Tesla CEO Elon Musk is eyeing his next market for his EV maker’s purpose-built robo-taxi.

Tesla promised that everyone would be able to buy a Cybercab in the future, but the current variant lacks an on-board AC charger, complicating home ownership

Tesla's traditional do-it-yourself instinct could be tested by its nationwide robotaxi ambitions. The big picture: Manufacturing self-driving taxis is one thing. Financing, parking, charging, cleaning and maintaining enough of them to blanket the country is another — and Tesla is signaling that it might want entrepreneurs to help shoulder the load.

While the Cybercab is currently the only Tesla without manual controls, one passenger discovered that the vehicle has a way to be operated manually despite lacking the traditional hardware for car control.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Elon Musk's Cybercab one day after its launch in Austin, Texas.

Firefighters were trained to move the robotaxi with its touchscreen. One captain who took the training says it’s “not the silver bullet” and wants federal standards.

The virtual controls seemingly appeared accidentally to several riders in the first couple weeks of the Cybercab’s public launch.

A Tesla Cybercab rider found a hidden touchscreen joystick for manual driving, even though Tesla built the robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals.

As Tesla launches the Cybercab robotaxi in Austin, click to read a comparison of TSLA's progress to that of Alphabet's (GOOG) Waymo.