Fifty Tesla Cybercabs are parked in neat, compact rows at Giga Texas, and a drone caught every single one of them. Joe Tegtmeyer, who has spent more time hovering over the Austin campus than most people spend commuting, captured the footage that shows the robotaxi fleet quietly accumulating in the factory’s loading and unloading area.
The Cybercab units visible in the footage are largely clustered near Tesla’s on-site crash test facility, which exists alongside a similar lab at Giga Fremont. That’s not a coincidence. Historically, automakers begin intensive crash testing roughly one to two months before mass production kicks off. And the Cybertruck followed that exact script with almost suspicious precision. The Cybercab appears to be running on the same test circuit first spotted back in October 2025, which means the calendar math is starting to add up.
Here’s the part that requires a small asterisk. Most of those 50-plus units still come equipped with a steering wheel and pedals. Not because Tesla changed its mind about the whole “autonomous vehicle” concept, but because current safety regulations demand it. The hardware is temporary. A bureaucratic placeholder while the vehicles accumulate real-world data ahead of final approval for a fully driverless configuration. Tesla’s vision of a steering-wheel-free future is alive and well. It’s just wearing a costume for now.
The first production Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026. Mass production is now scheduled to begin in April, though Elon Musk was characteristically precise about expectations, writing on X that the initial production rate would be “incredibly slow” before eventually becoming “incredibly fast”. The man does not deal in half measures. Long-term, Tesla is targeting at least 2 million Cybercab units annually. A number that sounds either visionary or delusional depending on the day of the week.
Commercial robotaxi service in Austin is set to launch by the end of 2026. The fleet is stacking up. The crash tests are running. And somewhere in Texas, a drone is watching all of it.
