Tesla's Cybercab Faces NHTSA Probe Over Missing Steering Wheel and Pedals

Investor Ross Gerber said he found a "secret" lot in Santa Monica, California, containing hundreds of Waymo autonomous vehicles ready to deploy, suggesting the Alphabet-backed robotaxi company may be preparing to scale its fleet. In a post on X on Wednesday, the Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Management co-founder said "something crazy is about to happen" and later added that Waymo appears to be "moving into big time scale mode." Gerber contrasted Waymo's apparent expansion with Tesla's Cybercab, saying the Tesla vehicle was wasting time because the company did not apply for an exception for having no brake pedal. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a special order for Tesla on September 10 requiring the company to answer questions under oath about the Cybercab by September 30 as part of its examination of Tesla's self-certification following the vehicle's Austin deployment. Waymo recently announced it was rolling out its robotaxi network in Las Vegas with a nearly 24-mile service area, plans to expand to other parts of Clark County, and is targeting a 2027 rollout in Tokyo, while Uber Technologies is preparing an autonomous-vehicle pilot in Tokyo in late 2026.

Lucid Group and the European shared mobility platform Bolt announced a strategic partnership on September 17 to develop and deploy autonomous mobility services across Europe, sending Lucid shares up nearly 6% on the day. The tie-up combines Lucid's software-defined vehicle platform with Bolt's European data, operating infrastructure and mobility expertise, with services to run on vehicles built on Lucid's upcoming Midsize platform. Bolt plans to deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles across multiple European cities and countries, supporting its goal of 100,000 autonomous vehicles on its platform by 2035, though financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The deal lands as Lucid remains under significant financial pressure: in its Q2 2026 results, production rose 24% from a year earlier, deliveries climbed 19% and revenue jumped 56%, but the quarter carried an adjusted net loss of $2.78 per share against a Wall Street consensus estimate of $2.41 per share, and cash burn reached $1.47 billion, up from just over $1.01 billion a year earlier. Management said it has identified $1.4 billion in cash flow improvements for 2026 across operating costs, capital spending and working capital, while short interest stood at 45.81% of the float as of August 31 and the 12 analysts covering the stock split 25% Buy, 50% Hold and 25% Sell, with a median 12-month price target of $7 implying more than 60% upside.