Unveiled exactly a year ago alongside the Robovan model, Tesla’s Cybercab was spotted on Thursday at Giga Texas undergoing crash testing.
The sighting was first reported by X user ‘Joe Tegtmeyer’, who frequently shares drone footage of the factory.
“This may indicate the vehicle has completed most of the final engineering & production tests out at Fremont [California] and what remains is now at Giga Texas,” he wrote.
According to the Tesla enthusiast, who reminded the timeline for Cybertruck production, “we are likely a month or two before we will see initial test runs of what will be the production version.”
Tegtmeyer further added that, considering footage of the factory, these estimates match “all the equipment deliveries and installation inside the factory” monitored “over the past few months.”
In April, Tesla‘s Head of Investor Relations Travis Axelrod had stated that the first Cybercab builds would be “coming at the end of [the second] quarter.”
By then, Axelrod said that the company’s “large scale installation of all the equipment in Giga Texas [is] still on schedule for production next year.”
Later that month, the first Cybercab castings were allegedly seen at the Giga Texas plant, as initially shared by Joe Tegtmeyer.
New vehicle castings were marked “RTTX” — which may have been referring to “Robotaxi Texas”.
In May, the same user shared new images of dozens of front and rear pieces, which differed from Cybertruck’s or Model Y’s parts.
The Cybercab, a two-seat model with no pedals and no wheel, is intended to be used for Tesla‘s robotaxi service.
The autonomous ride-hailing service was launched earlier this year in Austin, using several Model Y vehicles equipped with Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Robotaxi software.
Over the past few months, the company has received approval to expand the service within Texas and to other states.
However, as testing continues, safety operators remain present — either in the driver’s seat or passenger seat, depending on state regulations.
In the latest earnings call in July, CEO Elon Musk stated that “the Cybercab is really optimized for autonomy,” adding that the actual cost per mile of the model “will be very low.”
In comparison, “the cost per mile of our existing fleet will be higher, but still very competitive,” he said, guessing about 50 cents, while the Cybercab is expected at about 25-30 cents.
“I’m just guessing. Tesla‘s robotaxi business is gigantic in terms of operations in a pretty short period of time,” the chief executive concluded.
Late last year, Musk stated that Tesla is targeting “at least 2 million” Cybercab units produced annually, “maybe 4 million ultimately.”
By then, he already felt “confident” about reaching volume production in 2026, adding that the model will be produced in more than one Giga-factory.
The company reaffirmed the goal in its latest shareholder deck, in late July, according to which Tesla will “pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy and is scheduled for volume production starting in 2026.”
The EV maker is introducing a new ‘Unboxed Process’ for Cybercab production, in which different sections of the vehicle are manufactured separately and later combined during the final assembly stage.
The patent for the manufacturing process was granted and published late last month by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
