This April, Tesla will commence production of the Cybercab, an electric autonomous vehicle lacking both pedals and a steering wheel, at its Austin, Texas facility, according to CEO Elon Musk’s announcement during Thursday’s shareholder meeting.
His Cybercab remarks followed closely after shareholders voted in favor of a compensation package for Musk potentially valued at $1 trillion in company stock—the largest corporate payout ever.
“We have the first vehicle designed specifically for unsupervised, full self-driving as a robotaxi called Cybercab—it doesn’t even come with pedals or a steering wheel,” Musk stated, also noting the absence of side mirrors. “It’s highly optimized for achieving the lowest per-mile cost in autonomous operation, and production is set to begin here at this facility next April.”
Despite years of assurances, Tesla has not yet demonstrated its vehicles’ ability to drive themselves at scale without a human safety monitor.
Musk’s statements appear to contradict Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, who recently mentioned to Bloomberg that the Cybercab would feature a steering wheel and pedals as a fallback. Tesla previously intended to create a Cybercab version with a wheel and pedals, but Musk abandoned the concept in favor of streamlined versions of its most affordable cars.
Musk further elaborated on the Cybercab’s production, asserting that the manufacturing line would operate on a 10-second cycle time—a significant increase from the one-minute cycle time for assembling a Model Y. Musk suggested this could enable the production of two to three million Cybercabs annually.
“Thus, these will become ubiquitous in the future,” he stated.
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The Cybercab was initially unveiled by Tesla in October 2024 during its extravagant “We, Robot” event at the Warner Bros. Discovery studio in California, with a promise to eventually make the vehicles available for individual purchase.
Since then, Tesla has introduced a basic robotaxi service, though not with the envisioned Cybercab. This service, which began in June in select Austin areas, utilizes Model Y SUVs equipped with what Musk describes as a new, “unsupervised” iteration of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software. A Tesla employee occupies the passenger seat during these autonomous rides.
Introducing a Cybercab—or any vehicle lacking standard equipment like a steering wheel—onto public roads will necessitate approval from federal regulators. Earlier in the year, Amazon-supported Zoox secured an exemption, but only for demonstrating its purpose-built robotaxis on public streets. Zoox is still pursuing an exemption to operate a commercial robotaxi service.
Obtaining these exemptions through regulatory channels is typically a drawn-out and complex process. For instance, General Motors’ attempt to gain approval for its specialized Cruise Origin vehicle was unsuccessful. Waymo, the leading robotaxi service provider in the U.S., continues to utilize modified Jaguar I-Pace vehicles that retain conventional controls. Waymo is also in the process of developing a vehicle in collaboration with Zeekr.
Musk appeared unconcerned about the possibility of regulatory obstacles to his plans and thanked Waymo for “paving the way.”
“I anticipate being able to deploy all the Cybercabs that we produce,” he responded to a shareholder question during the annual meeting. “Once it becomes quite common in cities, regulators will simply have fewer and fewer reasons to object.”
