Tesla Opens Cybercab Ride-Hailing in Austin

AUSTIN — Tesla customers in Austin can now book rides in the company’s purpose-built Cybercab, a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel and no pedals, through the Tesla Robotaxi app.

Tesla held an invite-only event in Austin on Sept. 3 before saying public rides would begin. The Cybercab is a gold-painted two-seater with gull-wing doors and no conventional human controls. It is the first purpose-built vehicle in a Robotaxi service that, since June 2025, has run primarily on Model Y cars using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software.

Texas motor-vehicle records listed about 45 Cybercabs registered to Tesla’s robotaxi operation around the launch. Reporting put Tesla’s statewide robotaxi fleet at roughly 420 vehicles after those registrations, most of them Model Ys. With the Cybercabs, Tesla has said it is operating unsupervised autonomous vehicles in Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston) and Florida (Miami, Orlando, Tampa), and a supervised service in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The company has described manufacturing capacity for 125,000 Cybercabs a year. Volume production of the purpose-built vehicle had been planned for April 2026. Tesla does not publish a weekly paid-trip figure comparable to Waymo’s.

Hours after the first Cybercabs went onto Austin streets, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit of Tesla’s self-certification that the vehicle meets federal safety standards. That inquiry is covered separately.

Sam Okonkwo, Robotaxi. Sam Okonkwo is a senior correspondent covering robotaxis, fleet ops, and paid driverless service. Previously reported transport tech for trade titles; based in Austin.