NHTSA Opens Safety Audit of Tesla Cybercabs Hours After Austin Launch

AUSTIN, Texas — Federal safety regulators have opened an audit of about 1,000 Tesla Cybercab vehicles, just hours after the electric-car maker began offering paid robotaxi rides in the two-seat, driverless vehicles in downtown Austin. The move sets up a potential regulatory showdown over whether the cars can legally operate without steering wheels, pedals or mirrors.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it launched the audit to examine how Tesla determined that the Cybercab complies with federal vehicle-safety regulations. The rules were written decades ago for human-driven vehicles and generally require manual controls, including steering wheels and pedals.

The audit followed Tesla's launch event in downtown Austin, where the Cybercab was introduced to the public. The event attracted large numbers of fans and social media influencers as the golden vehicle with butterfly doors formally joined Tesla's existing robotaxi fleet, which has so far operated with modified versions of the company's best-selling Model Y SUV. Tesla said Cybercab rides were available to the public, while executives also outlined pricing plans for the service.

Unlike in most other countries, where new vehicle models and technologies typically require regulatory clearance before launch, US automakers can put new vehicles on public roads by self-certifying that they meet federal safety standards. They do not need prior government approval. That system has raised questions over how Tesla plans to demonstrate that the Cybercab complies with rules that were not designed for driverless vehicles.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Center for Auto Safety, expressed strong doubts that the Cybercab could comply with existing federal standards under any reasonable interpretation of the regulations.

"I don't think there is a reasonable interpretation that can be made to suggest that the Cybercab can comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards," Brooks said.

NHTSA has been working to update vehicle-safety standards more quickly than its historical pace and is separately drafting rules intended specifically for driverless vehicles. Experts, however, have said the changes are likely to take considerably longer to formally take effect than the timeline Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has publicly promised for the Cybercab's expansion.

Philip Koopman, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an autonomous-vehicle safety expert, said Musk's track record suggested he was unlikely to wait for regulatory clarity before moving ahead with the Cybercab rollout.

"Tesla historically has tested limits and pushed boundaries on regulations," Koopman said. "I fully expect Tesla to test the limits."

Koopman said Tesla might pursue a "creative interpretation" of existing vehicle regulations, arguing that Cybercabs meet federal standards while rapidly expanding deployment before regulators can formally respond.

"That could take NHTSA or state regulators years to resolve," Koopman said. "Meanwhile, Tesla could be operating on public roads."

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the audit.

Tesla began manufacturing the Cybercab in April. Musk had previously promised that production would grow "exponentially" later this year or in 2027. At the vehicle's initial unveiling in 2024, Musk said the company eventually intended to sell the Cybercab for less than $30,000.

Since then, Tesla has launched a more limited paid robotaxi service in Texas and Florida using modified Model Y vehicles. Those cars retain the manual controls required under current federal safety standards, while some also have human backup drivers.

The reliability of Tesla's self-driving technology has also come under scrutiny from independent experts. Tesla has said its Full Self-Driving software, a version of which powers the Cybercab, is up to 10 times safer than human drivers. The company has also said its existing Austin robotaxi service has operated without a fatal crash to date.

However, interviews conducted by Reuters with several former Tesla employees who worked on training the company's self-driving software found that the system continued to struggle with some basic driving manoeuvres even as Tesla moved towards wider commercial deployment.

Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who specialises in autonomous-driving regulation, gave a blunt assessment of Tesla's readiness to deploy a vehicle without conventional manual controls.

"No public information about Tesla's capabilities suggests that Tesla is anywhere close to being able to safely and reliably deploy an automated driving system over the wide range of conditions that would be required for a vehicle without conventional controls," Smith said.

For vehicles that do not comply with existing federal safety standards, NHTSA provides a formal exemption process. Automakers can apply through that process, but annual deployment is capped at 2,500 vehicles.

Tesla engineering chief Lars Moravy said earlier this year on X that the Cybercab would not be subject to the cap, but he did not explain how the company intended to avoid it. NHTSA has previously said Tesla had not applied through the standard exemption process, prompting speculation that the company had instead chosen to independently self-certify the Cybercab's compliance — an approach Koopman had also suggested Tesla might pursue.

Recent precedent for such self-certification has not been favourable. Amazon's autonomous-vehicle subsidiary Zoox has been rolling out an unconventional vehicle with two bench seats facing each other and no manual driving controls. Zoox previously attempted to self-certify the vehicle's compliance with federal standards.

NHTSA later opened an investigation into that certification, which ended with Zoox withdrawing its compliance claim. About a year later, Zoox received a formal federal exemption permitting limited commercial deployment. The exemption took effect in July.

Three former senior NHTSA officials told Reuters before Thursday's Cybercab launch event that any dispute between the agency and Tesla over the company's self-certification approach could ultimately be settled in court.

"It does happen from time to time and NHTSA, importantly, has not always won these cases," one of the former officials said.

The Cybercab is a key part of Musk's broader strategy to base Tesla's future value on self-driving software and robotics rather than traditional vehicle sales alone. The strategy has helped drive the company's market valuation to about $1.4 trillion, exceeding the combined value of several of the world's largest traditional automakers.

With the NHTSA audit beginning as Cybercabs start carrying paying passengers in Austin, the coming weeks could provide an early indication of how aggressively federal regulators will scrutinise Tesla's rollout of a vehicle that departs sharply from the conventional, human-operated designs that have long governed cars allowed on US public roads.

Originally published on ibtimes.com.au