Federal safety regulators said they’re investigating whether Tesla has adequately ensured the safety of its new electric Cybercab model that CEO Elon Musk claims is a fully autonomous vehicle a day after the company launched a commercial ride service using the vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its probe will determine if Tesla properly certified that Cybercab complies with all U.S. vehicle standards. “The enforcement action follows Tesla’s commercial deployment of its driverless Cybercab vehicles in Austin, Texas,” the agency said in a statement.

“NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles,” NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said. “But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed.”

Tesla held an invitation-only event in Austin on Sept. 3 to unveil the Cybercab program , which it didn’t livestream. The company also rolled out a new app for riders to hail the two-door, gold-colored EV, Tesla’s first new passenger model in years. It’s not clear yet whether Cybercab will be sold directly to consumers or operated only in company fleets.

Unlike Amazon’s Zoox, which operates a purpose-built autonomous vehicle that also doesn’t have a steering wheel or pedals, Tesla hadn’t sought federal safety exemptions to operate Cybercab in a commercial fleet. The U.S. Transportation Department has proposed modifying U.S. safety rules to allow such vehicles on the road, but the policy isn’t yet final.

“The agency looks forward to finishing these critical updates and removing unnecessary barriers to American AV innovation in the coming months,” NHTSA said. “Until that work is completed, however, existing standards remain in force.”

Musk has tied Tesla’s future to self-driving vehicles, but after a decade of work the company appears to be far behind industry leader Waymo, which operates fully autonomous rides in major cities across the U.S. and intends to expand to the U.K., Germany and Japan. Tesla began operating a self-driving ride service in Austin in June 2025, often with a human safety driver at the wheel, but has yet to report any revenue from the service.

Tesla’s automated driving tech has been linked to dozens of accidents and some fatalities over the years, as well as past investigations by NHTSA. Given Tesla’s failure to seek a federal waiver for Cybercab before putting it into production, Forbes reported in November 2025 that the company would not be able to sell the vehicle legally.

Tesla shares dropped 6% in Nasdaq trading on Friday morning to $353.49.