Tesla’s Cybercab was unveiled as the ultimate expression of autonomy. No steering wheel, no pedals — just a two-seater passenger cabin, with storage in the rear, and priced under $30,000 USD. All are built with a single goal: to get passengers and their cargo from point A to point B — cheaply and without human intervention.
Yet in an interview with Bloomberg, Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm revealed a pragmatic contingency plan to address regulatory issues. If required, Tesla will slap a steering wheel and pedals on the Cybercab and sell it in volume. This isn’t the future Elon Musk sketched out on a Hollywood backlot at ‘We, Robot’ last year, but it does seem like it’s plan B.
Contingency Measures
“If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals,” Denholm told Bloomberg. The statement is blunt, almost casual, but it carries massive weight. Tesla’s board is laser-focused on delivering the Cybercab, which will see volume production next year.
This focus has shifted away from the long-promised affordable EV—after all, why buy your own compact car when you can just summon an autonomous, easily and cheaply available Robotaxi whenever you need it? Now, Tesla needs to navigate a complex maze of regulations around autonomous vehicles.
Denholm’s comments echo internal precedent. Tesla already deployed its initial Robotaxi fleet using Model Ys with steering wheels and pedals, retaining the ability to take over in the event of a safety infraction, but Tesla is on pace to remove safety monitors by the end of the year. Plus, Cybercab prototypes shown in 2024 already featured steer-by-wire architecture, meaning adding physical controls is an engineering footnote, not a redesign. With production slated for 2026, this contingency ensures that Tesla can ship the Cybercab regardless of NHTSA’s final stance on unsupervised autonomy.
Regulatory Realities
The NHTSA caps autonomous vehicles without traditional controls at 2,500 units per manufacturer annually—a limit that rendered GM’s Cruise Origin unviable and forced its shutdown earlier in 2025. Waymo sidesteps this requirement by re-equipping production vehicles that already have pedals and steering wheels with its sensor and compute package. Because these items are mechanical, they’re still functional in the vehicle - but touching them will cause the vehicle to come to a safe stop and call rider support.
Tesla faces the same challenge. Without physical controls, the Cybercab could become a niche product stuck under regulatory constraints, and slapping on a steering wheel is Tesla’s solution to prevent that. Tesla has been lobbying the NHTSA to change the autonomy regulations, but no straightforward change has been put in place yet.
This Isn’t the $25K Affordable EV
With a steering wheel and a pedal, the Cybercab moves from an autonomy-only vehicle to an autonomy-first one instead. It becomes a mass-market EV that takes advantage of Tesla’s innovative unboxed method and a uniquely simplified exterior to cut production costs.
However, let’s be clear - this contingency plan isn’t Tesla’s preferred outcome, and it should not fuel expectations of a sub-$25,000 Model 2 redux. Elon has repeatedly called traditional affordable cars pointless in the context of the autonomy-first roadmap. The steerable Cybercab simply remains a fallback to satisfy lagging regulators, not as a pivot towards budget consumers.
Bridging Autonomy with Volume
Adding controls buys Tesla time and revenue. A human-drivable Cybercab can launch in 2026, gather real-world FSD data under supervision, and fund the unsupervised fleet that Elon is envisioning. It also neutralizes regulatory risk as states look to mandate specific safety requirements for autonomous vehicles that aren’t present in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).
The steerable variant could slot below Model 3 Standard pricing, preserving margin while autonomy matures and regulators catch up to advances in technology.
Global Competition
As Chinese manufacturers flood markets with sub-$20,000 EVs and legacy manufacturers also examine the sub-$30,000 price bracket, competition in this space is fast-paced and growing.
Tesla’s contingency plan lets Cybercab compete on price and production scale without waiting for full FSD Unsupervised clearance. If Tesla has to add a steering wheel to the Cybercab, they’d likely do so via steer-by-wire, which would also give them the ability to disable controls via an OTA update once regulations change.
This isn’t a surrender, but a backup plan to ensure that the Cybercab gets on the road as fast as possible while autonomy and regulators play catch-up.
