Tesla's Cybercab Finishes Rocky First Month in Austin as Expansion Looms

Tesla had 169 Cybercabs authorized for commercial use in Texas as of Friday, up from 45 when the vehicle was unveiled in Austin on Sept. 3, according to public records from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. The bronze two-seaters have no steering wheel, pedals, rear or sideview mirrors or outside door handles. Austin remains the only city where the Cybercab runs as part of Tesla's driverless ride-hail service. The company's Texas Robotaxi fleet also includes 420 Model Y vehicles equipped with Tesla automated driving systems, which are not yet available to individual car buyers.

Passengers who posted videos and comments online after the launch complained about lengthy wait times, pickups and drop-offs in the wrong place, and technical trouble with the vehicles' butterfly doors and trunks closing improperly.

Ethan McKanna, a 20-year-old Austin resident and former Tesla intern who now studies computer science at Texas A&M University, told CNBC he has taken about 30 Cybercab rides and has been riding Waymo since it debuted in Austin in 2024. He said he likes having his "own space with access to a massive screen, media controls and apps," and called the drive quality "very smooth." The pickup and drop-off experience, he said, was not yet refined, and the outward-opening butterfly doors are less convenient than traditional doors or doors that slide open. Wait times during the first weeks of service were often 45 minutes or more, he said, but have come down as demand equalized. "Waymo's been doing commercial operations for longer, so they're just more mature with 24/7 service, better support, things like that," he said, adding that Waymo had some harsh braking issues in its early days in Austin.

No significant safety incidents or collisions involving a Cybercab have been reported in Austin since the commercial debut. CNBC reported that first responders have expressed concerns about dealing with the vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit query after the Cybercab launch to check that the vehicles comply with federal safety standards. The agency initially ordered Tesla to respond by Sept. 30 to a long list of safety questions, but the company obtained an extension, an agency spokesperson told CNBC by email.

Expansion means competing with Alphabet's Waymo, which is in 15 U.S. markets with 15 more on the horizon, according to its website, and has announced planned launches in London, Tokyo and Munich. Waymo had 1,154 autonomous vehicles authorized for commercial use in Texas as of Friday, including 359 of its new Ojai models, and is conducting more than 500,000 paid rides a week. It has completed 270 million fully autonomous miles of commercial driving domestically and runs over 4,000 driverless vehicles in commercial operations in the U.S. Amazon's Zoox is also testing in Austin. Austin has become a popular early robotaxi market because of relatively lax state regulations and its tech community.

Tesla's push comes as its core automotive business faces pressure from Chinese EV makers including BYD and Xiaomi, which sell more affordable, innovative models and are ramping up exports to Tesla's key markets in Europe and Asia. Tesla shares are down 18% this year, making it the only megacap tech stock to post negative returns for investors, after consecutive annual revenue declines. On Friday the company reported better-than-expected third-quarter vehicle deliveries, lifting the stock almost 5%, though deliveries still fell 2% year over year. Improving driverless technology and rapidly growing the Robotaxi service are key to Tesla's effort to reignite investor enthusiasm, and for Elon Musk to achieve his ambitions, the pace of growth has to pick up.