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Tesla’s much-awaited “We, the Robot” program has finally concluded and the highlight of the program has been the CyberCab – a fully autonomous vehicle with no pedals and no steering wheel. The electric car market has seen a slowdown in the global and US markets, Tesla is counting on its progress in the autonomous driving field to boost long-term growth in the electric car market.
What is CyberCab?
As its name suggests, CyberCab is a fully autonomous robotaxi. While no details have been revealed regarding the car’s battery capacity or power levels, we do know that it has butterfly doors and space for two people. Musk claims that its production will start by the end of 2026 or possibly by 2027. However, no one is particularly holding their breath as there are several upcoming Tesla projects stuck in the pipeline. A primary example of this is the Roadster whose concept was revealed in 2017, and was scheduled for production in 2025. Currently, the Roadster, set for production in 2025, remains an unexpected event. Musk’s plan to produce a low-cost ($25,000) Model 2 also suddenly failed. The CyberCab marks a decisive shift in Tesla’s strategy, moving away from being an EV maker to becoming a company that produces robots and AI-powered technology. While legacy carmakers have made considerable headway in the EV market, to say nothing of the onslaught of cost-effective Chinese EVs led by BYD, Musk is counting on autonomous driving to be the key differentiator.
Low operating costs are a key aspect of CyberCab ownership as Musk has ambitiously described it as a mix of “Airbnb and Uber”, meaning consumers can rent CyberCabs as taxis for personal use. Can. Musk claims, “It’s going to be a fantastic future.” At the moment, the price of Cybercab is announced at $ 30,000 or about 25 lakhs.
What does this mean for personal mobility?
The implications of CyberCab and its bigger brother RoboVan are immense. Affordable, hassle-free autonomous mobility for the masses. However, at the moment, Tesla does not have the approval from regulators that it would need before putting the Cybercab into production. Musk is currently the world’s biggest evangelist for autonomous driving, although his claims have faced skepticism due to several accidents that have occurred while monitoring full self-driving (FSD) technology. Its most recent accident occurred earlier this year where a motorcyclist was killed by a Tesla driver allegedly using FSD. However, Musk claims that autonomous driving technology, when it becomes mainstream, will cause far fewer accidents, ensure greater safety on the road and save individuals a lot of time.
Read this also Thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks recalled: Here’s why
Musk has repeatedly said that self-driving can only become mainstream through extensive real-world testing, which will provide brands with the data needed to fine-tune the technology until it is error-free.
Despite Musk’s optimism, the fact is that Tesla isn’t even the first carmaker to get government approval for Level 3 autonomous driving in the US — Mercedes-Benz was. At present, Tesla has not even received approval to sell Cybertruck in European markets. Although Tesla is closer than ever to gaining FSD approval in Europe and China, where regulators are rumored to approve FSD (supervised) by the end of 2024, the event failed to boost shareholder confidence as Tesla’s stock They fell 6% in pre-market trading. Friday.
The future of technology like CyberCab depends largely on how quickly and widely Tesla’s unsupervised and fully autonomous driving software gets regulatory approval. And so far, Tesla has yet to crack its former home state of California and its current Texas. Although most true believers claim that Tesla is working on Level 4 autonomous technology, officially it is only classified as Level 2.
It is too early to speculate what this means for the Indian market, where Tesla does not yet officially exist, and whose India plans appear to be on hold indefinitely. As impressive as the CyberCab and RoboVan are to look at, tapping into sci-fi movies and Art Deco aesthetics, it’s only got hardcore Tesla enthusiasts excited.
The road to fully autonomous driving is long and difficult. Musk himself highlighted the challenges on the “The average person drives only 10,000 miles a year.”
This effectively means that even if unsupervised FSD is authorized in states like Texas and California, where it is scheduled for approval next year, the more effective it will be, the greater the software’s ability to intervene. The longer it has to run to find errors. a turning point. In Musk’s words, Tesla would effectively have access to “billions of miles” under its belt and history has proven that such an undertaking comes with considerable collateral damage, often leading to deaths. While Musk’s ultimate goal may be sincere, ensuring total driving safety in the future at the expense of today’s pedestrians is a task that may not sit well with regulators in any part of the world.
Musk has a history of making claims that cannot be supported. In 2016, Musk said that Tesla would make a cross-country trip without the need for human intervention by 2017. This never happened. According to CNBC, they told investors in 2019 that they would have one million road-ready robotaxis by 2019. In 2023, Musk has to provide a significant update to all of his autopilot enabled vehicles in the US (over 2 million units due to malfunction) He has some incredible wins to his name (Model 3, Cybertruck), but fully autonomous self-driving vehicles Looks like another attempt to raise money.
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