A Cybercab without a steering wheel, and a regulator's audit
On 3 September 2026 Tesla began commercial rides in Austin, Texas, with a small number of Cybercabs, vehicles without permanently attached steering wheel, pedals or mirrors that the company itself certified as compliant with every federal safety standard. The same day the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit of that certification, and on 10 September a special order required answers under oath by 30 September.
Why it matters
A car with no controls for a human went into commercial service on the manufacturer's own certification, and the regulator's order asks separately how it complies without an exemption under Part 555. Whether standards written for a driver can be declared inapplicable to a machine without one moved from debate into a proceeding with a deadline and a price for silence.
The AQ26002 resume estimates the vehicles concerned at about 1,000 and says NHTSA will consider how far the certification relied on determinations that particular standards do not apply to the Cybercab. The order asks separately about FMVSS No. 101 (controls and displays), 102 (transmission shift position), 111 (mirrors), 126 (stability control telltale) and 135 (brakes). An incomplete or untruthful answer carries a civil penalty of up to 27,874 dollars a day and at most 139,356,994 dollars, and referral to the Department of Justice. What the record does not claim: how many passengers the Cybercabs carried, at what fares, or from which day the service was open to everyone; those figures appear only in secondary accounts the session did not check against a Tesla document. As of 28 September 2026 there is neither a Tesla answer nor a finding.