Tesla Cybercab doesn’t have any manual controls — but it does have a virtual joystick

Tesla designed the Cybercab to operate without traditional driver inputs such as a steering wheel or pedals, positioning the vehicle as a fully autonomous ride service. However, within days of the Cybercab's launch in Austin, riders posted videos that revealed a hidden on-screen control interface that appears to allow manual movement of the vehicle. The interface shows up as a square display in the lower-left corner of the central screen. It includes a toggle labeled for manual driving, with “forward” indicated at the top and “reverse” at the bottom, plus buttons to stop the vehicle, sound the horn, and open doors manually. To the right of that panel are camera feeds; in one clip a feed appeared frozen on an image of a Tesla Supercharger from a previous location. The controls look like they were built for Tesla employees or depot staff who might need to reposition Cybercabs at low speed in tight spaces without summoning the control center or a remote operator. The interface could also, in theory, be useful to police or emergency personnel who need to move a vehicle off the road. Tesla has briefed Austin’s police department on the Cybercab service, though it’s not clear whether these hidden manual controls were discussed. Passengers who found the virtual joystick tried to use it but were unable to get the vehicle to respond in the posted videos; either the controls were disabled for riders or they were not being operated correctly. Given that the displays appeared during customer rides, the behavior has been described as likely a software bug that Tesla should address before expanding the Cybercab program. Tesla built the vehicle to convey that manual controls belong to a previous era, but this discovery shows the fleet may retain limited manual fallbacks for staff or emergency use.