Tesla began operating its driverless, two-seat Cybercab for public rides in Austin, Texas, even as federal regulators launched a probe into whether the vehicle meets safety standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Audit Query will examine the data and reasoning Tesla used to conclude it doesn't need an exemption from rules requiring items like steering wheels and brake pedals—unlike competitor Zoox, which secured such an exemption for its similarly designed vehicles.
wired.com
· 2026-09-04
Tesla has started deploying its Cybercab, a robotaxi built without a steering wheel or pedals, on public roads in Austin. The rollout marks an early real-world test of the company's fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicle design.
tech.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-04
Tesla has started deploying its steering-wheel-free Cybercab for paid rides through its Robotaxi app, though so far only in Austin and only as one possible vehicle assigned by availability rather than by rider choice. The app also covers Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, but those cities currently get standard Model Y rides. Tesla holds permits for 314 driverless vehicles in Texas, with just 45 being Cybercabs, and it isn't clear how many are actually shuttling paying customers versus still being tested.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-04
Tesla is staging its first public launch of the Cybercab, a driverless two-seat vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, in Austin on Thursday. Ahead of the event the company registered 420 autonomous vehicles in Texas and deployed dozens of the cars around the city and elsewhere in the US, with executives including Elon Musk hyping the moment on social media.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-03
Tesla plans to formally introduce its steering-wheel-free Cybercab at an Austin event, adding 51 of the vehicles to its Texas ride-hail fleet alongside 263 Model Ys. The vehicle debuted as a prototype in 2024, and Tesla's driverless pilot has since expanded from Austin to parts of Texas and Florida, with permits pending in Arizona and Nevada.
wired.com
· 2026-09-02
Researchers pooled data from 46 cohorts through the ReGPC consortium to run genome-wide association analyses on personality traits among participants with European-like and African-like ancestry. They applied strict quality controls—filtering low-frequency variants, poor imputation quality, and problematic samples—before analyzing how genetic variants relate to standardized Big Five personality measures.
nature.com
· 2026-09-02