The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation Friday into Tesla’s decision to put its new Cybercab on public roads with no steering wheel and no pedals.
NHTSA said the probe began mere hours after Tesla launched the first Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas. Federal vehicle safety rules still require manual controls like brake pedals, even as the Department of Transportation has proposed rolling those requirements back for vehicles designed to drive themselves.
“NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles. But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed,” administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement.
Tesla told the agency it self-certified the Cybercab as compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards — the same industry practice automakers use for conventional cars. NHTSA says it will examine the process and technical data behind that certification, including how far Tesla leaned on arguments that certain standards simply do not apply to a wheel-free robotaxi.
There is precedent: Amazon-owned Zoox faced a similar special-order inquiry over its cube-like robotaxi, later won a temporary Part 555 exemption, and only recently started charging for rides in Las Vegas under fleet caps. Whether Tesla gets a quicker path — or a longer slog — is now the story.
NHTSA also noted it is rewriting parts of the FMVSS tied to manual controls, but until those updates land, “existing standards remain in force.”
Sources: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/04/feds-launch-investigation-into-teslas-cybercab-deployment/
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