Breaking

Tesla Begins Public-Road Testing of Cybercab Without Steering Wheel or Pedals in Austin

June 30, 2026 at 11:34 EDT

Robotics
AI Agents

On June 30, 2026, Tesla began testing a production version of its Cybercab robotaxi—lacking both a steering wheel and pedals—on public roads in Austin, Texas. Designed as a two-seater with no conventional driving controls, the vehicle is running engineering tests with a safety monitor seated in the passenger seat. Tesla's official account released roughly 26 seconds of footage showing a route displayed on a central touchscreen inside the cabin. Details

June 30, 2026 · Austin, Texas · Tesla

No Wheel, No Pedals: Tesla's Cybercab Hits Public Roads

Tesla began engineering tests of its purpose-built, two-seat Robotaxi in Austin — the first production unit from Giga Texas, running with a safety monitor in the passenger seat and no driver controls at all.

seats — no steering wheel or pedals

<$30k

price target per vehicle

~293

mile range (adjusted estimate)

219

HP single front motor (163 kW)

The Sensor Divide

Tesla bets on a vision-only stack — more stacked sensing classes isn't the goal. Each block = one sensor type the system relies on.

Cameras

Tesla

Vision-only · 1 class

Lidar

Radar

Cameras

Waymo

Multi-sensor · 3 classes

Key Specs — From Unveil to Road

Curb weight

3,113 lb (1,412 kg)

Battery

~47.6 kWh single pack

Efficiency

~165 Wh/mile

Built at

Giga Texas, Austin

Oct 2024 — Unveiled at "We, Robot" → Feb 2026 — First production unit → Apr 2026 — Full-scale production → Jun 30 — Public-road testing

The Promise

Low cost from vertical integration of vehicle + software
Smooth driving and a "futuristic," striking gold design
Wheel- and pedal-free dashboard, automatic doors

The Challenge

No track record yet for fully unsupervised operation
Only two seats; questions on ease of entry and exit
Occasional minor incidents tied to remote operation

The Model Y–based Robotaxi already runs unsupervised across the entire Austin metro area — the Cybercab marks the shift to a vehicle built from the ground up for that service.

Continue reading

The rest of this article is for AI News Blitz readers. Choose an option below to keep reading.