{"id":357142,"date":"2026-07-01T11:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/357142\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:42:13","slug":"teslas-cybercab-is-now-testing-without-a-steering-wheel-in-austin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/357142\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla&#8217;s Cybercab is now testing without a steering wheel in Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CEO Elon Musk says it has started <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/tesla-cybercab-production-22222979.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">engineering tests of the Cybercab<\/a> in Austin. A newly released video shows an engineering vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals taking a safety monitor to a destination in the East Riverside neighborhood, past Willow Creek Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The tests arrive after the\u00a0Cybercab has been spotted driving around Austin for months, often with a steering wheel and a person in the driver\u2019s seat. Now, the engineering tests are the latest indication that Tesla is preparing to add the vehicle to its robotaxi fleet, following recent regulatory activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dis.epa.gov\/otaqpub\/display_file.jsp?docid=65402&amp;flag=1\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filing<\/a> with the Environmental Protection Agency revealed specs for the vehicle, including its 219-horsepower and 418-mile range. And last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration <a href=\"https:\/\/public-inspection.federalregister.gov\/2026-12981.pdf\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">proposed<\/a> revisions to the current requirements that all light vehicles contain hand- or foot-operated, removing those requirements for vehicles designed never to be operated by a human.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Tesla\u2019s robotaxi fleet of Model Ys \u2014 84 vehicles spread between Austin, Dallas and Houston \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 has tallied <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/austin-robotaxi-crashes-texas-22306543.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">18 crashes around Austin<\/a> since launching in June 2025. And recent polling has suggested Texans disapprove of Cybercabs offering commercial rides, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/robotaxi-poll-texas-22317463.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">66% of Austin survey respondents<\/a> opposing the operations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEO Elon Musk says it has started engineering tests of the Cybercab in Austin. A newly released video&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-357142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}