Drone footage captures largest single staging of Cybercab units at Gigafactory Texas
- Tesla said on April 23 that Cybercab production had started at Gigafactory Texas, after drone watchers and Tesla’s own footage showed finished two-seat robotaxis moving from the line to an outdoor lot. - Joe Tegtmeyer’s April 24 flyover showed the biggest visible cluster yet of glossy gold Cybercabs at the Austin factory, while Tesla said the first production unit had rolled off on February 17. - The sighting landed as Tesla told investors Cybercab and Semi would ramp slowly at first, even after preparing lines for production in Texas. (tesla.com)
Tesla’s Cybercab moved from concept to factory output this week, with Tesla saying production has begun at Gigafactory Texas outside Austin. (electrek.co) (tesla.com) The clearest public proof came from two places at once: Tesla’s own video of a Cybercab driving off the line to a holding lot, and drone footage by factory watcher Joe Tegtmeyer showing multiple finished vehicles staged outside. (teslanorth.com) (youtube.com) Tegtmeyer said his April 24 video captured the “first views of the production Cybercabs,” including a glossy deep-gold finish that differed from earlier engineering-test versions seen around the site. (youtube.com) Tesla’s first-quarter 2026 shareholder update said the company had “further prepared lines for start of production” of Cybercab, and Elon Musk said on the earnings call, “We have just started production of Cybercab.” (tesla.com) (electrek.co) That matters because Cybercab is Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi, a two-seat vehicle designed without a steering wheel or pedals, unlike the Model 3 and Model Y cars now used in Tesla’s ride service. (businessinsider.com) (electrek.co) It also matters because Tesla is separating two milestones that often get blurred together: building the vehicle at scale and delivering fully unsupervised driving software that can run it without a human backup. Musk said unsupervised Full Self-Driving would probably reach customer vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2026. (electrek.co) Tesla and outside coverage both point to February 17, 2026, as the date the first production Cybercab rolled off the line at Giga Texas, with April marking the start of continuous production rather than a one-off build. (teslarati.com) (carscoops.com) Tesla vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy also said the Cybercab would not be constrained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2,500-vehicle exemption cap because Tesla is treating it as compliant under existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. (electrek.co) Musk cautioned that the ramp would start slowly because Cybercab uses a new supply chain and a new manufacturing process, and he paired that warning with the same message for the Tesla Semi. (electrek.co) (techxplore.com) So the drone footage did not reveal a secret launch on its own. It showed something narrower and more concrete: more than a single celebratory prototype, parked in the open at the same factory Tesla had just named as Cybercab’s production home. (youtube.com) (tesla.com)
