No steering wheel, no pedals: Tesla's golden robotaxi makes its debut

No steering wheel. No pedals. The golden-bodied car's doors swing upward like wings. Tesla's Cybercab — the fully autonomous robotaxi that CEO Elon Musk has staked as a cornerstone of the company's future — is on the verge of its official launch, nearly two years after its prototype was first unveiled.

Tesla held a Cybercab launch event Thursday in Austin, Texas, where the company is headquartered.

The event came roughly two years after Tesla first showed off the Cybercab prototype at a "We, Robot" event held at Warner Bros.' film studio in Burbank, California, in 2024.

The Cybercab looks nothing like a conventional car. Designed from the ground up for fully driverless operation, it has no steering wheel and no accelerator or brake pedals. Its gold exterior is paired with scissor doors that open upward.

Musk stoked anticipation ahead of the event, posting a brief message on X — "Cybercab storm" — alongside an image of a Cybercab emerging through a sandstorm over Austin.

The event was held as a private gathering, with invitations limited to Tesla fans, existing robotaxi passengers and influencers. Details of what would be announced were not disclosed in advance.

Markets are watching closely to see whether the event signals more than just a new car launch — and whether it marks the start of a serious expansion of Tesla's robotaxi business.

Tesla began producing the Cybercab in April and has been running test drives on public roads in recent months. The company could soon deploy the vehicle in its existing robotaxi service.

Andrew Percoco, a Morgan Stanley analyst, said the share price would likely fall if the event amounted to nothing more than a limited showcase. "On the flip side, a broad deployment that materially impacts the scale of Tesla's robotaxi operations could excite investors," he added.

Musk has long positioned the robotaxi as one of the pillars of Tesla's future, envisioning it as central to the company's transformation from an electric vehicle manufacturer into an AI- and autonomous driving-based platform company.

Tesla, however, still trails Alphabet subsidiary Waymo in the driverless taxi market.

Waymo currently operates in 11 US cities and has announced plans to expand to Munich, Germany. Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin last year and has since been expanding into Florida and California.

Regulation poses another hurdle for the Cybercab.

Waymo's robotaxis operate autonomously but retain a steering wheel, pedals and side mirrors, just like conventional vehicles. The Cybercab, by contrast, has none of the manual controls that would allow a person to take over driving.

Amazon's autonomous vehicle subsidiary Zoox also developed a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals but received a federal exemption from the relevant regulations only in July.

Tesla has not yet applied to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for a similar exemption for the Cybercab, according to sources familiar with the matter.