Tesla Cybercab Hides A Virtual Joystick, Exposing A Secret Manual Mode

A buried virtual joystick in the Tesla Cybercab raises fresh questions about manual control, rider safety, and the company’s robotaxi strategy.

Photo by: Matthew Skrzypczak (Instagram)

By: Brian Potter

Sep 10, at 5:28am ET

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Rider Matthew Skrzypczak posted video on X showing a Cybercab touchscreen with a virtual joystick.
Tesla's production Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals.
NHTSA is probing roughly 1,000 Cybercabs over how vehicles without steering controls get certified for public roads.

Tesla's Cybercab was built without a steering wheel or pedals, a design choice Elon Musk has pitched as proof the vehicle needs no human at the controls. A hidden menu just complicated that pitch.

Rider Matthew Skrzypczak posted video on X on September 7 showing his Cybercab's touchscreen switched into an unfamiliar layout. Instead of the usual passenger display, it showed a circular joystick, a horn button and a prompt to call support.

Tesla Cybercab's Hidden Virtual Joystick

"When I got in the vehicle, the display was in a different configuration with a virtual joystick for manual driving," Skrzypczak wrote, describing what he stumbled into as an accidental peek behind the curtain. He was not alone. Other riders reported the same glitch.

The interface Skrzypczak filmed paired the joystick with a live surround-camera feed on the screen's right side, plus a door-closing control. Nothing about the layout suggested it was meant for a paying passenger to find.

Tesla has not shown this manual mode publicly before, and the company has not explained why it surfaced now or what triggered the software slip that revealed it. Chair Robyn Denholm has acknowledged a fallback plan: "If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals," she said, a remark that reads differently now that a control interface has turned up on screen.

Tesla publishes rider and first responder guides for Cybercab, but those public documents focus on passenger conduct, emergency stops and how crews should approach and secure a stranded vehicle. They do not describe an on-screen joystick or a badge-based method for unlocking hidden driving controls.

Tesla Cybercab

Photo by: Motor1.com

What The Joystick Means For Robotaxi Plans

The discovery lands days after the Cybercab was placed under an NHTSA probe examining how vehicles without a steering wheel or pedals get certified for public roads. Reports put the Cybercab fleet at roughly 1,000 vehicles in Austin, but regulators have not publicly tied the investigation to a specific unit count.

Prototypes tested ahead of the Cybercab's Austin robotaxi launch were spotted with conventional steering wheels and pedals still fitted. Tesla held its invite-only launch event in Austin on September 3, and outlets including Axios and others report commercial Cybercab rides becoming available to the public starting September 4.

The Cybercab runs on the same autonomous hardware and software stack as the Model Y, the same system used to promote features like Automatic Collision Evasion in its FSD software. A hidden manual override does not undercut that tech, but it does undercut the idea that this car was engineered to never need a driver's touch.

It still is not clear what safeguards prevent anyone who stumbles across this menu from actually moving the car, and Tesla has not addressed the question. Recent coverage notes the joystick appears tied to an internal engineering or service mode, and outlets report Tesla has not yet offered a detailed public explanation of its purpose or protections.

What do you think?

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Motor1's Take: Hidden controls turn this into an operational trust problem. Tesla must either secure this menu from riders, spell out how it is supposed to work, or strip out any passenger-facing access.

Watch for software fixes and clearer guidance to first responders. Regulators and riders will judge whether robotaxi claims match how the cars actually operate.