Tesla unveils Cybercab in Texas as it bets on autonomous robotaxis

Tesla’s new Cybercab has no steering wheel, no pedals and room for only two people. The electric vehicle depends entirely on the autonomous-driving system the company developed.

Tesla presented the robotaxi on Thursday at a private event in Austin, Texas, as it seeks to expand its service in the United States. Before the launch, the company registered 45 Cybercabs with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Documents Tesla filed with the US Environmental Protection Agency describe a vehicle weighing 3,113 pounds, or about 1,412 kilograms. It uses a lithium-ion battery, a 219-horsepower electric motor and front-wheel drive. The filings list an unadjusted combined laboratory range of 418.2 miles, or about 673 kilometers, but that is not the final range figure for the vehicle’s commercial label.

Tesla first showed the Cybercab’s design in October 2024 at a Los Angeles film studio. Production began in April, although Elon Musk warned that initial output would be “very slow.” Tesla already runs a limited robotaxi service with Model Y vehicles in several Texas and Florida cities. The pilot began in Austin in June 2025 and later expanded, with Tesla saying some vehicles now operate without an onboard supervisor.

At its July earnings conference, Tesla said its fleet had accumulated more than 380,000 miles of unsupervised driving across six cities in two states. Musk has long told investors that autonomous driving will support Tesla’s future growth and value as competition intensifies in electric vehicles, particularly from Chinese companies.

Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, remains far ahead in the US robotaxi market. It launched Waymo One commercially in 2018 and opened fully driverless rides to the general public in 2020. Waymo says its vehicles had traveled more than 220 million miles in fully autonomous mode by the end of March.

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Very slow.