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Cybercab.News

Tech · On the ground

Some Cybercabs On Austin Streets Still Have A Person In The Right-Hand Seat

Photographs posted Monday show an engineer, or at least a passenger, where a driver would sit if the car had a wheel. Tesla has used monitors on engineering units before. The production Cybercab has nowhere to put a steering column.

Riley Cho, Tech · Aug 31, 2026, 1:00 PM · 7 min read

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Cybercab interior with two black lounge seats, cupholders, and a landscape screen, no steering wheel
CyberCab.News

AUSTIN, Texas — A photograph circulating Monday from Austin shows a Cybercab on a public street with a person sitting on the right. The caption called the occupant an engineer. Tesla did not confirm that. The image is useful anyway. The production car has two lounge seats and no steering wheel. Anyone in the cabin is a passenger, even if that person works for Tesla.

Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi service in Austin already runs Model Ys without a safety driver in the cabin. Engineering units have at times carried monitors. The Information reported in mid-August that employee Cybercab rides on public roads would come first, with Robotaxi customers later. A person in the right seat is consistent with that buffer. It is also consistent with a colleague catching a ride to the depot.

The cabin itself makes the old safety-driver job awkward. There is no column to grab. There is no pedal to stand on. Tesla has said there is room for a service animal and some assistive devices. There is not a jump seat behind a wheel. If Tesla wants a human ready to intervene, that person is along for the ride, watching a screen, not driving.

Spotters have also filmed Cybercabs at night on Austin highways with the cabin looking empty. Those loops, posted last week, look like validation miles: south to north and back, gold paint, lightbar on. Tesla has not called them public hails. Empty and occupied can both be true on the same day, on different VINs.

Thursday’s event is supposed to look empty in the front. The invite is exclusive access to a car that was never meant to be driven. If guests sit down and the other seat stays empty, Tesla will have shown the product it printed on the card. If a Tesla employee is still riding shotgun on Friday, the two-seater is still in the employee-loop phase, registry or no registry.

Watch the livestream for that detail. Not the doors. Not the paint. The right-hand seat. A company that has already put unsupervised Model Ys into six cities does not need a babysitter in a Cybercab unless the new car is not ready, or unless Tesla wants a person there for the cameras and the first week of complaints.

A photograph of an engineer in the right seat is not a scandal. It is a status report. The production Cybercab has nowhere to put a steering column. Until the other seat is empty for a stranger who opened the app, the car is still being walked onto the stage.

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