Tesla's Cybercab became available for public rides on 4th of September, 2026, at 2 p.m. Central Time.

That was after the selected Cybercab Launch Event invitees got access on the previous night, after a quick event downtown Austin.

You could ride a Cybercab right now.

The Cybercabs — up to 45 of them based on the Texas fleet registry today — are running around within the whole Austin geofence. No other markets yet. And you’ll be able to order it with the regular Robotaxi app.

As far as I can tell, the Model Y can replace the Cybercab if none are available

The robotaxi account also celebrated a milestone of 1 million unsupervised miles, with a post referencing the classic Biggie lyric:

The event itself had a strong social media embargo (the thing where you are not allowed to leak the news before specific time, common in media) set for the attendees, so nothing got out from inside the event. Very unusual for Tesla, by the way.

Crickets started on X right as the Tesla content creators entered the event, and they emerged quite a while later when they started taking the Cybercab rides.

As a surprise, Tesla did not livestream the presentation. And Elon Musk himself wasn’t there, either. I don’t think we’ve actually seen him explain why, seems like an important event to be at.

Lucky for us,

Kyle Conner of Out of Spec recorded the entire event. The presentation featured Tesla Autonomy VP Ashok Elluswamy and the Cybercab team on stage, and covered Tesla's 12 year effort to bring the vehicle and its technology to market:

Sawyer Merritt also had a front row seat and shared his own recording, which gets much closer to the team during the talk (click to view):

Here is one of the first clips from the street as the embargo lifted:

Tesla published an official Cybercab Rider Guide on its website, complete with a two minute tutorial video walking passengers through the full ride experience. The large engagement here is because I was actually the first to find this video hidden in Tesla's docs:

The guide breaks the experience into five stages: requesting a ride, pick up, starting your ride, during the trip, and drop off.

Riders open the Robotaxi app, enter a destination within the service area, and review the fare estimate and wait time. Once confirmed, the app sends a notification when the Cybercab is approaching.

The rear lightbar glows red while the car is on its way. The front lightbar changes to a specific colour that matches the one shown in your app, so you can spot your vehicle in a busy area.

The centre screen is coloured the same, and reportedly the ambient lighting too. Tesla notes that riders should confirm the licence plate matches the one listed in the app before boarding.

The doors open automatically when the vehicle detects the rider's phone nearby. Hazard lights flash while the Cybercab is parked at the pick up point. The trunk is accessible for luggage before you get in as you can pop it from the mobile app, too.

“If you are interested in purchasing a fleet or an individual Cybercab vehicle for commercial purposes, fill out the form and a representative will contact you.” — Tesla Cybercab support page

Tesla has published an interest form on their website, quite hidden for now, for those looking to purchase Cybercab fleets.

The form went up alongside a revamped Robotaxi website on the same day the production Cybercab was launched at the event in Austin. EVwire was first to find the new site through the Cybercab FAQ, so I might have even been the first person to fill up the form!

The form asks for company details, a deployment region, and lets interested parties select from four categories: Cybercab fleet vehicle purchasing, mobility hubs and infrastructure, event collaboration, or other.

The "mobility hubs and infrastructure" option is quite notable, as it suggests Tesla is looking for partners who can provide physical locations for Cybercab staging, charging, and servicing.

Max de Zegher, one of the leaders in the Supercharging team, said directly that they will be using Superchargers where they can, especially at night, and also building dedicated Robotaxi Superchargers.

The Cybercab is a purpose-built two-seat fully autonomous vehicle.
Everything we know in one place:

Elon Musk was clear about the Cybercab: it is designed from the ground up as a passenger only robotaxi.

The Cybercab has butterfly-style doors that swing outward and upward. When a rider approaches, the nearest door opens automatically by detecting the ride requester's phone.

If it does not open automatically, pressing a button on the windowsill at the base of the B pillar opens the door manually.

Once seated and buckled in, the door closes automatically. Riders can also open and close doors from the touchscreen.

The interior door lever is for gentle manual use, but pulling it firmly and completely activates the emergency mechanical release, which ends the trip and forces the vehicle to stop in its lane as soon as safely possible.

When exiting the vehicle, also at the regular end of the ride, the screen shows you the camera feeds from both sides to ensure it is safe to step outside.

Not so much to open the door, as it isn't extending horizontally all that much anyway

Both Cybercab seats slide forward and backward together, but each reclines independently. The head supports are integrated and cannot be adjusted. Riders can control seat position from the touchscreen or from the Robotaxi app:

The seat belts are one of the standout features, as they are motorized. At the start of a ride an integrated motor automatically tightens the belt and removes slack.

The motor can also tighten proactively when the vehicle anticipates or detects harsh braking, loss of traction, or other sudden road events.

Beyond tightening, the belts can vibrate or pulse to deliver haptic feedback and get the passenger's attention. This was shown on the guide (captions mine)

The vehicle may pull over or cancel a ride if it detects improper seat belt usage.

If for some odd reason (???) you get locked inside the Cybercab trunk:

The rear trunk offers 20.2 cubic feet (572 litres) of storage with a maximum load of 220 pounds (100 kg). Tesla says it fits:

The trunk opens and closes from the touchscreen, the Robotaxi app, or a switch under the exterior handle.

Tesla featured the trunk in its highlight of the vehicle's accessibility features on its website:

This video actually went crazy on X, I managed to get 4.4 million views for it. Why, you ask? Because there’s a bit of an issue with the video setup, where it seems that the wheelchair user just rolls up to the trunk of the Cybercab, and is then couple of scenes later seen throwing it in the trunk? Crutches, yeah you'll manage. But this looks very odd to be doing with a wheelchair while solo. More likely you’d fold the chair and pull it to the salon, or have someone help you.

So while my ultra-viral but just observational post got 409 likes, this quote post of it calling out what’s wrong got — get this — 122,000 likes.

I hope Tesla will switch to showcase the fact that the seating position is perfectly on wheelchair level, making it really easy to get inside the vehicle instead.

The climate system is automatically managed and cannot be completely turned off. Airflow may continue even when climate appears off, in part to maintain visibility for the vehicle's cameras. Riders can adjust fan speed to low, medium or high, and each vent can be turned off independently from the touchscreen.

Window buttons are located under the touchscreen rather than on the door panel. The cabin includes USB-C charge ports, dome lights that turn on by touching the lens, and configurable accent lights whose brightness and colour can be set from the Robotaxi app.

The user interface is built on Unreal Engine, with Tesla specifically crediting Epic Games. The touchscreen is the central hub for the ride, showing trip progress, estimated time of arrival, and controls for doors, seats, climate and media.

Available apps include music, podcasts, games and other media services accessible through an App Launcher that appears once the trip begins. Some services may require riders to log in with their own accounts. Tesla says personal data is removed from the Cybercab when the trip finishes. There is also a built-in Photo Booth application.

Tesla is building the Cybercab using its unboxed manufacturing process, which assembles the vehicle in modules rather than on a traditional single line. They actually just posted a new video showing glimpses of this:

The body panels are injection molded rather than stamped metal, which eliminates the need for paint shops, reduces emissions, and uses a large amount of recycled material. The vehicle was designed for the lowest possible production cost and lifetime operating cost.

The drivetrain is front-wheel drive with a fairly tall gear ratio. Tesla put significant work into reducing motor-generated noise inside the cabin. The battery pack also uses dry cathode 4680 cells, engineered to withstand 500,000 miles of DC fast charging, vibrations, and temperature swings.

The Cybercab's electric motor uses zero rare earth metals while maintaining the same range as a conventional design, Elon Musk confirmed.

As per Sawyer Merritt, the drive unit features a simplified bar-wound stator and lubrication system, and is 18% smaller, 25% lighter, and more efficient than other top-performing electric vehicle drive units.

The Model Y's motors, as far as I could find, use approximately 500 grams plus 10 grams plus 10 grams of different rare earth elements. Getting to zero in the Cybercab's motor is a significant engineering milestone that I’ve seen gotten also a lot of interest from the industry.

The key is a hairpin stator that hits a 70% slot fill factor (compared to the typical 40% with round copper wire) and ferrite magnets arranged in a Halbach array, which concentrates the magnetic field on one side to compensate for ferrite being roughly 7 to 10 times weaker than the neodymium magnets in conventional EV motors.

Energy and EV strategy consultant Michael Sura noted that rare earth permanent magnets typically account for 25% to 35% of an electric motor's total material cost, so eliminating them gives Tesla a meaningful cost advantage at scale. “Tesla has set a new benchmark in the automotive industry with this motor.” — Michael Sura.

For context, the Model Y's motors use approximately 500 grams of rare earth elements. Getting to zero in the Cybercab is a significant engineering milestone.

The Cybercab is the first Tesla with brake-by-wire, eliminating brake fluid entirely. The system uses individual actuators at each corner with no central master cylinder.

A brake-by-wire system replaces the traditional hydraulic braking system with electronically controlled actuators.

Each wheel gets its own independent unit, meaning the system can apply different braking force to each corner without the lag or complexity of hydraulic lines. For an autonomous vehicle with no human driver, this is a natural fit, as the software can modulate braking at each wheel with precision that a hydraulic system cannot match.

The steering is also by wire, with the steering rack mounted behind the drive unit. Tesla first deployed steer-by-wire in the Cybertruck, where it enables features like variable steering ratios and rear wheel steering. In the Cybercab, which has no steering wheel at all, steer-by-wire is a necessity.

Kyle Conner of Out of Spec shared a breakdown after getting a closer look at the vehicle. The highlights:

The Cybercab has exactly eight exterior cameras: one on the front bumper, one at the rear, one in each door pillar, two on the windshield, and one on each front fender.

Inside, the cabin is equipped with a camera and an in-cabin radar mounted above the dome lights. The radar is used primarily to control airbag deployment. It is sophisticated enough to identify a passenger's size and weight and optimize airbag response accordingly. A green indicator appears when the interior camera is active so passengers know when it is on.

After every ride ends, Tesla uses the cabin camera to check whether the vehicle is clean and ready for the next passenger, including whether any belongings were left behind.

The Cybercab has an emergency stop button located between the dome lights, where the hazard light button usually sits on a conventional car.

Pressing it initiates an immediate pull over and connects the rider to Tesla Robotaxi Support.

For less urgent situations, riders can touch "Pull Over" on the touchscreen or request it through the app.

In the event of a crash, the Cybercab is designed to unlock the doors, turn on hazard lights, turn on cabin lights, disable the high voltage battery, vent the windows, apply the brakes and come to a stop, and automatically connect the cabin to Tesla Robotaxi Support.

If the vehicle loses power entirely, both doors have a mechanical release. Pulling the lever firmly and pushing the door open will get riders out. Tesla warns that if the windows are fully closed and there is no power, the window may shatter when the mechanical release is triggered.

Tesla released a short video showing some of the crash test footage of rear and side impact to the Cybercab:

Children under 13 are not allowed in the Cybercab "at this time." The vehicle does not have LATCH or ISOFIX anchors for child safety seats. If a booster seat is needed for an older child, it must be installed using the seat belt retained method.

The Cybercab uses a staggered tire setup: front and rear sizes differ, so tires can only be rotated left to right, not front to back. Tesla recommends rotation every 12,000 miles (19,000 km).

There is more on maintenance and other specifics, including seating positions, airbag locations and the weird golden wheel covers, in the 46-page compliance PDF.

A Cybercab rider captured video of a virtual joystick interface on the robotaxi's touchscreen, revealing the backup controls Tesla employees seemingly use to manually reposition the driverless vehicles.

The manual controls happened to be onscreen when the rider entered the car.

Matthew Skrzypczak, who shared the discovery, noted that the fender cameras were still showing a Supercharger location, suggesting a Tesla employee had last used the manual controls to reposition the vehicle at a charging station.

The controls make sense as an engineering solution.

The Cybercab is designed from the ground up to be fully autonomous, but there are situations where a human needs to nudge it. Virtual directional buttons on the touchscreen give technicians a way to do that without bolting temporary hardware onto a production vehicle. And perhaps it’ll also be useful when first responders would need to move it?

Tesla is sending a rider experience survey to Cybercab passengers, asking them to rate their rides and pick up to three features they would most like added. The options include heated seats, ventilated seats, fully reclining seats, a tray table, a wireless phone charger, a better sound system, and more storage.

Some of the options directly address feedback riders have already been posting. Tesla owner Owen Sparks, who has taken multiple Cybercab rides, noted that there is no good place to put your phone in the vehicle.

That is a real pain point because passengers interact with the app frequently during rides to change music or edit their destination. Sparks said the cup holder works in a pinch, but the phone slides around on turns.

Here is Kim Java's video of her and Sparks' Cybercab ride. The section about the lack of phone holders happens around 13:00.