Video shows about 15 Cybercabs at Giga Texas, several with temporary fittings

Drone footage from Gigafactory Texas showed about 15 Tesla Cybercabs staged outside the factory, with several cars fitted with temporary steering wheels and other test hardware. (youtube.com) The video was posted by drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer, who has regularly documented construction and vehicle activity at Tesla’s Austin plant. His April update follows an earlier March flyover that showed more than 30 Cybercabs on site and an April 15 update that showed more than 60 Cybercabs and Model Ys in outbound areas. (youtube.com 1) (youtube.com 2) Those steering wheels do not appear to be a design change. Tegtmeyer said the cars with temporary controls were engineering and testing builds, not finished fleet vehicles, and described some parts as crash-test or validation hardware that would be removed after testing. (youtube.com) That matters because Tesla’s production Cybercab is supposed to ship without a steering wheel or pedals. Tesla’s first-quarter 2026 shareholder update said the company had only “prepared lines” for the start of Cybercab production during the quarter, while Elon Musk said on the April 22 earnings call that production had “just started.” (tesla.com) (techxplore.com) Tesla then posted a factory-floor video on April 25 showing steering-wheel-free Cybercabs driving themselves out of the line at Giga Texas. Musk said the ramp would be “very slow” at first because Cybercab uses a new supply chain and new manufacturing processes. (theverge.com) (cnet.com) The controls seen in the drone footage fit that timeline. They suggest Tesla is still building some instrumented vehicles for validation work even as it begins serial production of the control-free version shown in its official launch video. (youtube.com) (theverge.com) Federal rules are part of the backdrop. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a 2,500-vehicle annual exemption path for vehicles that do not fully comply with safety standards, including cars without steering wheels or pedals, while the agency has also published guidance on how standards apply to automated-driving vehicles without manual controls. (nhtsa.gov 1) (nhtsa.gov 2) Tesla supporters have argued Cybercab can be self-certified instead of relying on that exemption route, but Tesla has not published a detailed public compliance filing laying out that position. Electrek reported last week that Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy said the company would not be constrained by the 2,500-unit cap. (electrek.co) (nhtsa.gov) For now, the clearest read from the Texas footage is narrower: Tesla has moved beyond one-off prototypes, but some Cybercabs at Austin are still wearing temporary gear as the company works through testing and an intentionally slow launch. (youtube.com) (techxplore.com)