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Texas Puts 45 Cybercabs on the Robotaxi Books
Teslarati, citing DMV records, says the count went from 7 to 45 on Monday. A registry is not a hail.

AUSTIN, Texas — Two days before Tesla’s invite-only Cybercab event, Texas motor-vehicle records show the purpose-built two-seater is now on the state’s automated vehicle books in volume.
Sawyer Merritt, who tracks Tesla paperwork, said the company added 38 Cybercabs in that second wave, according to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Tesla has not issued its own count. The records are public lookups, not a press release, and they can be checked by anyone with the operator name.
The VINs on those filings begin with 5YJA. Teslarati says that prefix is distinct from the 7SAYG codes on the Model Y robotaxis that still make up most of Tesla’s Texas fleet. Same LLC. Different car. The split is now visible in a state database, not only in photographs of gold paint and covered wheels.
A Texas automated-vehicle listing is the paperwork a commercial operator files so a VIN can legally sit in an autonomous fleet. It tells the state which company is responsible if that car is in a crash, a stop, or a complaint. It is not a permit to put the car in every city Tesla already serves, and it is not a button in the Robotaxi app.
Tesla has said employees have been riding Cybercabs on public Austin streets. The Information reported that staff rides would come first, with Robotaxi customers a few days later. Tesla has not said a paying stranger in Austin, Dallas, or Miami can hail a two-seater today. Tesla’s consumer Robotaxi page still lists six cities and does not name Cybercab as a vehicle class you can select.
Thursday’s event is still what Tesla printed on the invitation: exclusive access, Sept. 3, Tesla Austin, 1 Tesla Road. Electrek reported last week that Tesla will livestream it for people who are not in the room. The sweepstakes that filled some seats took Robotaxi rides from Aug. 17 to 23. Five winners were to be emailed Aug. 25. Tesla has not published the names.
The gap between the registry and the factory is wide. Watchers reading a Texas registration this week pointed to VIN 5YJAJEEU6TA002493. If Tesla’s last six digits are sequential, as they are on other models, Giga Texas has assigned at least 2,493 Cybercab serial numbers. Forty-five of those are on the Robotaxi LLC list. The rest are still factory cars, test loops, or employee rides.
Registration in bulk two days before a launch is how a company stocks a depot. It is also how a state knows which gold coupes belong to Tesla Robotaxi, LLC when the livestream ends. The factory is 48 hours from a show that is supposed to turn a listed fleet into a product people can see.
What Thursday has to answer is narrow. Will a registered Cybercab appear as a hail in the Austin app on Friday, even for a small geofence and a short guest list, or will it remain an event and employee car with a new VIN prefix? The DMV list does not answer that. The ride does.
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