Tesla Cybercab without a steering wheel and pedals is out: a tech journalist takes the first ride

A car without a steering wheel and without pedals that takes you from point A to point B and you don’t have to do anything. That’s exactly what Tesla has been promising for years, and on 3. September 2026 it finally put it on public roads. In Austin, Texas, it started Cybercab operations—a two-seat robotaxi that has no driver controls at all. And the first test drives are already documented.

First public ride: “completely boring, just as it should be”

One of the historically first public rides in the Cybercab was taken by analyst and YouTuber Sawyer Merritt, who filmed the entire trip along with reactions from inside the cabin. His assessment is interesting precisely because it’s so non-dramatic: according to him, it’s an “utterly boring ride, exactly the way it should be.” That’s arguably the best possible review for autonomous driving.

Merritt especially highlights the smoothness. The FSD system, he says, works more smoothly in the Cybercab than in his own car—without hesitation and without jerking. He also praises the chassis. The vehicle doesn’t have air suspension, but standard suspension—and yet the retardation system went through without any jolts. The cabin is surprisingly quiet even without acoustic glass; all you hear is a louder car passing very close by.

Interior: a TV-like display and the most legroom of all Teslas

The Cybercab is also the smallest Tesla that’s been created so far, and paradoxically it offers the most legroom. The seats form one bench that slides fairly far forward and backward and can be tilted; taller passengers can therefore make a lot of space for themselves. The centerpiece of the dashboard is a 22-inch display that feels more like a TV hanging on a wall than like an in-car screen.

Inside the cabin you’ll find two cup holders, USB-C connectors, ambient lighting all around the perimeter, and Braille lettering on the door handle. You can even control the climate, music, or temperature by voice through the assistant Grok. The materials are practically fine-tuned: what looks like fabric on camera is actually injected foam, which is easier to clean. Merritt’s video passenger describes the result simply: it feels like a lounge, not like a taxi.

Behind the praise there are also small caveats. The seats lack side bolstering, and the front part of the seat cushion can’t be lifted, so taller passengers don’t have their thighs supported. On the other hand, that exactly flat shape makes getting in easier. And for a vehicle meant to carry anyone—including people with limited mobility—that makes sense.

Tech: no brake fluid and eight cameras

The Cybercab is Tesla’s first car to brake using brake-by-wire. There isn’t even a drop of brake fluid anywhere in the entire vehicle. It’s a crucial change that makes sense precisely for a pedal-less vehicle: if the brake isn’t controlled by your foot, there’s no reason to run an hydraulic circuit through the car. Fewer fluids also mean less maintenance, which matters more for a fleet running all day than for a private car.

Navigation around you is handled by eight external cameras and one camera in the cabin, which is visibly larger than the one in today’s current production models. Tesla sticks with an all-camera solution—meaning no lidar. That’s where the biggest technological difference from the competition lies. By the way, the display doesn’t show which version of the autonomous mode is running; it only says “self-driving,” and there’s a single button to stop at the roadside.

Why this made the stock market go crazy

The economic aspect of the Cybercabe is just as interesting as the technical one. According to FTNews, the estimated manufacturing costs of a single Cybercabe come in at around $18,000, while competing companies pay even more than $100,000 for one autonomous vehicle. For a robotaxi service, where money is made based on the number of kilometers driven, that’s the whole difference between a business and an expensive experiment.

The market reacted immediately. Tesla’s shares jumped by 5.42% on launch day to $376.37, and the company’s market value reached $1.4 trillion. By Wednesday evening, Tesla had 45 Cybercabs registered in Texas and, overall, was operating 420 autonomous vehicles there. Serial production started in April 2026, so the fleet has room to grow from here.

In Slovakia, you can’t order a ride like this yet, and it won’t be soon. Tesla has only approved the FSD Supervised system in Europe so far—that’s a Level 2 assistant that requires constant driver supervision, and it’s currently available in just five countries (the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, and Belgium), which Slovakia isn’t among. The Cybercab is several levels ahead: a car with no steering wheel and no pedals at all is a completely different category for European approval, and no one is rushing to open it up yet.

What that means

The Cybercab is currently driving only in a limited zone in Austin, and it’s more of the beginning of the story than its climax. What’s interesting, though, is that according to Merritt, even pedestrians on the streets don’t pay attention to it anymore. Autonomous Teslas have been running there for weeks, and people have gotten used to them. This kind of everyday normality is probably the most accurate forecast of what autonomous transport will look like once it finally reaches us, too.

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