Tesla's Cybercab begins driving on the streets of Austin with no steering wheel or pedals

Tesla has started the testing phase of the Cybercab in the city of Austin (Texas), as announced on X by the company itself with a brief 27-second video showing a safety monitor seated in the right-hand seat of the vehicle. In this configuration of the two-seat robotaxi, both seats essentially function as passenger seats, since the vehicle lacks both a steering wheel and pedals.

The revolutionary design of this vehicle had already been previewed by Elon Musk during the official unveiling event in October 2024. It is important to point out, however, that the prototypes seen so far on public roads temporarily featured a steering wheel and pedals. This new unit represents an important step toward the original concept of a fully autonomous robotaxi, where there is no need for manual intervention by the occupant.

Tesla is taking a different path

The absence of a steering wheel poses, nonetheless, significant practical challenges. Most of today’s commercial robotaxi services, such as Waymo’s, include manual backup controls so that emergency services, police or technicians can move the vehicle if necessary. While it is true that competitors such as Zoox also operate without a steering wheel from the outset, they do so while retaining the possibility of remote control from an operations center.

In the case of the Cybercab, Tesla has a completely different and far more ambitious approach: it plans to sell units to private customers, not just operate its own fleet. This way, these customers could earn extra income by letting the vehicle independently provide robotaxi services. This raises questions about what would happen if an owner faced a technical problem. How would the vehicle be moved?

The company has not, for the moment, answered these questions. We will therefore have to wait and see how events unfold. Tesla states that the Cybercab will be available before 2027, which implies a demanding timeline for refining its Full Self-Driving system to the point of completely eliminating the need for a steering wheel and pedals.