Austin, Texas. Episode 193 of Gail’s Tesla Podcast is now live.
This is a conversation with Alexandra Merz, known to many in the Tesla community as @TeslaBoomerMama. We talked about what people would gain if they understood Elon Musk better. This is one of my favorite conversations.
In the episode we cover her perspective as a long-time retail shareholder, her background, and the practical value of looking past the noise to see the actual work.
Outline summary:
Opening conversation while riding in Austin
Alexandra’s path and interest in Tesla
Discussion of what clearer understanding of Elon Musk changes for people (retail shareholders, the public, and the mission)
Reflections on Tesla beyond the car company framing
Personal notes and shared observations from the ride
Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video with captions):
Gail’s Tesla Podcast Ep 193: Alexandra Merz (@TeslaBoomerMama). Beloved by all in the Tesla community! We talked about what people would gain if they understood Elon Musk better. This is one of my favorite conversations! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/stDoeXrGzA
Thanks to Elon for this ride. Cybercab takes us through Austin past a clumsy bus and a double-parked truck (the kind of things that used to require human intervention and mild swearing). The windows open and close on the way to the Singularity Thought House and Rainey Street. Grok sends the drop-off option straight to my iPhone.
In this episode I share the real-time ride while Cybercab handles the everyday obstacles and gets us where we’re going.
Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video):
Gail’s Tesla Podcast Ep 192: Thanks to Elon for this ride. Cybercab in Austin: past a clumsy bus and a double-parked truck. The windows open and close on our way to the Singularity Thought House and Rainey Street. Grok sends the drop-off option to my iPhone. pic.twitter.com/9xz260Z3IZ
This is Jessica Tetreau’s first-ever Cybercab ride in lovely Austin. The complete interview is filmed inside the Cybercab as we move through the city. She calls the ride “amazing” and shares her honest first impressions.
Here’s my summary of the episode:
As we ride through Austin’s bar district; Jessica’s immediate reaction that it feels like the Jetsons and the future
We discuss no steering wheel, no pedals, and no mirrors; her suggestion for a four-seater Cybercab
Our arrival is fast (~10 minutes at night) and we had the ability to change the destination
People on the street notice the Cybercab, giving thumbs-up, and getting excited
Recap of the day’s stops: Allen’s Boots, walk down Congress, Four Seasons (valet curiosity about the vehicle), Mount Bonnell (winding hills handled smoothly), and dinner at Elon’s brother’s restaurant (gnocchi, bolognese, Indian puffy tacos)
Jessica’s comments that the ride is smooth, quick, and “sassy”; the vehicle closes doors and drives away efficiently
Closing reflections that Austin feels like a Disneyland or fantasy city with Cybercab access, and that this was “the best day ever”
Watch the full episode here (or tap the X post for the video with captions):
Gail’s Tesla Podcast Ep 191: @JessicaTetreau’s first-ever Cybercab ride in Austin. Complete interview filmed inside the Cybercab. Honest first impressions of an incredible ride she calls “amazing”. pic.twitter.com/i2F6rOEXbm
Episode 188 is the day I sat inside a Tesla Cybercab.
No steering wheel. No pedals. Just joy.
Thank you, Elon. The future is real, and it is this beautiful.
This episode was filmed on Cybercab launch day in Austin. I climbed into the two-seater, looked at that empty dash with the CYBERCAB script across it, and felt something I have been waiting years to feel in person: a car built from the ground up for riding, not driving.
Watch Episode 188 here:
Gail’s Tesla Podcast Ep. 188 I sat inside a Cybercab at Austin Fairgrounds today. No wheel. no pedals. Just joy. Thank you Elon. The future is real and it is this beautiful ♥️ pic.twitter.com/SZpaTIUnsO
I have taken a lot of unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Model Ys here in Austin. Those rides already feel like history. This was different.
Cybercab is not a regular Tesla with the driver controls left unused. There is nothing left unused. The front of the cabin is open. The seats face a clean interior, a wide screen, and that little CYBERCAB mark where a steering wheel would have been for more than a century.
I was wearing my I ❤️ ELON shirt and red pants, sunglasses on, gold nails catching the Texas light, and I kept reaching out to touch things the way you do when your brain is still catching up with your eyes. The leatherlike seats. The cupholders. The speaker grille. The simple controls on the door. Every detail said: this vehicle was designed for people, not for a person who has to keep a hand near a wheel.
My daughter Grace sat beside me. Two seats. That is the whole cabin. It feels intimate and calm, like the car already knows the job is to carry you, not to ask you to work.
What the Video Shows
Episode 188 is short on purpose. About three and a half minutes. I wanted you to sit there with me.
You will see:
The first look from outside, with the cabin inset so you can see the empty dash and the Cybercab lettering
The two of us buckled in, laughing, taking in a vehicle with no driver controls at all
Close looks at the seats, cupholders, door controls, and speakers
Downtown Austin moving past the windows while the cabin stays quiet and bright
That last beat of me sitting there, hand on my face, trying to put a feeling into words
I did not need a long speech. The car is the speech.
Why This One Matters
For years I have covered Tesla Full Self-Driving, unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Model Ys, and the promise of a purpose-built robotaxi. Episode 188 is the moment that promise became a seat I could sit in.
Model Y Robotaxi proved the software on streets I actually use. Cybercab is the next chapter: a vehicle that does not pretend a human might grab the wheel. That absence is not a missing feature. It is the point.
Launch day in Austin was noisy in the best way with people circling the gold two-seaters, phones up, lambo doors up, the feeling that the city had just been handed a new kind of gold Roman chariot. I wanted this episode to keep the human part. As a woman from Austin sitting in the car and telling you the truth: it made me happy.
If you have followed this podcast from the early FSD drives through the unsupervised Robotaxi rides, this is one of the episodes we were driving toward.
Watch Next
Episode 189 was filmed entirely inside a Cybercab here in Austin with Grok answering fast, a simulated job-interview coaching moment, and Ashok Elluswamy from Cybercab launch day. Episode 188 is the sit-down. Episode 189 is the ride that follows.
Join the Conversation
Have you sat in a Cybercab yet, or taken one through the Robotaxi app in Austin?
What hits you first, is it the the missing wheel, the two-seat cabin, or the feeling that the future finally has a door you can open?
Drop your thoughts in the comments. I read every one.
Stay curious. Stay adventurous. And keep enjoying the ride ahead! 🚕✨
Previous on the blog: Episodes 186 & 187 – Iba Thiam’s First Supervised FSD Ride
Living in a place like Austin or the Bay Area, you know traffic can turn from charming to nightmare with just one road accident, and they seem to happen a lot. On February 17, 2026, Tesla quietly built the very first production line Cybercab at Giga Texas. No steering wheel, no gas or brake pedals. It is a little two-seater that has a mission to drive itself completely. Elon is saying production really starts picking up in April, and I was lucky enough to see one of these golden cars testing on the streets of Austin on Feb 17th around 7pm!
The big hope everyone keeps talking about is safety. Road crashes kill more than 40,000 people a year in the U.S. (NHTSA numbers). If the car can take human mistakes out of the equation, that number could actually drop. I think that part feels especially real for older folks or anyone who can’t drive easily anymore.
Tesla Cybercab rides could end up super cheap, like maybe 20 cents a mile once the cars are running a lot. That would be a game-changer in cities where Uber gets expensive fast and buses don’t always go where you need. For people here in Texas or California, it could mean getting around without the stress of working to pay for a car.
Right now Tesla’s already doing limited unsupervised Model Y robotaxi rides in Austin, and many people have taken rides. They are rare, as all my rides in Austin have had a supervisor thus far, however that will change soon. The plan seems to be rolling Cybercab out first in places like the Bay Area and here in Austin, basically following the same path they’re using with the Model Ys. Makes sense, as they likely test close to home where they can fix things quickly.
The Full Self-Driving software has now driven over 8 billion miles total, and they added another billion just in the first 50 days of this year. That’s a crazy amount of real-world data. Whether you adore or merely tolerate Elon Musk, you have to admit his team is moving fast on this stuff, and quietly, it’s hard not to respect anyone pushing this hard to make roads less deadly.
OWN YOUR OWN CYBERCAB AND WIRELESS CHARGING
MORE: They’re also talking about a Cybercab version people can actually purchase and own for under $30,000 by 2027, plus they just got the okay for Cybercab wireless charging. Still lots of regulatory hurdles, especially state-by-state rules, and competitors like Waymo are trying to keep up. I say that wen these goals are realized, things will quietly change how a lot of us get from point A to point B.
Feels like the future isn’t science fiction anymore. It’s starting in Austin, Texas.
Sources I pulled from:
Elon Musk’s X posts about production start and first unit
Teslarati articles on the first Cybercab and the 8 billion mile FSD milestone
