Along a busy commercial street, several gold-colored Cybercabs sit in a row waiting for passengers. The vehicles look identical, but riders find their own car with ease: they simply look for the one whose headlights glow in the same color shown in the Cybercab app on their smartphone.
As a rider approaches, the car unlocks automatically. A touch on the door sends it swinging upward like a wing. Inside the spare two-seat cabin there is no steering wheel, no brake pedal and no side mirrors — only a single tablet. The cabin temperature, seat angle and even the music are already set the way the rider chose before boarding.
Tesla has taken the wraps off the Cybercab, the vehicle built specifically for its autonomous robotaxi service. The launch comes about two years after the prototype was shown in 2024. The robotaxis Tesla currently operates commercially are modified Model Y vehicles that still have steering wheels and pedals, but the Cybercab was designed from the start as a fully autonomous vehicle requiring no human input. The Cybercab has been running road tests recently, and attention is now on how soon it will enter the robotaxi market.
The Cybercab launch event was held on the 3rd in Austin, Texas, where Tesla is headquartered, according to Reuters and other foreign media. The event was closed to the public, with invitations limited to Tesla fans, existing robotaxi riders and influencers. Chief Executive Elon Musk stoked anticipation by posting on X, formerly Twitter, a brief message reading "Cybercab storm" along with an image of a Cybercab kicking up a sandstorm in Austin.
Cybercab chief engineer Eric Early and other company officials attended the event to explain the vehicle. Early said the Cybercab was designed as a two-seater because more than 80% of all rides carry two passengers, adding that the seat count was optimized at two to achieve the lowest possible cost. The design leaves trunk space wide enough to hold a wheelchair.
The company also detailed the Cybercab's features and how to use them. When a rider hails a Cybercab, the headlights and cabin lights flash in a specific color matching the one displayed in the app, allowing riders to spot their car at a glance even where many vehicles are gathered.
While the car is on its way to pick up a rider, the cabin syncs in advance with the temperature, seat position and media accounts the user has preset through a cloud account. A tablet is installed inside, but riders can also control vehicle functions from their own smartphones. Grok, the artificial intelligence model from xAI, is also built in, allowing voice commands to control the car.
Market Focus Turns to Commercial Launch After Road Tests Began in April
Tesla also outlined the Cybercab's technical approach. Officials stressed that while robotaxi rivals such as Waymo have focused on sensor technologies that supplement cameras, including lidar and radar, the Cybercab achieves autonomous driving by combining cameras with AI. Silvio, the head of vehicle software, said industry experts argue that cameras alone cannot produce a safe self-driving vehicle, but that Tesla concluded the core of autonomous driving lies in intelligence. He said this is possible because humans also drive all day using only cameras — their eyes.
For manufacturing, Tesla adopted a modular approach. Conventional cars are assembled body part by body part, but the Cybercab uses modular assembly that halved the size of the production line while sharply increasing output, a Tesla official said.
Tesla began producing the Cybercab in April and has recently been conducting road tests on public streets. That suggests the company will formally put the Cybercab into robotaxi service before long.
Still, the market is looking for a more specific commercial rollout plan. Tesla has positioned robotaxis as one of its core future businesses, but it trails Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, in driverless taxi service. Waymo currently operates in 11 U.S. cities and has publicly announced plans to enter Munich, Germany. Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin last year and is expanding into Florida and California.
Because the Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, how Tesla will navigate strict regulatory requirements is another question. Waymo keeps steering wheels, pedals and side mirrors, just as conventional cars do. Amazon's Zoox, which has no steering wheel or pedals, won a federal exemption in July.
Tesla has not yet filed for an exemption with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
