Elon Musk is making a major bet by introducing the latest electric driverless vehicle, the gold-colored "Cybercab," which lacks both a steering wheel and pedals. It is now operating on limited roads in Austin, Texas, attracting close attention from investors and US safety regulators.
Tesla has launched its driverless taxi, the "Cybercab," in limited areas of Austin, Texas. This new gold electric two-seater has no steering wheel or pedals, meaning passengers cannot manually control the vehicle in emergencies.
Before the launch, Tesla posted on platform X: "No steering wheel, no pedals," alongside an image of the Cybercab hovering above the Austin skyline. Tesla CEO Elon Musk described it as a "Cybercab storm" but did not appear at the unveiling event.
Tesla stated that the Cybercab currently operates only in select Austin areas and has not announced when fares will begin. Executives plan to implement flexible pricing that increases with demand, promoting a "first-class experience at an economy price."
This launch marks a key step in Musk's plan to position Tesla as a leader in driverless cars. Musk said the Cybercab is specifically designed for fully autonomous driving without human control and expects it to become the main model for Tesla's Robotaxi network.
However, Tesla still trails "Waymo" significantly in vehicle numbers and service. Waymo operates over 4,000 driverless taxis in 14 cities, while Texas data as of 3 Sep shows Tesla has 420 registered autonomous vehicles, including 45 Cybercabs; Waymo has 988 in Texas.
A major challenge for Tesla is that its autonomous system relies mainly on cameras, unlike Waymo and Amazon's Zoox, which use cameras, radar, and lidar laser detection technology to better perceive the environment.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is in contact with Tesla and assessing the situation. Federal safety standards generally require vehicles to have human control devices, and regulations limit the number of vehicles manufacturers can sell without steering wheels and pedals.
Additionally, Tesla faces multiple safety investigations from US regulators involving collisions in fog, bright sunlight, and low visibility, pedestrian fatalities, and incidents where Tesla's assisted-driving systems ran red lights or drove in the wrong lanes, causing crashes with injuries.
Although Tesla began testing driverless taxis in Austin in June 2025 and expanded to other Texas and Florida cities, service remains limited. Previous Reuters tests found passengers sometimes waited long for vehicles, and in Dallas, cars could not drop passengers at some destinations within the service area, requiring a 15-minute walk.
Public trust remains a significant obstacle. A Pew Research Center survey in February found that 7 out of 10 American adults felt "somewhat uncomfortable" or "not comfortable at all" riding in driverless cars; only 7% said they felt "very" or "extremely" comfortable.
Musk aims to eventually deploy full self-driving software to hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles via software updates, enabling owners to add their cars to Tesla's driverless taxi network during idle times.
However, the success of this plan depends on proving the technology is safe enough and meeting regulatory requirements in the US and abroad, especially in California—a key market—where Tesla currently lacks licenses to operate driverless taxi services or test driverless vehicles without a safety driver in the front seat.
For Tesla, the Cybercab is not just a new model but a major bet on the company's future, as its core electric vehicle business faces fierce global competition, notably from Chinese EV makers. The success or failure of the driverless taxi project could directly affect Tesla's value and direction long-term.