Tesla Eliminated the Steering Wheel. Now Firefighters Have Questions.

A Cybercab stalls at an Austin intersection. There’s a fireplace two blocks away. A firefighter reaches inside. No steering wheel. No pedals. Just a touchscreen and a hidden digital joystick that seems if you swipe for it.

That’s not a hypothetical — that’s the state of affairs Austin’s first responders are actively coaching round. Tesla’s two-seat autonomous Cybercab launched as a public driverless Tesla robotaxi in Austin with no standard handbook controls of any variety. Five days in, the Austin Fire Department went on document: that’s an issue.

No Wheel, No Plan B

Tesla’s touchscreen workaround leaves first responders skeptical about real-world emergency efficiency.

The Cybercab’s handbook workaround is a hidden digital joystick buried within the touchscreen — swipe to seek out it, then drag your finger to steer. Tesla skilled Austin’s first responders on this method roughly two weeks earlier than deployment. Fire Capt. Matthew McElearney left the session “happy to have the touchscreen option” — and nonetheless not offered.

“The lack of driver controls, (no ‘pedals’ or steering wheel) can be problematic,” McElearney advised NBC News. The concern isn’t summary. McElearney cited every of the next as potential failure factors — the sort that floor in precisely the chaotic, smoky, high-pressure moments when you’ll want to transfer a automobile instantly:

• Gloved arms
• Sweat
• Cracked screens
• A lifeless battery

Tesla’s own first-responder guide quietly acknowledges that Cybercabs could generally must be bodily pushed.

“I don’t think it’s the silver bullet to alleviating the concerns first responders have,” McElearney mentioned. Floor jacks and wheeled dollies stay accessible as last-resort choices — workarounds, not options.

Austin’s Robotaxi Problem Is Bigger Than One Car

Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla have all generated documented incidents of AV interference at emergency scenes throughout the town.

The Cybercab isn’t working in a vacuum. Robotaxis from a number of corporations have already created friction with Austin’s emergency companies. During a March 1 downtown taking pictures, multiple Waymo vehicles hindered ambulance routes. One was caught on video immobilized straight in entrance of an ambulance making an attempt a U-turn. Austin-Travis County EMS officers mentioned Waymo didn’t promptly set up a requested 1,000-foot geofence across the incident.

On June 20, an unoccupied Zoox car drove into an lively fireplace scene via heavy smoke and needed to be managed below teleguidance whereas first responders arrange visitors cones. Amazon-owned Zoox, which additionally operates a steering-wheel-free robotaxi in Austin, filed state paperwork acknowledging that if its car can’t transfer below its personal energy, it “must be towed.” NHTSA has since described a “a clear pattern” of AV interference at emergency scenes — automobiles coming into lively incidents, blocking fireplace vans, and ignoring flares, cones, and hand indicators throughout a number of corporations.

A Federal Problem Now

NHTSA’s probe into practically 1,000 Cybercabs places all the business’s steering-wheel-free design philosophy below regulatory scrutiny.

On September 4, 2026, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into whether or not Tesla’s steering-wheel-free, pedal-less, mirror-less Cybercabs adjust to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards — guidelines developed below the longstanding assumption {that a} human being sits in entrance of a wheel. The probe covers practically 1,000 automobiles. Tesla didn’t reply to NBC News requests for remark.

Think of it because the AV business’s model of “move fast and break things” — besides what breaks right here may be emergency response occasions. McElearney needs nationwide requirements, not a patchwork of city-by-city improvisation. “We need the feds to step up to the plate on this,” he advised NBC News. “We also need to be pro-doing it the right way — not just to beat somebody to the autonomous punch.”

Waymo spokesperson Nye Davidson mentioned the corporate takes first-responder suggestions “seriously” and claims its geofencing meets or exceeds metropolis necessities. Austin EMS officers’ account of the March taking pictures tells a extra difficult story.

Austin firefighters nonetheless have ground jacks and wheeled dollies as last-resort choices — McElearney’s phrases — however he’s direct about what these signify: workarounds, not solutions. The NHTSA probe will ultimately pressure a reckoning with the query the business has been sidestepping: at what level does eradicating the Gas vs Diesel vs Electric steering wheel take away accountability?