AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla's driverless Cybercab just picked up an endorsement from a sitting governor. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rode in the two-seat robotaxi on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, telling followers on X that the vehicle "successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc."
"Impressive!" he wrote.
A High-Stakes Test Track
The ride took place at SunTrax, a 775-acre state-owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing beside a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the experience plainly: "You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There's no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial." The purpose-built two-seater — the same vehicle Tesla recently showed off with a flush-mounted Starlink antenna — is engineered from the ground up for driverless operation.
SunTrax bills itself as the only high-speed autonomous-vehicle test track in the Southeast, capable of simulating rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds. That lets companies push a car well past what an early public rollout would risk — and the Cybercab, according to the governor, passed the gauntlet.
Momentum for Tesla's Autonomy Push
The endorsement lands as Tesla's self-driving effort gathers real-world proof points, from a fleet that recently produced its first 25,000-mile FSD streak to a rapidly expanding commercial network. Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self-certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law, while Tesla has been widening its Model Y-based Robotaxi service across Florida, adding Miami, Orlando and Tampa in recent weeks.
Why a Governor's Ride Counts
Florida's regulatory approach is among the most permissive in the country, and it does not require a human operator inside a fully autonomous vehicle. A closed-track blessing from the governor does not by itself change Tesla's deployment timeline, but it puts the company's newest hardware in front of a state that has repeatedly shown it will move fast on autonomy rules. As Teslarati reported, that kind of political goodwill is exactly what Tesla needs as it works to scale driverless rides nationwide.
