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<\/p>\nTesla is taking another major step toward a driverless future.<\/p>\n
The company has officially opened rides in its Cybercab robotaxi to the public in Austin, Texas – a futuristic two-seat vehicle that comes without a steering wheel or pedals.<\/p>\n
Tesla confirmed the Cybercab would join its Robotaxi fleet Friday at 5 p.m. CT, following an invite-only launch event in Austin Thursday night. <\/p>\n
The vehicle is designed to operate completely autonomously using Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving technology. Instead of traditional driving controls, passengers sit back while the vehicle handles the trip.<\/p>\n
The gold-colored Cybercab features two seats and gull-wing doors, along with a large touchscreen inside. Tesla has promoted the vehicle as more of a lounge on wheels, with plans for entertainment features including music, gaming and video. <\/p>\n
Customers in Austin can request a Cybercab through Tesla\u2019s Robotaxi app, similar to requesting a ride through services such as Uber, Lyft or Waymo. <\/p>\n
For now, however, riders may have to wait.<\/p>\n
There are currently 45 Cybercabs registered in Texas, according to Axios, out of about 420 autonomous Tesla vehicles registered statewide. Tesla has manufacturing capacity planned for as many as 125,000 Cybercabs annually, with CEO Elon Musk ultimately envisioning production at a much larger scale. <\/p>\n
Tesla is also beginning to explore potential commercial fleet orders, asking companies and entrepreneurs to express interest in purchasing fleets or building infrastructure to support the Robotaxi network. <\/p>\n
Houston could be next<\/p>\n
The launch is particularly noteworthy for Texans outside Austin.<\/p>\n
Tesla has already been expanding its driverless Robotaxi service into Houston and Dallas, and the company\u2019s autonomous fleet has grown across Texas. <\/p>\n
That raises a big question for Houston drivers:<\/p>\n
Could you soon be able to hail a Cybercab for a ride around Houston?<\/p>\n
Tesla has not announced a specific timeline for bringing the steering-wheel-free Cybercab to Houston.<\/p>\n
The rollout is also drawing attention from federal safety regulators.<\/p>\n
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is evaluating Tesla\u2019s Cybercab rollout. The unusual design presents regulatory questions because the vehicle does not have traditional manual driving controls. <\/p>\n
For now, Tesla\u2019s Austin launch represents one of the company\u2019s biggest real-world tests of its vision for fully autonomous transportation.<\/p>\n
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Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesla is taking another major step toward a driverless future. The company has officially opened rides in its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,148649,134,133,148650,148191,483,148648],"class_list":["post-427533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-autonomous-launch","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-electric-robotaxi","tag-taxi","tag-tesla","tag-texas-robotaxi-fleet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427533","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=427533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}