Elon Musk Defends Careful Cybercab Rollout as Austin Fleet Grows to 169

Tesla CEO Elon Musk entered a weekend debate over the Cybercab’s Austin debut, saying the company is deliberately moving slowly with its robotaxi rollout after CNBC called the first month “rocky” and Sawyer Merritt argued the fleet’s growth told a different story.

Merritt pushed back Saturday on the CNBC article, writing that Tesla had nearly quadrupled its registered Cybercabs from 45 to 169 according to Texas Department of Motor Vehicles records, with no major incidents and broadly positive reviews.

CNBC also reported complaints from some riders about long wait times and wrong-place pickups and drop-offs, along with quirks of the Cybercab’s butterfly doors and trunk, while noting that no significant safety incidents or collisions involving a Cybercab had been reported. Austin Fire Captain Matt McElearney told CNBC that while Tesla had given first responders detailed emergency guidelines, he wants state or national rules that would let public safety officials move, steer, or shut down an autonomous vehicle in an emergency.

Musk weighed in on the exchange with a concise statement of the company’s posture. “We are being extremely careful with autonomous safety, just as we are with making Teslas the safest cars in the world for human driving,” he replied.

That caution has been visible in how the service has scaled. Tesla began paid Austin rides in September with safety monitors and a small fleet, then extended operating hours to 11 p.m., with Musk explaining the later hour waited on making sure the cars could spot small, low-contrast obstacles such as pets at night. The company has not promised a schedule for removing monitors or extending hours further.

What comes next is expansion: CNBC reports Musk’s next step is growth across Texas, Nevada, and Florida, though the robotaxi network is not yet “very, very widespread,” as he predicted at Davos in January. For now, the pace appears tied to safety validation rather than a calendar, leaving Austin as the test case for how quickly the careful rollout can proceed.