Tesla's Driverless Cybercab Quietly Begins Rides in Texas

Tesla held an event in Austin on Thursday that broke sharply from its typical high-energy product launches. There was no livestream, attendees were told to hold off posting for hours, and Elon Musk himself did not attend. After the embargo lifted, online influencers who had taken rides began sharing positive reviews of the matte gold, two-seat Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals.

Currently 45 Cybercabs are registered to Tesla's robotaxi network in Texas. First unveiled in 2024, the vehicle is central to Tesla's future strategy. Musk has argued the company should be viewed not as a carmaker but as an AI robotics company, suggesting that success in autonomy could make Tesla worth several times more than Nvidia, currently the world's most valuable company.

Delays and Competition

Tesla has repeatedly missed self-driving milestones it previously announced, including a 2020 target of a million autonomous vehicles on the road. Its robotaxi network began in Austin last June with a small fleet of Model Y vehicles that initially carried human safety monitors. The service has since expanded to additional cities in Texas and Florida, with permits secured in Arizona and Nevada. In California, a human driver must remain behind the wheel because Tesla lacks approval for fully driverless operation there.

Executives maintain that Tesla's reliance on inexpensive cameras, rather than the radar and lidar systems used by rivals like Waymo and Zoox, gives it a cost advantage. Still, the company's AI software head announced that Tesla vehicles have collectively logged a million driverless miles — a milestone Waymo reached back in January 2023.

Unresolved Legal Questions

How Cybercabs can legally operate remains uncertain, since federal rules require vehicles to have steering wheels and brake pedals. The government said this summer it plans to fast-track new rules, though none have been finalized. Regulators say Tesla has not filed for an exemption, while a Tesla executive has claimed one isn't needed. Government data shows remote human operators have been involved in at least three minor crashes, including one where an operator drove a vehicle into a hidden tree stump.