Tesla Cybercabs spotted testing, unsurprisingly with steering wheels

A new sighting of Tesla Cybercab prototypes in Austin, Texas, is fueling the ongoing debate about the vehicle’s design. While the prototypes were spotted with steering wheels, which is standard for testing, it raises questions about whether Tesla can actually stick to its plan to launch the vehicle without them given the state of its self-driving effort.

The sighting was posted to Reddit, where a user captured two Cybercab prototypes driving in tandem on South Lamar in Austin.

What’s immediately apparent in the images is that these vehicles are equipped with steering wheels.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this. We previously reported on a Cybercab spotted with a steering wheel at Giga Texas, which sparked similar speculation.

On the one hand, this is completely normal. Even if a vehicle is designed to be fully autonomous and steering-wheel-less in its final production form, engineering prototypes testing on public roads almost always require manual controls. Regulations generally demand that a human safety driver be able to take control if the autonomous system fails.

However, the presence of the steering wheel is becoming a focal point as we get closer to the planned launch of the Cybercab next year and amid growing skepticism surrounding Tesla’s ability to deliver a Level 4 or 5 autonomous vehicle on its current hardware.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been adamant that the Cybercab is explicitly designed for autonomy. At the unveiling, he stated, “No mirrors, no pedals, no steering wheel.”

But as we get closer to the planned production timeline of 2026, the reality of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) progress suggests otherwise. Tesla has yet to solve unsupervised autonomy. The current “Supervised FSD” in consumer vehicles still requires constant driver attention, and while it is improving, it is nowhere near the reliability required to remove the driver controls entirely.

We previously covered comments from Tesla Chairwoman Robyn Denholm, who admitted that Tesla might add a steering wheel to the Cybercab if needed. It was a rare break from Musk’s “all-in” rhetoric on autonomy, acknowledging the regulatory and technical hurdles.

Furthermore, we reported that Tesla has delayed its next-gen AI5 chip to mid-2027, meaning the Cybercab would likely have to launch on the current AI4 hardware. If AI4 hasn’t achieved unsupervised autonomy in the millions of Model 3s and Ys on the road today, it’s hard to see how it will miraculously do so in the Cybercab by next year.

Seeing these prototypes with steering wheels on South Lamar might just be standard testing procedure, but it also looks a lot like a backup plan.

Electrek’s Take

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I think Tesla is going to have to launch the Cybercab with a steering wheel.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Tesla will not have unsupervised self-driving ready for a commercial launch at scale in 2026. If they stick to the “no steering wheel” design, they simply won’t be able to sell or operate the car in volume.

The regulations for vehicles without manual controls are incredibly strict and capped at low volumes (like the 2,500 exemption). If Tesla wants the Cybercab to be the volume growth driver they claim it will be, it needs to be road-legal without relying on a software miracle that has been “a year away” for the last decade.

My bet is that we will see a “Cybercab” launch with a wheel and pedals, sold as a cheaper Tesla model that can be a Robotaxi once the software is ready – basically a repeat of how Tesla sold its other vehicles to the public.

The main concern is that this vehicle is poorly designed for consumers.