Ron DeSantis called it "top-notch" – and he didn't have to.
The Florida Governor just handed Tesla the kind of endorsement no ad budget could buy – and he did it while saying he still prefers a gas engine.
Now the Cybercab is rolling through Miami streets, and DeSantis wants to see what happens next.
DeSantis Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
The Governor posted on X about Tesla's Full Self-Driving technology this week, and he didn't hedge.
DeSantis cited the number that matters – one major collision every 5.3 million miles under FSD Supervised, compared to one every 660,000 miles for the average American driver.
That's eight times safer than a human behind the wheel.
He mentioned that he has friends who never touch the steering wheel anymore.
And then he said the eight words that should end every argument about EV mandates: "Which is exactly how the market should work."
DeSantis isn't a Tesla fanboy.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2054298393908768987?s=20
He vetoed a Florida bill in 2023 that would have pushed government fleets toward EVs.
He stood with truckers at the Port of Long Beach and called California the "petri dish of leftism" for its electric vehicle mandates.
He has made clear – repeatedly – that he opposes government-forced transitions to any technology, including EVs.
None of that changed.
What he said is something different entirely: when a product is genuinely good, the market rewards it – and no mandate is needed.
The Cybercab Is Already in Miami
While DeSantis was posting, Miamians were spotting something new on city streets.
A Cybercab – Tesla's purpose-built autonomous robotaxi with no steering wheel and no pedals – is already navigating Miami traffic.
That detail will unsettle some people, and that is exactly the point.
DeSantis didn't say he wants one – he said he wants to see how it performs and how locals react.
That is a very different thing from a mandate.
The sighting came just days after Tesla paraded a Cybercab through Miami Beach inside a glass display case towed by a Cybertruck – part of an "Autonomy Pop-Up" embedded in the Miami F1 Grand Prix Fan Fest at Lummus Park.
The message on the case: "Future is Autonomous."
This isn't a stunt.
https://twitter.com/MrVasireddi/status/2054596692796756199?s=20
Miami is on Tesla's confirmed list of cities for robotaxi service expansion in the first half of 2026, alongside Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas.
Tesla already launched fully unsupervised robotaxi service in Dallas and Houston in April 2026 – no safety monitor, no human backup, open to riders as young as eight.
Production of the Cybercab itself started in February 2026 at Gigafactory Texas.
Elon Musk has said the manufacturing process could eventually produce one vehicle every ten seconds.
The price target is under $30,000, with operating costs around 20 cents per mile.
What the Left Gets Completely Wrong
Democrats have spent years arguing that without government mandates, Americans will never adopt clean vehicles.
They forced California's rules, they pushed Biden's EPA waivers, they tried to drag the entire country toward EVs through regulatory pressure – and they called anyone who pushed back an enemy of the planet.
DeSantis watched all of that and made a simple observation: Tesla became the most valuable automaker on earth without a single mandate.
The safety data behind that number is concrete: 830 major collisions across 4.4 billion miles driven under FSD Supervised in North America – eight times safer than the average American driver.
And now the Cybercab is on the streets of Miami – not because Florida required it, not because Washington subsidized it, not because a bureaucrat in Sacramento decided the future should look a certain way.
Here is what that proves – and what every conservative should be saying out loud.
The entire Democrat argument for the last decade has been that Americans are too stupid and too selfish to make the right choices without the government forcing their hand.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2054571071584469307?s=20
That is the premise behind every mandate, every subsidy, every California regulation that Washington tried to export to the rest of the country.
No mandate produced this technology.
No Biden EPA waiver made it safer.
No subsidy check made it more compelling.
An American company competed, innovated, and won – exactly the way conservatives have always said the market works when the government gets out of the way.
The fact that DeSantis said so – clearly, without hedging, while still opposing EV mandates – is the kind of principled consistency that conservatives have been waiting years to see from a major Republican governor.
The free market doesn't need defending in theory anymore.
It just showed up in a glass box on Miami Beach.
Sources:
- Sarah Lee-Jones, "Governor Ron DeSantis Admits Tesla FSD is 'Top-Notch' as Cybercab Hits Florida," May 2026.
- Shomik Sen Bhattacharjee, "Ron DeSantis Shares Tesla Cybercab Spotting In Miami, Says It'll Be Interesting To See 'How Locals React,'" Benzinga, May 12, 2026.
- Drive Tesla Canada, "Tesla Releases New FSD Safety Stats After Crossing 8.2 Billion Miles Driven," February 19, 2026.
- Teslarati, "Tesla Semi Hauls Fresh Cybercab Batch as Robotaxi Era Takes Hold," May 2026.
- Gate News, "Tesla Starts Cybercab Robotaxi Production, Plans Expansion to Five Cities in 2026," April 25, 2026.
