Official: Tesla Launches The Cybercab In Texas, United States

The long-awaited launch of Tesla’s Cybercab, an event that has been in the works for nearly two years, proceeded without much fanfare or details. The private event, which was not open to the media, took place on Thursday in the Texan city of Austin, and there was no livestream of the launch. The self-driving Cybercabs will be available to people in Austin starting Friday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly stated that self-driving taxis are crucial to the company’s financial future. In Austin, Tesla began using robotaxis on a small scale last year, but at the time it was still mandatory for an employee to ride along and take over control of the car if necessary.

Important questions remained unanswered after the event. For example, it is unclear how many vehicles the company intends to deploy immediately for commercial services. Musk promoted the car in a series of posts on X prior to the event, including one that read, “A storm of Cybercabs.”

Musk previously presented the Cybercab as the “backbone of a massive Tesla robotaxi fleet that will cover most of the United States” and promised to deploy thousands of Cybercabs. The company had registered 45 Cybercabs with authorities in Texas prior to the event, but it is unclear how many were actually in use during the launch.

Including the Cybercabs, Tesla’s fleet in Texas now consists of 420 robotaxis, primarily Model Y vehicles. That is less than half of the nearly 1,000 vehicles that market leader Waymo has registered in Texas. Waymo already offers its taxi services in eleven US cities.