Musk Launches Steering-Wheel-Free Robotaxis, Bets Riders Will Overcome ‘No Control’ Fears

Elon Musk’s Tesla on Thursday deployed dozens of gold-colored, fully autonomous Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas, without steering wheels or brake pedals, as the company bets that Americans will embrace rides in vehicles offering no direct human control.

The rollout marks a major step in Tesla’s push to expand its robotaxi business to more cities. Tesla shares rose more than 5% Thursday amid investor optimism that the futuristic taxis could gain rapid acceptance.

“No steering wheel, no pedals,” Tesla said in a post on X ahead of the launch. Musk later shared an image of a Cybercab hovering above the Austin skyline, followed by the message: “A Storm of Cybercabs.”

An invitation-only launch event was expected to take place later Thursday.

Tesla faces pressure to accelerate its robotaxi ambitions as it trails self-driving leader Waymo in both the number of vehicles deployed and trips completed. To close the gap, Tesla will need to demonstrate that its camera-only autonomous driving system can safely handle city streets, pedestrians and unpredictable traffic.

Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, meanwhile, use cameras alongside radar and lidar, a laser-based sensing technology.

Technology aside, Tesla also faces the challenge of persuading Americans to trust vehicles they cannot control. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that about seven in 10 US adults were either “not too” or “not at all” comfortable riding in a driverless car. Only 7% said they would be “extremely” or “very” comfortable.

Tesla has operated a self-driving robotaxi service in Austin since June last year, but those vehicles have steering wheels and brake pedals. The service has since expanded to five other cities in Texas and Florida and initially used safety drivers who could take control when necessary.

According to RobotaxiTracker, Tesla now has more than 200 unsupervised robotaxis operating in those markets. Waymo, by comparison, has more than 4,000 such vehicles across 14 cities.

Tesla’s vehicle business has also struggled. The company reported a second consecutive annual decline in vehicle sales last year, while profits fell sharply and China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s top-selling electric vehicle maker.

Musk’s political activities have also hurt Tesla’s public image. His involvement in President Donald Trump’s government cost-cutting campaign, known as DOGE, and his support for far-right political candidates triggered protests at Tesla showrooms and boycotts in several countries.

Musk ultimately wants hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles to operate as robotaxis through a software update, allowing owners to put their cars into a ride-hailing fleet when they are not using them.

However, regulators in the US and abroad continue to scrutinize Tesla’s autonomous-driving technology. The company has yet to secure approval for its partial self-driving software in most European Union countries, while US regulators have opened multiple investigations into its safety.

One investigation is examining crashes involving Tesla vehicles operating in fog, sun glare and other low-visibility conditions, including a fatal pedestrian collision. Another is looking into incidents involving Teslas that allegedly ran red lights or drove on the wrong side of the road. A separate probe is examining whether Tesla failed to promptly report crashes involving its driver-assistance systems.

The success of the Cybercab rollout could therefore become a crucial test not only of Tesla’s autonomous-driving technology, but also of whether consumers are ready to surrender control completely to a machine.