Tesla is starting public passenger rides of its dedicated robotaxi vehicle, the Cybercab, in Austin, Texas.

On Sept. 2, The Verge reported that Tesla is positioning the Cybercab, a two-seat vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, as the key vehicle for a full-scale expansion of its self-driving business. The Cybercab is the first real-world test of whether Tesla’s long-pursued autonomous driving strategy works in actual passenger service.

Tesla has maintained a camera-centered autonomous driving system, unlike rivals that use lidar, radar and cameras together. The Cybercab is the vehicle that implements that approach in its most extreme form.

The Cybercab will be equipped with a modified version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. FSD offered in existing Tesla vehicles is still a Level 2 driver-assistance feature that requires constant driver supervision, but the Cybercab will operate without a driver on board, with remote operators intervening in abnormal situations. Because it has no steering wheel or pedals, people inside cannot directly intervene if the autonomous driving system has a problem.

Safety controversy is also continuing. FSD and Autopilot have been investigated in connection with multiple crashes and fatal accidents. With existing FSD vehicles, legal responsibility is structured to fall on the driver when problems occur, on the premise of driver supervision, but the liability structure could change for fully unmanned vehicles. Critics point to the possibility that Tesla’s legal burden could grow as Cybercab operations expand.

◆ Are cameras alone enough

The camera-centered approach to autonomous driving is a strategy Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk (일론 머스크) has publicly defended for years. At an investor event in 2019, he called lidar a "fool's errand" and criticised self-driving companies that rely on it. The logic is that since people drive using their eyes, vehicles should also be sufficient with visual information alone.

But the industry’s mainstream is taking a different approach. Waymo operates fully unmanned vehicle services using a multi-sensor system that adds lidar and radar to cameras. Waymo says camera performance has improved significantly, but cameras alone are not enough if the goal is full autonomy and a level of safety that surpasses humans.

One reason Tesla is sticking to a camera-centered approach is cost and scalability. The Cybercab is designed to lower production costs by reducing its sensor setup and removing even the steering wheel, pedals and side mirrors. Musk said at the 2024 "We, Robot" event that the Cybercab price would be less than $30,000, and also laid out a plan under which individuals could buy several vehicles and run their own robotaxi businesses.

◆ Remaining tasks and safety controversy

Regulatory hurdles remain before commercialisation. Tesla needs an exemption approval from federal motor vehicle safety standards that require a steering wheel and pedals if it is to sell the Cybercab to general consumers. Separate permits are also required to deploy fully unmanned vehicles on roads in places such as California, and proving that the vehicle can actually operate safely is also a task.

There are also operational issues to resolve. When a vehicle stops or breaks down on the road, other autonomous driving companies move it by deploying remote assistance or on-site technical staff. With no steering wheel or pedals, remote operation is bound to be the key safety backstop for the Cybercab. Tesla’s installation of a Starlink connection in the Cybercab is related to that operating method.

Tesla has operated a robotaxi service in Austin since June 2025, and about 110 Model Y vehicles are estimated to have been deployed in the area. But not all vehicles on the road were used for paid passenger transport. The public passenger rides of the Cybercab mean an expansion of the existing robotaxi business by another step.

Tesla is also actively presenting its own safety statistics. Tesla’s safety dashboard claims that vehicles using supervised FSD have a crash rate 40 to 90 percent lower than manually driven vehicles. Cumulative driving data totals about 2 billion miles, or about 3.2 billion km. FSD, however, is still a Level 2 function that requires constant driver supervision.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has required since 2021 that crashes be reported if a Level 2 driver-assistance system was operating within 30 seconds before the crash and there were injuries or the vehicle required towing. NHTSA is separately compiling crash data related to Level 2 systems and explains there is also a possibility of duplicate reporting for the same incident.

Tesla was reported to account for about 85 percent of industry accident reports under that reporting system, and about 65 fatal cases related to Autopilot or FSD were tallied from 2013 to 2025. Tesla’s own safety statistics have drawn controversy over whether they have been externally verified and over comparison standards, and NHTSA is also investigating related crash data.

Ultimately, the Cybercab launch is expected to be an important test of whether Tesla’s autonomous driving technology and camera-centered strategy work in real passenger service. Investors will focus on the possibility of low-cost mass scaling, but how much the public trusts it is a separate issue. Early operating results in Austin and the ability to respond on safety are expected to determine the pace of future business expansion.