Tesla Says the 'Floodgates Are Opening' After Registering 150 More Cybercabs in Texas

So basically: Tesla just added 150 Cybercabs to its list of approved robotaxis in Texas in a single day. That nearly doubles the count to 319. The next morning, Tesla’s official X account posted three words: “Floodgates are opening.”

The post

On Friday, Oct. 9, at 1:32 p.m. ET, Tesla quoted a photo from an owner who posts as @omg_fsd.

The photo shows four gold Cybercabs driving together through Texas traffic. The owner’s caption was just the date: “October 8th, 2026.”

Tesla added “Floodgates are opening” and nothing else.

No city. No date. No fleet size. But the timing lines up with the registry jump almost perfectly.

The registry numbers

Texas keeps a public list of vehicles each company is authorized to run as automated vehicles. Trackers check it every hour.

According to RobotaxiTracker data reported by EV:

• Tesla added 150 Cybercabs on Thursday, Oct. 8
• That is its biggest single batch ever
• The Cybercab count went from 169 to 319
• Tesla’s total Texas robotaxi list hit 739, its first time over 700
• That total is 420 Model Ys and 319 Cybercabs

So Cybercabs are now 43% of Tesla’s registered Texas fleet.

For comparison, at the Cybercab launch event on Sept. 3, only 45 of roughly 420 registered vehicles were Cybercabs. About 11%.

Model Ys have stopped

Here is a quieter detail. Tesla has not added a single Model Y to the Texas list since Sept. 23.

Every vehicle added since then, 250 of them, has been a Cybercab. Tesla told analysts in August it was holding back on Model Ys while it got ready to scale the Cybercab.

That looks like exactly what is happening.

Registered is not the same as driving

This is important.

Being on the list means Tesla is allowed to run that car as an automated vehicle in Texas. It does not mean the car is carrying riders today.

Trackers that match registrations against real sightings show the gap:

• 78 of the 319 Cybercabs have been spotted by license plate
• None of Thursday’s 150 had been spotted as of Friday morning

Tesla does not publish an official robotaxi fleet number.

The federal deadline

There is still a regulator in the picture.

NHTSA, the federal auto safety agency, is auditing how Tesla certified a car with no steering wheel or pedals. Tesla’s sworn answers were due Sept. 30.

Tesla asked for an extension to Nov. 20. NHTSA gave it until Oct. 30 instead.

It is an audit, not a finding that anything is wrong. Cybercab service keeps running in the meantime.

How Tesla stacks up

Tesla is not alone on that Texas list. Waymo has the biggest registered fleet in the state, at 1,185 vehicles. Avride has 344, and Zoox has 17.

But Tesla added more vehicles in the past 30 days than Waymo did, 302 to 197.

And Tesla says its Cybercab line can build more than 125,000 a year. If that capacity gets used, the list could grow fast.

What to watch next

• Whether those 150 new Cybercabs actually show up giving rides
• Whether Tesla opens Cybercab service in a new city, like Houston or Dallas
• What Tesla tells NHTSA by Oct. 30

My take

”Floodgates are opening” is classic Tesla. Big energy, zero details.

But the registry numbers are real, and they back it up more than usual. 150 cars in one day is not a test fleet. That is a company getting ready to scale.

The real test is the next few weeks. If riders in Austin suddenly see shorter waits and Cybercabs everywhere, the floodgates are real. If those 150 sit in a lot, it was just a tweet.