Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi First Ride: Surviving a Trip in Tesla’s First Self-Driving Car
We didn’t ask what to do if the Cybercab started veering off-course. But we didn’t need to.
The concept of a fully self-driving car with no steering wheel or pedals has floated around for decades—and it’s finally landed in reality. Sort of. Maybe. Eventually. The new Tesla Cybercab won’t be ready to drive itself into the real world any time soon. Nevertheless, our first ride in this all-electric transportation pod left us equally curious and skeptical about the automaker’s vision for the future of autonomous mobility.
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Tesla’s Cybercab reveal blowout took place at California’s Warner Bros. Discovery movie studios, a location highly relevant to our impressions of the vehicle’s performance. You've probably seen the vast studio’s streets in film, as its design and layout mimic that of a real-world city. Yet it’s very much not a real-world city: It’s an entirely controlled environment that for this event was open only to a few dozen prototype Cybercabs and other Tesla models equipped with the automaker’s supposedly forthcoming and unsupervised Full Self Driving software. We’d say it’s possible and likely that those vehicles roamed the studio’s streets before the event under close supervision from Tesla engineers, learning how to get around. There was no chance for any of the countless incidents that occur on roads everywhere to happen here.
It was clear, however, that the Cybercabs weren’t just operating off a preprogrammed file—at least some of the technology for autonomous decision making is there. In the spirit of investigative journalism, your author bravely leapt into the path of an approaching Cybercab. The vehicle stopped immediately, resuming once its path was clear. A few repetitions of this experiment indicated the Cybercab already has a semblance of situational awareness.
Next thing we knew, it was our turn to let the Cybercab take us for a ride. The vehicle appears quite small, certainly smaller than a Model 3, with a very low hood that rises into a bulbous greenhouse. As we walked up, its butterfly doors lifted automatically, presenting huge apertures to climb inside. The doors closed as we buckled our seatbelts, and we had a chance to check out the cabin. Frankly, there’s not much to see: It looks a lot like the interior of the current Model 3 Highland, with Tesla’s signature massive touchscreen as the centerpiece. Oh, and the conspicuous absence of anything resembling pedals or a steering wheel.
On its touchscreen, the Cybercab presented us with a few predetermined locations on the studio lot it could take us to. After selecting one and pressing a digital button to start the drive, the Cybercab got on its way. Its moves felt similar to those of our 2023 Model Y long-term review vehicle when it’s operating on Full Self Driving. The Cybercab proceeded with caution, accelerating and braking gently while taking corners wide to keep the vehicle securely centered in its lane. There was nothing hurried about it, instead cruising along gently—probably the right decision for unfinished software controlling a prototype vehicle that apparently contains no hardware for emergency human intervention.
Aside from the absence of traditional controls, the experience inside the Cybercab mostly just felt like a Tesla. Even on the studio’s smooth pavement, the car still found ways to wobble about slightly on its suspension. Despite the small exterior size, the cabin felt spacious for a two-door, aided by the uninterrupted floor area. The black synthetic leather covering the seats felt exactly like that in our Model Y. Although this prototype had only two seats, it seems possible that a third passenger could squeeze in the middle when the center armrest is flipped up. They’d have to get comfortable on top of the plastic cupholders and window switches, the latter of which control large panes of glass that roll all the way down into the doors. A single overhead light and two sun visors are integrated into the fabric headliner.
Eventually, the Cybercab stopped at our destination and opened its doors. That the ride was uneventful is a potential positive; the lack of conventional controls was the strangest thing about it. Climbing out, we were left with the impression that it performed as should be expected: Safely and smoothly within the confines of this miniature city.
Yet myriad questions remain about the Tesla Cybercab’s viability. If its abilities are founded on software similar to the Full Self Driving system we frequently use on surface streets and highways, that’s overtly sketchy if there’s indeed no way for a human to intervene should the need arise. Our Model Y’s Full Self Driving constantly makes decisions that range from careless to dangerously moronic. It forces us to stay vigilant and remain ready to catch it out when it, for example, enters an intersection as the light turns red and creates gridlock, or misreads a speed limit sign and aggressively decelerates in the middle of flowing freeway traffic. (Watch for an upcoming update on some of the distressing incidents we’ve experienced in our Model Y with Full Self Driving activated.)
Then come uncertainties about the legality of a vehicle like this, if its entirely camera-based detection system is adequate, who would want it, where Tesla can build it—and, probably most importantly, when the world’s most unconventional automaker might even start building the Cybercab in the first place. It’s supposedly aiming to begin production in 2026, but like with all things Tesla we’ll believe it when we see it—not like this is the first time Tesla has made a plan it can’t follow through on.
What we did see—and experience, and survive—here, though, was about the closest thing there’s ever been to a fully autonomous car. However it shapes up, the Cybercab is a realization of a deeply sci-fi vision and could reshape our fundamental understanding of personal mobility.
Alex's earliest memory is of a teal 1993 Ford Aspire, the car that sparked his automotive obsession. He's never driven that tiny hatchback—at six feet, 10 inches tall, he likely wouldn't fit—but has assessed hundreds of other vehicles, sharing his insights on MotorTrend as a writer and video host.
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