Tesla has begun operating a fleet of self-driving Cybercabs without steering wheels or brake pedals on the streets of Austin, Texas, in a high-stakes bet that passengers will embrace fully autonomous rides. The gold-coloured vehicles, which give occupants no manual controls in an emergency, mark a significant escalation in the company's push to commercialise its camera-based self-driving technology.
The launch comes as Tesla faces mounting competitive pressure in the robotaxi market and fresh regulatory scrutiny. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a probe into the company's safety procedures a day after the Austin service began, according to reports. Tesla shares nonetheless rose more than 5% on Thursday on hopes the futuristic taxis will gain traction with the public.
Elon Musk promoted the rollout on social media, posting an image of a Cybercab above the Austin skyline and writing «A Storm of Cybercabs». An invitation-only launch event was expected to follow later on Thursday. The company had teased the vehicles with the message «No steering wheel, no pedals» on X before the service went live.
The Austin deployment builds on a self-driving Tesla ride service that has operated in the city since June last year. Those earlier vehicles were equipped with steering wheels and brake pedals, and initially carried safety drivers who could intervene if problems arose. The service has since expanded to five other cities in Texas and Florida, with Tesla now operating more than 200 «unsupervised» robotaxis that run without safety drivers aboard, according to the monitoring site RobotaxiTracker.
Tesla trails rival Waymo significantly in scale. Waymo operates more than 4,000 driverless vehicles across 14 cities. Tesla's approach also differs technically from its competitors: the company relies on cameras alone to navigate, while Waymo and Amazon's Zoox supplement cameras with radar and lidar, a laser-based sensing technology.
Public acceptance remains a substantial hurdle. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that seven in 10 U.S. adults were «not too» or «not at all» comfortable riding in a driverless car. Only 7% said they would be «extremely» or «very» comfortable, while 16% said they would be «somewhat» comfortable. Separate Gallup polling from 2025 found that skepticism about driverless car safety had increased over recent years, with more Americans saying human-operated cars were the safest option than in a 2018 poll.
Musk's own popularity could complicate efforts to win over riders. A Pew poll conducted in January found that nearly six in 10 U.S. adults held a «very» or «mostly» unfavorable view of him. Tesla's brand has also suffered from political controversy: the company's stock was battered last year after Musk took charge of President Donald Trump's government cost-cutting initiative known as DOGE and embraced right-wing political candidates, sparking protests at showrooms and boycotts in several countries.
The company's financial position adds urgency to the robotaxi push. Tesla posted a second consecutive annual decline in vehicle sales last year, profits plunged, and it lost its position as the world's bestselling electric vehicle maker to China's BYD.
Musk ultimately hopes to distribute full self-driving software to hundreds of thousands of existing Teslas through an over-the-air update, allowing owners to turn their cars into taxis for hire when not in use. Regulators in the U.S. and overseas have signalled significant concerns about the technology. Tesla has not received approval for drivers to use even its partial self-driving software in most European Union countries.
In the U.S., regulators have opened several investigations into the software's safety. One probe is examining its role in crashes in fog, sun glare and other low-visibility conditions, including an incident in which a pedestrian was killed. Another is investigating dozens of cases in which Teslas using the partial self-driving software ran red lights or drove on the wrong side of the road, sometimes causing injuries. A third is examining whether Tesla violated regulatory requirements by failing to report crashes promptly.