Tesla's driverless Cybercab started picking up paying riders this week, and it's already facing a federal safety investigation.
The Cybercab is a two-seat vehicle with no steering wheel and no brake pedals. Tesla brought hundreds of fans to downtown Austin for rides in the driverless cars, then began rolling the vehicle out on its Robotaxi network, which already runs in a handful of Texas and Florida cities. Hours after that Austin event, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed it's investigating whether the Cybercab meets federal safety standards.
Here's the awkward part: those standards still assume a human driver. NHTSA is in the middle of rewriting eight rules that require equipment driverless cars don't need, like brake pedals, windshield wipers, and rearview mirrors, precisely so cars like the Cybercab can be sold legally. Tesla is deploying a vehicle built for a rulebook that doesn't exist yet, using the current one that does.
That's a bet on regulatory goodwill, not just engineering. It also tracks with Tesla's usual approach: ship the ambitious version first, let the paperwork catch up. Whether NHTSA agrees the Cybercab clears today's rules, rather than tomorrow's more permissive ones, is the whole ballgame.