Production · Gigafactory
The first production Cybercab rolled at Giga Texas in February
Hard hats, a gold coupe, and the photograph Tesla wanted the internet to see: the robotaxi is no longer a stage car.
The photograph is a classic Tesla move: a gold Cybercab parked on the factory floor, ringed by hundreds of workers in high-vis vests and white hard hats, the kind of image that says the line is real even if the volume is not.
Tesla confirmed in February that the first production Cybercab had been built at Gigafactory Texas. Elon Musk had told shareholders in November 2025 that production would start in the second quarter of 2026. The factory, as factories do, ran a little hot.
What “production” means at this scale is still a live argument. Unboxed manufacturing — Tesla’s plan to build the car in four large sub-assemblies rather than a traditional body shop — is supposed to be the cost story. The first unit off the line is a proof of process, not a proof of a thousand cars a week. Spotters did not start seeing volume until the spring and summer.
Still, February ended a particular kind of coverage. For sixteen months after the We, Robot unveil, every Cybercab on the internet was a show car with its doors in the air. The Giga Texas photograph is a different genre. It is a factory claiming a vehicle. Everything since — the test loops, the employee rides, the Sept. 3 invite — is a footnote to that claim.
