Driverless two-seaters hit Austin streets ahead of a subdued unveiling, as regulators question Tesla's robotaxi pace.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) began offering rides in its two-seat Cybercab in limited areas of Austin, Texas, on Thursday, as a widely promoted "exclusive" launch event produced little in the way of public spectacle.
The electric carmaker had spent weeks building anticipation for what it called the Cybercab Launch Event, but Reuters reported that by Thursday evening Tesla had posted no live footage and neither Elon Musk nor other executives had made public remarks.
The vehicle
Cybercab is Tesla's first vehicle built specifically for autonomous operation, seating two people and dispensing entirely with a steering wheel or pedals.
The car relies on Tesla's AI4 computer and Full Self-Driving software for every mile, with no way for anyone inside to take manual control if the system fails.
Cars already on the road
Driverless Cybercabs appeared on public Austin streets on Wednesday, a day before the official event, with video clips on social media platform X showing the vehicles moving without anyone behind the wheel.
Musk posted "A storm of Cybercabs" on X, though public records from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles showed just 45 Cybercabs authorised for driverless operation in the state, out of 420 vehicles registered in total.
A muted unveiling
Cybercab engineer Eric Earley had said the event would begin at 5:45 pm local time on Thursday in downtown Austin, with details to follow for those invited.
The gathering was invite-only, limited to winners of a sweepstake drawn from riders of Tesla's existing Robotaxi service, with a livestream promised for everyone else.
App and access rules
Tesla pushed an update to its Robotaxi app on Thursday morning, adding explicit support for Cybercab rides in Austin.
New terms of service bar minors under 13 from riding in a Cybercab, a stricter limit than the age of eight set for Tesla's existing Model Y robotaxis.
Regulatory scrutiny continues
The launch comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps at least two active investigations open into whether Tesla's automated driving systems contain safety defects.
Cybercab's lack of manual backup controls has drawn particular attention from safety regulators already reviewing a string of incidents involving Tesla's driver assistance systems.
Price target still unproven
Musk has long promised a Cybercab priced under $30,000, but prediction market Polymarket gave traders only 17-18% odds that Tesla completes a genuine retail sale to a member of the public at that price by 31 December.
The contract explicitly excludes employee rides, fleet deployments and deposits, counting only a completed sale under publicly available terms.
What comes next
Tesla has signalled a four-city tour to promote Cybercab beyond Austin, though questions remain over whether the vehicle will ever operate in markets such as China, where autonomous ride-hailing is already dominated by domestic operators including Baidu's Apollo Go.
For now, the rollout adds a new vehicle to a robotaxi service that Tesla says has logged more than 380,000 unsupervised miles in Austin since launching in June 2025, with wider expansion still dependent on regulatory approval and fleet numbers that remain in the dozens rather than hundreds.
