Shot:
Elon Musk sent dozens of self-driving Cybercabs without steering wheels or brake pedals onto the streets of Austin on Thursday, betting that Americans will overcome their fears of rides with “no control” and hop inside.
The rollout of the gold-colored Teslas, which give passengers no way to take control in an emergency, comes as the company prepares to launch the service in other cities. Tesla shares have suffered amid a slump in vehicle sales, but they rose more than 5% Thursday on hopes that the futuristic-looking taxis will catch on quickly.
“No steering wheel, no pedals,” Tesla teased on X before the launch. Musk followed with a post showing a giant Cybercab floating above the Austin skyline and later wrote, “A Storm of Cybercabs.”
An invitation-only launch event was expected to be held later Thursday.
It is unclear how soon Musk intends to roll out the Cybercab service, but he needs to move quickly.
Tesla trails self-driving taxi leader Waymo in the number of cabs deployed and trips completed. To catch up, it must demonstrate that its camera-only system can safely navigate streets and avoid pedestrians. By contrast, Waymo and another rival, Amazon’s Zoox, supplement cameras with radar and a laser-based technology called lidar.
Even if the technology works well, Americans still need to be convinced.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that seven in 10 U.S. adults were “not too” or “not at all” comfortable riding in a driverless car.
The United States’ top automotive safety regulator has opened an investigation into Tesla’s decision to launch its new Cybercab on public roads with no steering wheel or pedals.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Friday morning that it opened the probe mere hours after Tesla put the first Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas. Federal vehicle safety regulations require manual controls like brake pedals, though the Department of Transportation recently proposed removing those requirements for vehicles that are designed to be autonomously driven.
“NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles. But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed,” administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement. “Our approach of balancing innovation with safety oversight will allow the United States to maintain its global leadership in AV innovation.”
NHTSA said Friday that Tesla told the agency it self-certified the Cybercab as being compliant with all of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Automakers traditionally self-certify whether their vehicles comply with FMVSS rules.
In the filing, the agency said it was opening the investigation to “examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.” NHTSA said it will consider the extent to which the company’s certification depended on determinations that certain federal motor standards are inapplicable to the Cybercab.
There is precedent to NHTSA’s inquiry. In 2022, Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox self-certified its cube-like robotaxi, which lacks traditional controls such as a steering wheel and pedals. NHTSA then opened up what it called a “special order” seeking more information from Zoox and formally launched an audit query — the same process it is now using for Tesla — the following the year.
While Zoox was still heavily in its testing phase at that time, the investigation did slow its path to commercialization. Zoox had long maintained that the self-certification process was sufficient and in 2025 the federal agency gave the company an exemption to demonstrate — not commercially operate — its technology. Zoox then went through the official process and filed for a temporary Part 555 exemption from eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards in hopes it would get the final OK that would allow it to charge for robotaxi rides.
As noted, Zoox did eventually get that approval. Not that I or anyone should have any reason to trust Amazon, but I’d trust them more to handle the self-certification process than I would Elon Musk. You could not pay me enough to get into one of his weirdmobiles. Here’s more about that launch event and those vehicles. Stay away, do not give the bad man your money.
From the beginning Elmo has over-promised and exaggerated the self driving abilities of his vehicles. He is also a truly vile and despicable worm. Do yourself a favor and use one of the other services if you wish a robot taxi ride.