Tesla Robotaxi App Now Shows Cybercab and Model Y Side by Side

AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla has quietly made its Robotaxi app smarter about one of the first choices a rider makes: which car to take. A new vehicle-selection screen now shows the estimated arrival time, expected wait and current availability for a Cybercab and a Model Y on a single view, so riders can weigh both before they book.

The change appeared in app version 26.11.0, spotted in a rider's video posted to X on Friday. Tesla has not published official release notes, but the upgrade is easy to appreciate: instead of picking a vehicle and only then discovering the wait, riders see the trade-offs up front — a timely polish given the autonomous fleet's rapid spread across Austin and beyond its original geofence.

A Smarter First Screen

The Cybercab seats two; the Model Y seats four. Until now, choosing between them meant guessing which would show up sooner. The refreshed screen puts ETA, wait time and availability side by side, and if no Cybercab is free nearby, it says so immediately rather than after a failed booking. Tesla first offered the Cybercab-or-Model-Y choice on September 3, the day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin, and an earlier build added a seating-capacity indicator. This update rounds the feature into something closer to a mature ride-hailing interface.

It arrives as the fleet scales fast. Tesla had just 45 Cybercabs on the Texas roster when paid rides started; by late October the state listed 573 Cybercabs alongside 631 Model Ys. Community trackers logged a record 1,576 Cybercab sightings across Austin on Halloween alone.

Built in Austin, Spreading Fast

For now, the side-by-side comparison is mostly an Austin perk. Riders in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and Tesla's Florida markets are still matched with Model Y vehicles, though Tesla told investors on its third-quarter call that Cybercab rides would reach Dallas within the month. Other recent tweaks show the same attention to the passenger experience: a "quiet mode" that blacks out the cabin screen, first tested in the Cybercab, has rolled out to Model Y robotaxis, and Austin service hours now run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Every one of those refinements matters more as the vehicle mix tilts toward the purpose-built car. Tesla is winding down the Cybertruck to clear factory space for Cybercab production, a signal of just how central the robotaxi has become to the company's plans.

Little Updates, Big Direction

None of this is a headline feature on its own. But a selection screen that respects a rider's time, a cabin that can go quiet on request and longer service hours add up to a product being tuned for daily use rather than novelty. As Teslarati noted in detailing the 26.11.0 update, Tesla is iterating on its robotaxi software at the same breakneck speed it is building the cars — and both curves are pointing up.