Tesla vouched for its own robotaxi. Federal regulators are now checking

What changed

Tesla's Cybercab is a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel and no brake pedals. Tesla gave hundreds of fans rides in downtown Austin, Texas. Just hours later, on September 4, federal safety regulators opened an investigation into the car. Their announcement doesn't mention a crash. It asks whether Tesla was right to vouch for this car itself.

Vouching is how American car safety works. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, writes the safety standards. A carmaker then certifies for itself that its vehicles meet them. The agency checks afterward and investigates when a certified car appears to fall short.

Some of those standards require parts a driverless car doesn't really need, WIRED notes: brake pedals, windshield wipers and rearview mirrors. NHTSA says it has started rewriting eight of those rules to make room for driverless cars. Until that work is done, the agency says, the old standards stay in force.

Why it matters

That leaves a company with an unusual robotaxi two ways to start carrying passengers. The first is to ask permission. Regulators have told such companies to apply for an exemption from federal rules before carrying passengers. Amazon's robotaxi company, Zoox, whose vehicles have no steering wheel either, won the first exemption this summer. It came with a limit of 2,500 vehicles this year.

The second way is to vouch for yourself, and Tesla took it. Tesla says the Cybercab needs no exemption because it already meets every existing safety standard. It did not immediately respond when WIRED asked for comment. Skipping the exemption also skips its limit. On September 4, WIRED counted 45 Cybercabs in Tesla's Texas fleet, citing a state database, and said Tesla intends to put millions on the road each year. Next to a plan for millions a year, a limit like Zoox's 2,500 vehicles would be a sliver.

Now the audit tests Tesla's route. NHTSA says it will examine the data and processes Tesla used to certify a car without traditional human controls. It will also look at whether Tesla decided that some standards don't apply to its driverless cars. Ann Carlson, a former acting head of the agency, told WIRED the probe likely shows NHTSA is "super frustrated with Tesla" for going around the exemption process. The agency's administrator, Jonathan Morrison, backed safe driverless cars in the announcement, then added: "But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed."

The audit has teeth, but it is a question, not a verdict. NHTSA can require a carmaker to change its vehicle or its process, and it can seek penalties. Volvo Group North America paid $130 million in penalties in 2023 after an investigation into its recall process. That case involved recalls, not a driverless car. So a Cybercab on the road tells you Tesla vouched for it. It doesn't yet tell you the regulator agrees.

What to watch

NHTSA hasn't said the Cybercab breaks any rule, and its announcement gives no deadline for the audit. The agency says it expects to finish rewriting its rules in the coming months. Until then, the audit has to judge a car without pedals against standards that still require them.

Whatever the audit finds, the Cybercab shows how the system works. In America, a car reaches the road on its maker's word, and the government checks afterward. Tesla has tested that system hard, because its certification may rest on deciding that some rules don't apply to a car with no human controls. The audit will test whether that call holds up.

So when a company says its product meets every federal rule, ask who said so. For cars, the answer is the carmaker. For the Cybercab, the government's own answer is still to come.