much cheaper than that of

its rivals, but has critical weaknesses. Chief among those is

that the AI technology underpinning its self-driving system

makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint why a crash or other

failure occurred - something that could concern regulators.

"Tesla software is at least years behind where Waymo is.

That's the hard part. No flashy vehicle design is going to

change that," said Matthew Wansley, professor at New York's

Cardozo School of Law.

Tesla's rivals use similar AI and camera technology, but

layer on so-called redundant systems and more-expensive sensors

as a safety precaution.

Ramesh Poola, co-chief investment officer at Creative

Planning, which holds Tesla shares, said he was impressed by the

presentation but "obviously, we were looking for more details on

what exactly his future plans are going to be and how he's going

to monetize this new AI and robotics."

In particular, Poola said he anticipates regulators will

pose a "major hurdle" to Musk's plans to shift to unsupervised

autonomous driving by next year. Tesla's current "Full

Self-Driving" driver-assistance feature cannot be operated

safely without a human driver paying constant attention.

"He's shown the prototypes and definitely there's some

excitement around it," Poola said. But widespread adoption of

autonomous Cybercabs, where riders can hail rides through an

Uber-style app, are still "maybe three to four years away," he

said.

That is not necessarily a bad thing, Poola said, adding that

he will be telling clients not to sell Tesla stock. "There are

lots and lots of avenues to monetize this technology," he said.

"Cybercab may not necessarily be next year, but down the road,

the viability is there."

Musk had previously said he planned to operate a fleet of

self-driving Tesla taxis that passengers can hail through an

app. He made no mention of the app at Thursday's event.

Tasha Keeney, director of investment analysis at Tesla

investor ARK Investment Management, said she had been hoping for

more specifics on the app.

However, Keeney said she was encouraged by Musk's timeline

of offering an unsupervised version of its full self-driving

system in Texas and California next year.

"If they can do that, I don't see why they wouldn't launch a

robotaxi service soon after," she said.