Tesla’s push toward autonomous ride-sharing reached a new milestone today, Wednesday, April 8, as roughly 60 Cybercab units were spotted at Gigafactory Texas. The sighting, captured by drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer, marks the largest grouping of the dedicated robotaxis seen to date and coincides with the official month mass production was scheduled to begin.
The vehicles were seen in two separate groups in the factory’s outbound lot, indicating a significant increase in manufacturing volume compared to the 25 units spotted just last month. Interestingly, the latest models still appear to feature clearly visible steering wheels and black interiors, which Tegtmeyer noted might look white due to the bright Texas sun reflecting off the vinyl. These details suggest that while production is scaling, Tesla may still be utilizing “engineering test” versions equipped with manual controls for data collection and testing across the country.
“I saw about 60 of them in two groups in the outbound lot today … the largest grouping yet!” Tegtmeyer shared on Wednesday morning. “These still do not look like the final ‘production’ versions, so perhaps they are testing out some of the new features while testing some of the robotaxi areas around the country.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly confirmed that volume production of the steering-wheel-free Cybercab would begin in April 2026. The appearance of dozens of units at the factory exit suggests the Unboxed assembly process (where different parts of the car are built in parallel) is now operational. While early units might retain mirrors and steering wheels for regulatory or testing purposes, the final consumer version is expected to be a two-seater with no traditional driving interface, retailing for under $30,000 US.
As the fleet grows in Austin, these vehicles are expected to be deployed into Tesla’s Unsupervised robotaxi network, which has already been testing in select U.S. cities. The high volume of units staged for departure suggests a wider geographic rollout for real-world validation could be coming next.
Tesla recently started rolling out Full Self-Driving (FSD) 14.3 to early testers, which Elon Musk has said is the last piece of the self-driving puzzle.
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