I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Pre-production Tesla Cybercab units spotted in Berkeley, California, reveal a temporary steering wheel and exposed column bolted into the two-seat robotaxi. Although unveiled as a driverless vehicle without controls, this modification suggests interim testing measures for the autonomous system before full commercial deployment.
A pre-production Tesla Cybercab was spotted parked on a street in Berkeley, California, and it gives us the clearest look yet at how Tesla puts a steering wheel into a car it designed to have none.
The photos, shared with Electrek by reader Adam Machacek, show a Cybertruck steering wheel mounted on an exposed steering column that has been bolted into the two-seat robotaxi.
A car built with no wheel, driving on a borrowed one
Tesla unveiled the Cybercab in October 2024 as a purpose-built robotaxi with no steering wheel, no pedals, and no mirrors. That is the whole pitch. It is a two-seater meant to drive itself and nothing else, and Tesla says it will cost less than $30,000.
The company started rolling steering-wheel-less units off the line at Giga Texas earlier this year, and we have been tracking the strange spectacle of Tesla mass-producing a car it cannot yet sell or drive itself at scale outside of small geo-fenced areas.