It turns out Tesla’s Cybercab might need to have a steering wheel and pedals after all
Tesla’s Cybercab was supposed to be a steering-wheel-less alternative to its affordable mass market car.
When Tesla scrapped its plans for a low-cost consumer car, the company said that instead it would produce the low-cost Cybercab, an autonomous-only vehicle without a steering wheel and pedals meant for ride-hailing or personal use.
“I think having a regular $25,000 model is pointless,” CEO Elon Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call last October. “It would be silly, like it will be completely at odds with what we believe.” The vehicle was supposed to be available for ride-hailing this year and in “volume production” in 2026.
It looks like Tesla may be backtracking on those plans.
“If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals,” Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm told Bloomberg Tuesday.
Doing so would solve a number of problems for Tesla.
First off, it’s unclear whether Tesla’s technology is where it needs to be for cars to safely drive themselves without someone intervening. While Musk recently said the company now has “clarity” on achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, that’s not the same thing as rolling out unsupervised FSD to the public, which the company has long promised. Even the company’s robotaxis, which comprise about 30 Model Ys in a pilot program in Austin, still have a safety monitor in the passenger seat.
Then there’s also the thorny issue of getting approval for the driverless tech. Despite Musk’s lobbying efforts, regulators haven’t budged on certain safety standards, like requiring mass market cars to have steering wheels and pedals.
“The original Model Y was not going to have a steering wheel, or pedals,” Denholm told Bloomberg, saying the company has been here before. “If we can’t sell something because it needs something, then we’ll work with regulators to work out what we need to do.”
The release of the Cybercab could help solve issues with the company’s aging, relatively expensive lineup. Earlier this month, Tesla unveiled its “new” Model Ys and 3s, but they were mostly just lower-trim versions of existing Model Ys and 3s. Their lower prices had also been significantly undercut by the expiration of the government’s $7,500 EV tax credit. The Cybercab, which is supposed to cost around $25,000, would be both cheaper and newer than the company’s existing lineup.
Tesla hasn’t released a truly new model since the Cybertruck came out in 2023, and that has largely been a flop sales-wise. Tesla also generally offers far fewer options than competitors like BYD.
