Tesla Cybercab's technological farce

On March 9, local time, Tesla CEO Musk reposted on social media X a high-profile post about Tesla driverless taxi Cybercab, and showed the video picture of the driverless taxi in gold paint cruising in Texas Gigafactory, the original text said, "Tesla Cybercab is cruising in Texas Gigafactory. I can't wait for the day when these cars are all over public roads."

Tesla Cybercab driverless taxi was first proposed at Tesla's "WE,ROBOT" conference in October last year, Musk said that Cybercab is a two-door coupe, no steering wheel and pedals, the cost is less than $30,000, and will be put into mass production in 2026, however, Tesla has launched a low-cost model research and development. Exposing its "that is, to subvert the travel market, and dare not give up traditional sales" strategic confusion, we have reason to believe that behind this seemingly cool technology show, there are multiple risks and hidden dangers, from technical defects to legal vacuum, from design contradictions to market bubbles, the launch of Cybercab is more like a "cake to satisfy hunger" driven by capital. Rather than a truly mature technological revolution, it is more about putting public safety at the risk of uncontrolled technological experimentation.

In Musk's HTC narrative, Tesla's driverless taxi is portrayed as a revolution to subvert transportation, however, apart from its bright marketing coat, the true face of this technology is controversial, from security risks to business logic loopholes, from technical defects to policy risks, Tesla's driverless taxi is more like a technical adventure that is bound by capital. Rather than mature and reliable social solutions.

From the commitment time point of view, Musk has always been known for the "optimistic" schedule, as early as 2019, he announced that 2020 will deploy one million robotaxis, but this goal has not been achieved, in October 2024, the launch of the Cybercab mass production time was delayed to 2026, A fully unsupervised FSD system will have to wait until 2027. This repeatedly delayed "time game" exposed Tesla's lack of technological maturity, and more ironically, the Cybercab self-driving demonstration displayed at the press conference only took place on "carefully planned" studio City roads, relying on pre-set maps rather than real complex road conditions. This laborator-level "perfect scene" contrasts with real-world traffic chaos, and is tantamount to a theatrical whitecovering of technical shortcomings, even the current test of Cybercab has been revealed to be equipped with a steering wheel in complex road conditions to cope with unexpected situations, which contradicts its advertised "completely steering wheel" design.

From a technical point of view, although Tesla's full autopilot (FSD) system has been iterated to the V13 version, its technical reliability is still questioned, according to the data of AMCI Testing, FSDV13.2 supports "point-to-point" autopilot, but it still needs manual supervision, and the system frequently misjudgments in U-turn, reverse and other scenarios. There have even been fatal problems such as sudden crashes of vehicles and loss of navigation instructions. Bank of America analysts warned that the reliability of Tesla's autonomous driving technology is far from its commercial operation standards, forcing the introduction of driverless taxis is tantamount to using users as guinea pigs, but ironically, Tesla has previously recalled 77,000 vehicles due to FSD system failure, this black history is in stark contrast to its technology-leading label.

From a safety point of view, Tesla's FSD system has always touted end-to-end autonomous driving capabilities, but its technical route has been questioned because of its reliance on pure visual solutions, driverless technology requires manual intervention every 21 kilometers, and in complex urban roads, the takeover frequency is even as high as once every 10 kilometers, because the vision sensor lacks the multi-sensor redundancy of Lidar and radar. Pure visual solutions have inherent defects in the recognition of non-motor vehicles, pedestrians and complex light scenes, and the perception ability is highly susceptible to interference by light, weather or object color. As early as 2020, Tesla's automatic driving system has caused fatal accidents by ignoring the body of a white truck, and similar problems are still unresolved. In addition, as a driverless taxi, Cybercab will collect a large amount of user data and rely on AI system processing, once a hacker attack, may lead to remote control of the vehicle or large-scale privacy disclosure, although Tesla has upgraded the car computer performance, but its closed technology ecology and frequent software vulnerability history, it is difficult to eliminate the public's fear of digital cage.

From the perspective of legal responsibility and supervision, in traditional traffic accidents, the main body of responsibility is clearly the driver or the car company, and after Cybercab completely cancelled the steering wheel and pedals, how the accident responsibility will be distributed among the car company, software suppliers, passengers and even road managers, Tesla has not proposed a clear solution, and Tesla has long blamed the user for the accident. A fully driverless taxi service will make it face greater legal liability disputes, and Tesla's aggressive strategy has repeatedly hit a wall at the regulatory level, Cybercab needs special approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for eliminating steering wheels and pedals, and even the testing service is advancing in California and Texas. The vehicle is still equipped with a safety driver, which is in sharp contrast to its promise of "completely driverless", and its technological path is trapped in a self-paradox, on the one hand, emphasizing the complete elimination of human intervention, on the other hand, it cannot get rid of the reliance on preset scenes and safety officers, and the golden Cybercab's street parade is like a fireworks show in the technological carnival, bright but short-lived

In short, the launch of Tesla Cybercab, on the surface is a technological revolution, but in fact, it is the impetuous and short-sighted under the capital mania, when the car companies will reduce costs and increase efficiency over life safety, when the regulators are lagging behind in the technological rush, the future of unmanned driving may become a dangerous gamble, only in the technical innovation and legal ethics to find a balance. In order to truly realize the original intention of "autonomous driving for the benefit of mankind", otherwise Cybercab will become the most expensive technology stunt in Tesla's history.