Testa is preparing to take one of the most delicate steps in its bet on autonomous driving. The Cybercab, its vehicle designed from scratch to operate without a driver, steering wheel, or pedals, could begin operating this August in Austin, Texas.
The initial deployment would be limited to trips for Tesla employees, according to information reported by The Information and collected by Reuters. The goal would be to use these first operations before gradually expanding access to the vehicle.
This launch should not be confused with the Robotaxi service that Tesla already offers in several U.S. cities using Model Y. The company itself continues to indicate that its autonomous trips are conducted with that model and that the Cybercab will offer rides "in the future."
A car built without a driver
The Cybercab breaks with the traditional architecture of a car. It has two seats and lacks a steering wheel and pedals, because it has been specifically designed to operate using Tesla's autonomous driving system.
The company began testing production units without conventional controls on the streets of Austin in June. In some of those tests, a safety supervisor was traveling in the passenger seat.
Tesla expects that, as manufacturing increases, the Cybercab will replace the Model Y currently used in its Robotaxi fleet. This was indicated by the company itself in its documentation for the first quarter.
The big test for Tesla's autonomous driving
The question is not only when it will start transporting passengers, but to what extent it can do so safely and at scale without human intervention.
Tesla bases its strategy on cameras and autonomous driving software, compared to competitors like Waymo, which also use other sensors.
According to data collected by The Verge, Tesla's unmonitored robotaxis had accumulated about 380,000 miles, while Waymo had surpassed 220 million miles without a driver. The figures are not directly equivalent in all their operational conditions, but they show the enormous difference in accumulated experience between the two systems.
Regulation, another challenge
The absence of a steering wheel and pedals also makes the Cybercab a particularly relevant vehicle for U.S. regulators.
The most recent precedent is that of Zoox, owned by Amazon, which obtained in July the first U.S. authorization to commercially operate a robotaxi designed without traditional human controls. The NHTSA authorized up to 2,500 vehicles annually for two years, accompanying the decision with specific information and safety obligations.
Tesla maintains that its regulatory strategy is different and has already incorporated the Cybercab into its records as a vehicle manufacturer with the NHTSA.
The debut in Austin will therefore be more than just the arrival of a new model: it will be a decisive test to see if Tesla's bet to replace the driver with software can move from an experimental fleet to a large-scale commercial service.