Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Mashable Selects In My Bag Look Up Say More AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age All Series Tesla Roadster launch was postponed by two weeks due to'high winds' We're hoping the winds, as well as anything and anyone else involved, will not stay high for long. Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car.

Lie down in a car, and you're more likely to get seriously hurt in a crash. But a driverless future is forcing governments to revisit long-standing safety issues. In a video posted on X, a Tesla enthusiast hops into what was once the driver's seat of a new matte gold Cybercab . "Once" because the vehicle, which officially hit the streets earlier this month as part of Tesla's Robotaxi ride-hail service, doesn't have a steering wheel or brake pedals . For the person in the front seat, this opens up new possibilities.

Tesla Cybercab robotaxi is now carrying riders in Austin with no steering wheel or pedals. NHTSA opened a federal investigation into how the autonomous vehicle was certified.

Say More Mashable Selects Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series Tesla launched Cybercab in Austin. Hours later, the feds launched an investigation. The government's timing seems questionable, but it's not without precedent. Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA).

The US government is investigating whether the Cybercab, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, meets vehicle safety standards. Tesla's Cybercab, a distinctive two-seater without a steering wheel or brake pedals, is set to start picking up members of the public in Austin, Texas, this evening. But the vehicle is already under investigation by the US federal government, which is probing whether it meets federal safety standards. The investigation comes just hours after the electric automaker welcomed hundreds of fans to downtown Austin to ride in the driverless Cybercabs. Tesla plans to deploy the vehicles on its Robotaxi ride-hail network, which is currently operating in a handful of cities in Texas and Florida.

Tesla has officially launched the Cybercab robotaxi, nearly a couple of year since it unveiled the vehicle. On its website, the company has announced that it now offers Cybercab rides through its Robotaxi app on iOS and Android. Users can hail autonomous rides through the app in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, but the Cybercab option only appears to be initially available in Austin. Even in Austin, what customers get will depend on the number of people in the group and on availability. They can't choose to get a Cybercab, at least for now.

An invite-only event in Austin, Texas, kept online fans in the dark for hours. A Tesla launch event tends to cause a hoopla. Fans crowd into an event space; loud electronic beats are the warm up act. Finally, the star himself, the ringmaster of this electric circus, CEO Elon Musk, emerges to a roar. There are demos, powerful verbs, and sometimes, a "one more thing," a last-minute surprise product unveiling.

Uber Technologies has laid off 3,300 employees, or 10 percent of its workforce, marking the largest cuts to the ride-hailing company's headcount since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a memo to employees on Wednesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the cuts were part of wider efforts reducing layers of management and "simplifying team structures" as the company looks to "build the autonomous future" as well as "invest even more in drivers, couriers and merchants". "A leaner organisation will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating," Khosrowshahi said. Khosrowshahi also told employees that the company is pushing for most of its workers to return to the office, declaring, "going forward, only ~1% of employees will be remote". The latest round of cuts comes just weeks after the ride-sharing giant eliminated 10 percent of its customer service roles as it embraced artificial intelligence (AI), according to Bloomberg, which first reported the July cuts.

The Cybercab Is Almost Here. The electric-auto maker will officially debut its steering-wheel-free robotaxi on Thursday. But building the vehicle is the easy part. Matte gold, sloped, and steering-wheel-free, the Tesla Cybercab seems designed to catch the eyes of looky-loos. Now rubberneckers may have more opportunities: Tesla is set to host an event on Thursday at its Austin, Texas, headquarters to debut the Cybercab.

Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Mashable Selects Mashable Voices Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag All Series Tesla recalls 3 million cars in China over'hidden' door handles, 2.7 million over driver monitoring Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.