Tesla Cybercab Reimagines Future of Transportation
By Lilianne Grace Montehermoso
Picture sitting in the most futuristic car imaginable with a two-seating arrangement and the ability to drive without human assistance. As of early October 2024, Tesla’s new vehicle, the “Cybercab” or the “Robotaxi”, was revealed at Warner Bros Studio in California. This autonomous automobile changes the way humans navigate on the roads, transforming transportation as a whole.
For practically half a decade, Tesla has been teasing Cybercab with the idea of autonomous driving. The general concept of Full Self Driving (FSD) was recently released as of September 2024. FSD has allowed for the development of vehicle features such as the auto park feature and vision monitoring through user sunglasses. The auto park feature allows the vehicle to park without human intervention thus displaying the technological advancement in this area of mechanical engineering. In terms of vision monitoring, this occurs while the driver is wearing sunglasses allowing the system to track their eye movements, enhancing the vehicle’s road awareness.
Much like the Cybercab’s system, its design is different yet vaguely similar to that of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y with their single screen in the center of the dash and the CYber Truck regarding its aesthetics. The Cybercab consists of an interior with surprisingly no pedal or steering wheel which is completely different from your traditional and standard definition of a car. In aggregation, compared to previous models of electric cars with wired/plugging charging installations, the Cybercab incorporates and utilizes inductive charging; however, inductive charging has been known to be highly ineffective because much energy is lost from heat.
However, there have also been many safety concerns revolving around Tesla’s new Cybercab and its general autonomous driving. With a self-driving car liable of two people on the road, it’d be quite alarming to have a big chunk of metal driving on roads at relatively high speeds while primarily using cameras and sensors which have led to incidents in the past. This has led to studies that have observed efficiency in different aspects of city taxis in order to demonstrate how better-designed taxis could be more efficient than Tesla’s Robotaxi.
Despite the trendiness around the “revolutionary” features of no pedals or steering wheel, the user still needs the interface. The vehicle itself is practically composed of a lot of trunk space and a big screen for entertainment. This lack of traditional components in the Cybercab complements the opinions of a renowned car critic, John Beltz Snider.
Snider had expressed scornful sentiments towards the introduction of Tesla’s Cybercab. He had written an article depicting the idea that “The Tesla Cybercab Is Half The Car The Model 3 Is.” Essentially, he explores its potential wastefulness and inefficiency through insight from a Tesla engineer.
Elon Musk has plans for mass production at least “before 2027.” He also mentioned that the Cybercab’s price will start under $30,000 which is exceedingly different from a model like the 2024 Tesla Cyber truck that is a little over $100,000. This ultimately raises the lingering question: Robotaxi technology is improving, but can Tesla make money from the Cybercab?
Tesla’s implementation of autonomous driving through the Robotaxi has bright debate as to whether this is a technological advancement in vehicles or a safety hazard of insufficiency for its users.