TESLA CYBERCABS ARE TESTING WITH DRIVERS IN NYC

Tesla's gold-toned Cybercabs have been spotted testing across New York City, from Midtown Manhattan to the Upper East Side, Queens, and Brooklyn. Gothamist confirmed the city is aware of the testing, with a human driver able to take control at any point through what Tesla calls a "supervised" self-driving system.

The New York vehicles carry an unusual detail their Texas and Florida counterparts lack: a steering wheel. Tesla's commercial robotaxi service launched without one in six cities across those two states last week, but the New York units are strictly engineering test vehicles, more in the spirit of everyday city sightings like the 2,977 lights that rebuilt the Twin Towers over New York Harbor than a service rollout.

Tesla has not filed for a permit to test autonomous vehicles with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, and the company won't say how many Cybercabs are in the city or how long the testing will run. Officials say the goal for now is collecting driving data, not launching a robotaxi service.

The sightings follow Waymo's own retreat from New York, where the Alphabet-owned company ended its autonomous testing program in the city earlier this year after runs that included the Upper East Side. Tesla's first confirmed Manhattan appearance came on August 24, near 57th Street and Park Avenue, ahead of the company's September 3 Cybercab launch event in Austin.

New York's packed streets make for a tougher testing ground than Tesla's usual Texas hubs, much like how Christie's mapped a four stop New York art season to work around the city's own density and calendar. For now, the Cybercabs stay under human supervision, with no timeline given for when that might change.

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