AUSTIN, Texas (Sept 3): Tesla said on Thursday that it was offering rides in “limited areas of Austin, Texas” in its two-seater Cybercab, a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, with the auto safety agency responding that it was evaluating the matter.<\/p>\n
CEO\u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0has said the Cybercab is key to transforming\u00a0Tesla\u00a0into a dominant force in driverless vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, sets and enforces rules for auto safety, including for new vehicles.<\/p>\n
“NHTSA is in contact with\u00a0Tesla\u00a0and is evaluating the situation,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u00a0in recent weeks has been promoting what it called an exclusive “Cybercab launch event” in Austin, scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n
The electric-vehicle maker has a limited robotaxi ride-hailing service with a network of autonomous Model Ys, some with human safety monitors. Over time, it intends to make the no-steering-wheel Cybercab the main driverless vehicle model operating within a larger robotaxi network.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u00a0updated its robotaxi website on Thursday with details about the Cybercab, including the information that rides in the model were available only in some parts of Austin.\u00a0Tesla\u00a0did not specify whether it would charge for Cybercabs or if anyone using its app in Austin could secure a ride.<\/p>\n
Several\u00a0Tesla\u00a0investors and social media personalities are in Austin for the event, posting videos of themselves in the gold cars before the presentation on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
Musk has promised for years that driverless\u00a0Teslas are imminent, including at a Cybercab unveiling in October 2024 at a Los Angeles-area movie studio, but\u00a0Tesla’s robotaxi rollout has fallen short of his targets, and some analysts in recent months have flagged the slower-than-expected growth.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u00a0put out a promotional video on social media platform X on Thursday afternoon ahead of the event, with the caption: “The future has arrived in Austin.”<\/p>\n
In a video showing the gold vehicle opening its butterfly doors, Musk calls it “the first car that is specifically built for unsupervised full self-driving.” The video shows passengers conversing in the two-seater vehicle, with no steering wheel or pedals, while another scene shows a person reading a book.<\/p>\n
Market value underpinned by robotaxi ambitions<\/p>\n
Since launching a pilot in Austin in June 2025,\u00a0Tesla\u00a0has expanded its robotaxi service to a \u2060handful of other cities in Texas and Florida. Service is often limited to outlying areas that are simpler to navigate than urban centers.<\/p>\n
Analysts and investors see driverless vehicles as key to\u00a0Tesla’s future and a central underpinning of its US$1.4 trillion market value, far higher than any other automaker.\u00a0Tesla’s core electric-vehicle business faces pressure from global competition, particularly Chinese EV makers.<\/p>\n
Musk has said the Cybercab will eventually be\u00a0Tesla’s largest-volume vehicle, supplying a global network of robotaxis and allowing individual owners to add or remove their vehicles from a\u00a0Tesla-managed driverless ride-hailing fleet when they are not using the cars.\u00a0Tesla\u00a0said production began in April 2026, though Musk cautioned in April that initial production “will be very slow.”<\/p>\n
Regulatory hurdles limit deployment<\/p>\n
It is unclear how quickly\u00a0Tesla\u00a0will be able to fully deploy the vehicles.<\/p>\n
Federal regulations limit the number of vehicles any manufacturer can sell without a steering wheel and pedals. Manufacturers can deploy an unlimited number of such vehicles for testing, but that would limit\u00a0Tesla’s ability to collect fares.<\/p>\n
In California, a key market,\u00a0Tesla\u00a0does not have permits to operate a robotaxi service or to test driverless vehicles without a safety driver who can take over in the front seat.<\/p>\n
In July 2025, Musk \u200bsaid the company’s robotaxi network would expand at a “hyper-exponential rate” and be available to half the population of the US by the end of \u200c2025.<\/p>\n
Those predictions did not pan out, and Musk and his executives have struck a more cautious tone in recent months, saying the company is taking a careful approach to avoid injuries or fatalities.<\/p>\n
Real-world testing reveals service gaps<\/p>\n
Reuters\u00a0tested out the robotaxi service\u00a0in the weeks after Dallas and Houston events earlier this year and \u200bfound long wait times, with sometimes no availability at all.<\/p>\n
On three occasions when a reporter managed to get a ride in Dallas, the robotaxi would not drop him at his downtown destination within\u00a0Tesla’s advertised service area. Each time, it left him about a 15-minute walk away.\u00a0Tesla\u00a0did not respond to requests for comment about the service issues.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u00a0had 420 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas as of Wednesday evening, according to state records, including 45 Cybercab vehicles. Earlier on Wednesday, state records showed\u00a0Tesla\u00a0had registered 314 vehicles. Alphabet’s Waymo, the current US leader in driverless taxis, has 988 vehicles registered in the state.<\/p>\n
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