Tesla Readies August Launch of Cybercab, Its Robotaxi Without a Steering Wheel

Tesla has told staff it is gearing up for a public launch of the Cybercab, its first vehicle designed without a steering wheel or brake pedal, intended for its autonomous ride-hailing service, Robotaxi. The company aims to start with a public rollout in Austin, Texas.

It plans to launch the Cybercab to the public in the city as soon as this month, according to people with knowledge of the plans. Tesla in recent weeks has been preparing for a launch with steps including test driving, offering employee rides on private roads and conducting training with local first responders, the people said.

The long-promised rollout of the futuristic two-seat vehicle designed to operate without a driver would mark a major step in Tesla’s effort to turn the Cybercab into a commercial product. Musk has heavily promoted both the Cybercab and Tesla’s Robotaxi autonomous ride service as central to the company’s future and a potentially significant source of revenue and profits.

Tesla has been spotted testing Cybercabs on public roads all over the country, including in Austin, since June but hasn’t yet offered rides on public roads or to the general public, testing only internally. In July, the company said it had started allowing employees to take Cybercab rides on private roads around its Austin campus and has been collecting feedback from them. The company took similar steps before it launched its first Robotaxi hub in Austin last year.

Tesla told staff it plans to begin the rollout by offering Cybercab rides to Tesla employees on public roads and then to start incorporating the vehicles into its Robotaxi service in Austin a few days after that, the people said.

While the end of August is currently the internal target for the public launch of the Cybercab, the timeline could change as Tesla continues to make final preparations. Musk said during its earnings call in July that because the Cybercab had been built on a new platform, Tesla had to “accumulate driving data that is specific to the Cybercab before we can put a lot of them on the road.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Cybercab is one of very few vehicles to operate on public roads without a steering wheel or brake pedal. It represents a big step from a technology and regulatory perspective, because the vehicle is designed to operate without allowing a human driver to take control or step in if the self-driving system runs into trouble. The company has said it has remote operators that monitor the vehicle and can take over in the event of an emergency.

Amazon-backed Zoox received approval in July from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin offering commercial rides with its steering wheelless and brakeless vehicles. Before that approval, Zoox offered free rides but didn’t charge customers. It is unclear if Tesla plans to offer rides in the Cybercab for free or if the company has received regulatory approval to use the vehicle as part of a commercial service.

Tesla completed emergency training with first responders in Austin last week, teaching them how to handle issues with the Cybercab vehicles, such as how to move the vehicle out of the way if needed, a spokesperson for the city of Austin confirmed.

Tesla currently uses Model Ys equipped with autonomous driving software for its Robotaxi service. It’s unclear if the company plans to fully replace all Model Ys in its Austin fleet with Cybercabs or if it will add the vehicles to its existing fleet. Tesla currently has 186 Model Y vehicles registered for its Austin service, according to a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles dashboard.

Ramping up the use of its purpose-built Cybercab could help Tesla avoid the added work of adapting an existing consumer vehicle for its Robotaxi operations. For the Austin Robotaxi launch, Tesla modified its Model Y vehicles to add self-cleaning cameras for clearing debris and a second telecommunications unit, people with knowledge of the project said.

Musk has said Tesla plans to produce the Cybercab at scale and repeatedly described the vehicle as central to the company’s autonomous driving ambitions. Tesla began production of the Cybercab in Texas last month, though the company has since said it no longer expects to reach volume production of the vehicle in 2026.

Scaling Up

While Musk has big ambitions for building a business around autonomous vehicles, the company is still in the process of turning the service into a business with significant revenue.

Tesla reported during its most recent earnings report in July that it had accumulated 380,000 driverless miles across its Robotaxi hubs. For comparison, Waymo, which has been operating as a public commercial service since 2020, says it has accumulated more than 220 million driverless autonomous miles with riders.

Tesla’s Robotaxi service can be costly to operate. The company employs hundreds of safety operators who are tasked with testing the software and improving it in new markets, as well as assisting with the ride-hailing service in the Bay Area.

But Tesla has reduced the human oversight involved in launching in newer markets including Miami. It is using fewer safety operators and launching Robotaxi rides without employees initially riding in the vehicles.

Tesla has been increasing its spending on AI and autonomous driving infrastructure as it continues to build out its AI business. Last month during its quarterly earnings call, it reported that its capital expenditures had more than doubled from the previous year to nearly $5.8 billion, in large part due to spending on AI projects. That spending comes as Musk has increasingly positioned AI and autonomy as central to Tesla’s future, arguing that investors should not view the company simply as an automaker.