A Tesla Cybercab has been filmed carrying a passenger on an interstate highway in Austin. Drive Tesla, which reported it on 29 October 2026, says it is the first time it has seen the two-seat robotaxi, which has no steering wheel or pedals, take a rider onto a highway. Tesla's Model Y robotaxis have used highways for some time, the outlet adds.
What the video shows
Robotaxi rider Jesse Richards posted the clip on X at 15:57 UTC on 29 October with the caption "Riding Cybercab on the interstate in the rain". It runs for about 11 seconds and is filmed from a passenger seat. It shows a cabin with no steering wheel, rain on the windscreen, elevated roadways around the car and a passenger screen with a Pull Over button. Drive Tesla zoomed in on the display and puts the speed at 55 mph (88 km/h).
Tesla has not announced highway rides for the Cybercab. One clip does not show whether every trip can now be routed onto an interstate or only some, or how fast the car is allowed to go there.
In September it kept to surface streets
Six weeks ago the Cybercab was the opposite case. A rider's ten-minute trip across north Austin took 70 minutes, because the car would not use US-183 or Loop 1 and avoided level crossings, as TeslAnt reported in the story of that detour. That article called freeway access the clearest capability gap between Tesla's service and Waymo's, which already takes riders on freeways.
If the 29 October ride reflects a routing change rather than a one-off, that gap is narrowing. It would also change the arithmetic of Tesla's growing service area. Every new square mile that can only be reached on surface streets makes long trips longer, and a highway shortens them.
The fleet has grown past the Model Y
The Cybercab is now the larger half of Tesla's Texas robotaxi register. The Texas DMV's automated-vehicle operator record still listed 1,080 Tesla vehicles on 30 October: 573 Cybercabs and 507 Model Ys. The Cybercab passed the Model Y on 27 October, as recorded in our coverage of the Cybercab fleet. Registered is not the same as in service, and the record does not say how many cars carry riders on a given day.
NHTSA's answers are due today
The car's paperwork is still open in Washington. NHTSA has ordered Tesla to explain under oath how the Cybercab, built without a steering wheel or pedals, complies with six federal motor vehicle safety standards. Tesla's sworn answers to the agency's 21 requests are due on 30 October 2026, after NHTSA granted 30 days instead of the eight weeks Tesla asked for, as set out in our coverage of the Special Order. They had not appeared in NHTSA's public file when this article was published.
What it means for Europe
Musk has said the Cybercab is coming to Europe without giving a date. European cities are ringed by motorways, so a robotaxi that cannot use them can serve only part of a city at a time. A highway ride in Austin settles nothing about European approval, but it removes one practical reason to doubt that the car would be useful here.