EVwire brief: Tesla has put its first production Cybercabs onto public roads in Austin for engineering tests, and on Tuesday it posted a 26-second video shot from inside one. The clip shows the two-seat robotaxi handling city traffic, turns, and lane changes in daylight, with a safety monitor riding along and no steering wheel or pedals in sight.
The detail that jumps out isn't just the driving, however. It's the Cybercab’s cabin as well. As observed by Tesla enthusiasts on X, the Cybercab's A-pillars, the structural posts that frame the windshield, are noticeably chunkier than the ones in an ordinary car.
Here's Tesla's Cybercab test video on X:
In a conventional car, engineers typically keep the A-pillars slim so the driver can see around them. The Cybercab has no driver and no controls to peer past, so that constraint falls away and the pillars can be made thick and strong. The payoff is a stiffer cabin that likely holds up better in frontal, offset, side, and rollover crashes, and likely more resistant to roof crush incidents, too.
Beyond the pillars, the cabin uses familiar Tesla structure, a rigid cell with crumple zones and a load-bearing battery pack, while the camera and sensor suite handles the driving. A few touches are specific to a driverless car: an emergency-stop button, Braille markings, and microphones in the B-pillars that let first responders reach Tesla support without opening the vehicle.
As highlighted by Tesla community member Tsla Chan:
Context:
Tesla revealed the Cybercab in October 2024 at its "We, Robot" event, pitching it as a purpose-built robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals. It began building initial units in February 2026 at Giga Texas in Austin, and Tuesday's clip marks the first on-road engineering tests of production-intent cars. Texas regulators recently folded the Cybercab into their autonomous-vehicle protocols, and the NHTSA has updated its rules for driverless-only cars.
The Cybercab's full numbers went public earlier this month in its EPA certification: a single front motor making 219 hp, a roughly 48 kWh battery, and a front-wheel-drive layout that's a first for Tesla. The vehicle was also listed with an equivalent all-electric range of 418 miles (673 km), and a 3,113-pound (1,412 kg) curb weight.
Source: Tesla on X
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