Tesla Cybercab faces regulatory scrutiny after early Austin ride quirks

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. Tesla built its slick Cybercab without a steering wheel or pedals. Days after paid rides launched in Austin, the two-seater is turning up strange quirks (and a hidden virtual joystick), and federal regulators have noticed.

Also today: Boston Dynamics veterans exit stealth with roaming robot characters; XPeng fires up a dedicated IRON humanoid line.

The Rundown: Tesla’s Cybercab is barely a week into commercial service in Austin, and early rides are surfacing awkward driving behavior and a hidden virtual joystick, while federal regulators scrutinize whether it complies with U.S. safety rules.

The details:

Tesla is now offering paid Cybercab rides in limited parts of Austin, with 45 of the purpose-built two-seaters registered in Texas.

The Verge’s Mack DeGeurin waited about 45 minutes for a $15 ride under two miles. Once rolling, the wipers switched on during a sunny, 95°F day.

Several riders have flagged awkward drop-offs, posting videos of Cybercabs stopping in busy roads, sometimes without pulling to the curb.

The car has no steering wheel or controls, but some riders found a virtual joystick on the center screen, with forward, reverse, stop, horn, and door buttons.

Why it matters: Cybercab is Tesla’s purpose-built autonomous EV, designed without a steering wheel or pedals and intended to become the workhorse of its robotaxi fleet. Tesla plans to expand deployment to more vehicles and locations, even as NHTSA audits the technical data and process behind its self-certification.

Image source: Dynamic Creatures (Marc Theermann and Farbod Farshidian)

The Rundown: Boston Dynamics veterans just launched Dynamic Creatures, a startup building mobile, AI-powered robot characters that roam theme parks, hotels, and entertainment venues, interacting with the people they meet.

The details:

The startup emerged from stealth this week, founded by former Boston Dynamics strategy chief Marc Theermann and former Atlas researcher Farbod Farshidian.

Its secret sauce is SnowJay, an AI and robotics operating layer that combines perception, learned control, behavioral programming, and character design.

In-house prototypes include Danielle the poodle and Hugo, a Tyrolean mountain troll. Theermann says the company will likely never build a photorealistic robot.

The company launches as Boston Dynamics’ entertainment and hospitality partner and says it’s working with an unnamed large theme park and retailer.

Why it matters: Disney already has free-roaming robot characters in its parks, including its Star Wars BDX droids. Dynamic Creatures wants to offer the same to other IP holders and venues. It’s building on existing robots like Spot for now, so its effort goes into natural movement and guest interaction rather than new hardware.

The Rundown: XPeng just switched on a dedicated production line for its smooth-gaited IRON humanoid, pushing the Chinese EV maker from viral demos toward the much harder business of building humanoids at scale.

The details:

The first IRON assembled on the new Guangzhou line walked off under its own power, with XPeng saying over 80% of the line’s processes are automated.

XPeng is targeting mass production by the end of 2026, with initial deployments in its own stores and campuses before commercial deliveries begin in 2027.

IRON packs 76 degrees of freedom, including 21 in each hand, and runs three of XPeng’s Turing AI chips, delivering up to 2,250 TOPS.

XPeng is leaning on its EV supply chains, manufacturing expertise, chips, and automotive-grade quality controls to scale robots faster.

Why it matters: XPeng’s robotics arm raised more than $900M at a valuation above $6.3B just weeks ago, giving it fresh capital to take on Tesla, Unitree, and UBTech. Like Tesla, it also has something many robotics startups don’t: an established automotive supply chain, in-house chips, and years of mass-manufacturing know-how.

The Rundown: Amazon’s Zoox is trying to turn its robotaxi into San Francisco’s newest must-try attraction, courting influencers, handing out free rides, and staging local events as it fights for attention in a market dominated by Waymo, the NYT reports.

The details:

Zoox has struck deals with influencers, run ad campaigns, sponsored festivals, partnered with SFMOMA, and hosted events at its Union Square Rider Lounge.

The company is also using free rides as marketing, shuttling people from its lounge to eight restaurants and tourist stops like the Painted Ladies.

Zoox has ~100 robotaxis and handles 10K U.S. rides a week, while Waymo has ~4K vehicles and completes more than 500K fully autonomous trips weekly.

Unlike Waymo’s modified passenger cars, Zoox’s bidirectional robotaxi was designed from scratch without a steering wheel or pedals.

Why it matters: Waymo has already shown there’s real demand for driverless rides, but the economics of robotaxis are still largely unproven. Zoox now has to prove its distinctive vehicle and marketing push can translate into high utilization and paying customers as it scales, particularly in San Francisco, where rides remain free for now.

Samsung is reportedly racing to unveil its first in-house general-purpose humanoid prototype at CES 2027, though the company has not yet confirmed it.

Lyft is matching riders with fully autonomous Waymo vehicles through its app in Nashville, the first city where the same Waymo fleet can be booked via Lyft and Waymo.

Unitreeshares fell ~53% from their first-day high, wiping $35B from its peak valuation, even as the stock remains more than 3x above its IPO price.

Tesla may soon offer Robotaxi rides to customers while their cars are being serviced instead of handing out loaners or Uber credits.

Agility Roboticssaid its next-gen Digit humanoid could cost factories about $400K over five years while potentially paying for itself in roughly 1.1 years.

Luum, founded by an exoskeleton robotics pioneer, is rolling out robots that can do eyelash extensions, with bots operating in some Ulta and Nordstrom locations.

Trump’s new 100% tariff on some imported drones is reportedly rattling police and firefighters who rely on cheaper Chinese models for emergency response.

UForce, a London-based drone startup built from Ukrainian battlefield manufacturers, is reportedly in talks to raise about $500M at a nearly $5B valuation.

China is accelerating efforts to move humanoids from labs into military training, exploring roles from reconnaissance and logistics to patrols and combat.