Tesla hosted an invitation-only Cybercab event in Austin on Thursday after teasing fans with posts about its driverless two-seater, as the company works to narrow Waymo's commanding lead in the U.S. robotaxi market.
Tesla signaled a long-anticipated update to its Cybercab robotaxi program on Thursday, teasing fans with posts on X reading "no steering wheel, no pedals" and prompting Austin residents to "try it out" ahead of an invitation-only event in the city.
CEO Elon Musk added to the buildup with a pinned post declaring "a storm of Cybercabs," underscoring the company's effort to generate momentum around a vehicle it first unveiled in October 2024.
The Cybercab was designed as a driverless two-seater with butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals. Tesla has been testing a version of the vehicle equipped with human drivers and traditional controls across multiple U.S. markets, though video shared on X by New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu and others on Wednesday appeared to show Cybercab vehicles operating on public streets in Austin without a steering wheel or driver on board.
According to public records on the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles website, Tesla had 45 Cybercab vehicles authorized for driverless operations in Texas as of Wednesday night, out of a total of 420 vehicles registered in the state for driverless operations.
One Tesla Robotaxi tracker estimates the company's broader U.S. fleet of "unsupervised" vehicles — those capable of operating without a human driver in geofenced areas of certain cities — stood at just over 200 units. Those vehicles have logged trips in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, Florida, according to the tracker.
Tesla also operates a separate chartered car service in the San Francisco area, branded as FSD (Supervised) Rideshare, using newer Model Y vehicles driven by Tesla employees running a version of the company's Full Self-Driving software not yet available to the public.
The stakes for Thursday's event are considerable for Tesla investors. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote ahead of the update that if it includes a meaningful rollout of unsupervised vehicles, they expect Tesla's stock to "regain momentum." The bank carries a $400 price target on the stock and a hold-equivalent rating. Tesla shares are down approximately 21% year-to-date as of Wednesday's close.
"Continued growth in the unsupervised fleet (Cybercab or Model Y) is key for the stock to outperform through year-end," the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote.
The company faces a competitive gap with Alphabet's Waymo, which is currently running a commercial robotaxi service across 14 U.S. cities with a fleet of roughly 4,000 driverless vehicles and testing operations in additional markets.
Tesla's autonomous driving ambitions also carry regulatory headwinds. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is conducting at least two ongoing investigations into possible safety defects in the company's partially automated driving systems. Tesla has additionally drawn criticism for requesting that the NHTSA redact substantially more information from its crash reports than other autonomous vehicle companies, effectively limiting public access to safety data.
Musk has told investors and fans since at least 2016 that a Tesla vehicle capable of driving itself across the country without human intervention was close at hand. Thursday's Austin event will offer the clearest look yet at how far the company has actually come — and how quickly it can close the distance with its rivals.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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