A version of Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla Cybercabs have hit the streets of New York City, a transportation department official said on Thursday, revealing Tesla is the latest tech giant seeking to enter the country’s largest market.<\/p>\n
Tesla officially launched the Cybercab<\/a> \u2014 a fully autonomous taxi without a steering wheel \u2014 across six different cities in Texas and Florida last week. The service is marketed as a \u201cfully autonomous fleet\u201d that uses artificial intelligence and can be called on an app. The announcement said nothing about New York City. But in recent weeks a Gothamist reporter and an editor spotted the unusual sand-colored vehicles \u2014 which lack side mirrors \u2014 around the five boroughs.<\/p>\n There was a person sitting in the driver’s seat, behind the steering wheel.<\/p>\n The city transportation department said Tesla has been testing a \u201csupervised\u201d self-driving system, which allows a car to operate itself while also giving the driver the ability to take control of the vehicle at any point.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how many of the vehicles are on the road in New York or how long Tesla will be testing the Cybercabs.<\/p>\n Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n The driver of a Cybercab declined to answer any questions when a Gothamist reporter attempted to flag him down last weekend on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan. Late last month, another cybercab was spotted by a Gothamist editor at the entrance of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.<\/p>\n Both vehicles had Texas license plates in the back and a Cybercab logo in the front.<\/p>\n The Cybercab\u2019s arrival comes months after another autonomous e-hail app faced major pushback over its attempt to launch in New York.<\/p>\n Last year, the city gave Waymo, which is owned by Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, a six-month permit<\/a> to test its autonomous vehicles \u2014 with a driver behind the wheel. That permit expired in March.<\/p>\n Waymo, which touts a fully autonomous taxi service but which has a steering wheel in the driver\u2019s seat, has continued to collect data, but without the self-driving feature.<\/p>\n