Tesla Cybercab testing

Tesla’s Cybercab is showing up on Texas roads again, putting the company’s robotaxi plan back in view as it leans harder on driverless software. (reuters.com) Tesla unveiled the two-seat Cybercab on October 10, 2024, with no steering wheel or pedals, and said the vehicle would be built around fully autonomous driving. Elon Musk said at the event that Tesla was targeting a price below $30,000 and production before 2027. (electrek.co) The company’s first public robotaxi service did not start with the Cybercab. Reuters reported that Tesla began carrying paying riders in Austin on June 22, 2025 using about 10 Model Y vehicles in a limited area, with a front-seat safety monitor and a flat $4.20 fare. (reuters.com) That makes the Texas Cybercab sightings a hardware story as much as a software one. Tesla’s current consumer system is still sold as Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which the company says requires “active supervision” and “does not make the vehicle autonomous.” (tesla.com) The gap between supervised driving aid and a car with no wheel is where regulators are focused. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded a probe in March 2026 to examine how Tesla’s system handles reduced visibility and whether drivers get enough warning when camera performance degrades. (nhtsa.gov) Texas is central to that push because Tesla has already used Austin as its first robotaxi market. Musk told Reuters in May 2025 that Tesla planned to start in the safest parts of the city and scale from about 10 vehicles to roughly 1,000 within months. (reuters.com) California remains a tougher benchmark for any wider rollout. The California Department of Motor Vehicles says manufacturers need permits to test and deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads, and its public permit list dated April 3, 2026 shows Waymo as a driverless testing holder, not Tesla. (dmv.ca.gov 1) (dmv.ca.gov 2) The other thread in the chatter is software support. Tesla’s support pages say “Tesla Assist” in the app offers personalized help for vehicle and energy products, and outside trackers have previously reported that the assistant can answer questions tied to a specific vehicle, such as recent alerts or tire pressure. (tesla.com) (notateslaapp.com) Tesla has also been widening the software stack around its cars this month. Third-party release trackers and Tesla-focused outlets reported a Spring 2026 update with new app and voice features, while Tesla’s own Full Self-Driving page says the company sees “Full Self-Driving (Unsupervised)” as the system that would unlock a robotaxi fleet and make Cybercab possible. (notateslaapp.com) (teslarati.com) (tesla.com) For now, the Cybercab remains a test vehicle attached to a bigger promise Tesla has been making for years: that it can move from supervised driver assistance to a car built with nothing for a human to steer. (electrek.co) (tesla.com)