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
• NHTSA crash stats (public road safety data)