Tesla tests Cybercab without steering wheel in Austin

A two-seat Tesla Cybercab has begun testing on public roads in Austin without a steering wheel or pedals, according to TechCrunch, with a safety monitor sitting in the right-hand passenger seat. Video of the test was posted on X, and the vehicle resembles the design Tesla revealed almost two years ago. The company says the Cybercab is meant to be a fully autonomous robotaxi summoned through Tesla’s app.

The timing matters because US regulators are still writing the rules for vehicles that are “designed exclusively for automated driving systems.” TechCrunch notes that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed a rule that would not require brake pedals in such vehicles; the proposal is in a public comment period and is expected to be finalized later this year. Until then, Tesla is effectively demonstrating a product whose core selling point is the absence of human controls, while relying on a human in the cabin as a backstop.

Tesla’s approach also hardens a technical bet it has been making for years: autonomy using cameras rather than a more complex sensor suite. Waymo, the current robotaxi leader, uses lidar and radar and sources vehicles through partnerships, while Tesla argues it can out-compete on cost by controlling both the car and the driving software. But the operational edge cases that force constraints on one system do not disappear because the vehicle is cheaper. TechCrunch points to Waymo’s own limits—its vehicles have had minor crashes, and it has issued recalls that avoid highways because construction zones are difficult, as well as changes after vehicles struggled around flooded areas in heavy rain and in scenarios involving school buses.

Tesla’s recent Austin robotaxi testing has also had incidents, TechCrunch reports, including minor crashes with at least two attributed to remote operators. The Cybercab’s distinctive form factor—gold-coloured, two-seat vehicles—would make any scaled deployment harder to ignore than “lightly modified” consumer SUVs, turning each mistake into a more visible data point. The company has parked hundreds of Cybercab vehicles in lots in some cities, feeding speculation that Tesla is preparing a larger network launch.

For now, the most concrete detail is the simplest: a vehicle built without pedals is still being tested with a person sitting beside the empty space where the steering wheel would normally be.