A Tesla Cybercab, or Robotaxi, Tesla has been using the names alternatively, has been spotted with a steering wheel – raising questions.
Last year, Tesla unveiled the Cybercab, a two-seat steering wheel-less electric vehicle that the automaker claims will power a fleet of autonomous ride-hailing vehicles.
At the unveiling, Tesla gave some rides in the vehicle, but it was on a closed circuits on private roads with teleoperations. The vehicle didn’t display capabilities much more advanced than what it already deployed in customer vehicles.
Many industry watchers are skeptical about the vehicle because it relies on the same ‘Full Self-Driving (Supervised)’ technology in Tesla’s existing vehicles. However, Tesla is betting that it will be able to make it “unsupervised” by the time this vehicle gets into production in 2026 since it doesn’t have a steering wheel to be “supervised” like Tesla’s existing customer fleet.
As we have often reported, the only data available on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving program suggests that this is highly unlikely.
But now, a Tesla Cybercab has been spotted with a steering wheel at Gigafactory Texas:
The picture was taken by Joe Tegtmeyer, who often flies drones over Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas in Austin.
Some questioned whether the image showed a wheel or a shadow, but it becomes quite clear that it is a steering wheel when playing with image’s contrast and exposure:
This is raising some questions. Some are questioning if it means Tesla is also planning a consumer version of the vehicle with a steering wheel, but that sounds like wishful thinking as Tesla insisted that this vehicle will launch without a steering wheel.
The more likely explanation is that Tesla is using a steering wheel to test the vehicle with driver supervision, as its current technology relies on it. This also enables it to avoid some reporting regulations regarding autonomous driving test programs.
Top comment by Swallow_Doretti
I've been saying since day one this is going to be end up as the long-awaited "Model 2" or whatever they end up calling it. Tesla's never going to achieve L4 autonomy with just cameras, and this thing was too far along on design by Tesla standards to not be heading to production in some form.
Of course, it's also going to be a bizarroverse Cybertruck, in that it'll also come with grand sales pronouncements and lots of preorders that won't materialize into anywhere near predicted sales, though in this case not because of price or range, but because the last thing Americans want is a two-seat liftback, especially one with no rear window, especially if/when the Bolt and EV3 are available at the same price.
The sighting is also interesting with the context of Elon Musk’s recent claim that Tesla is conducting ‘unsupervised self-driving trials’ with employees.
We questioned this claim, which he made off the cuff when playing a video game, as Tesla has no autonomous driving test permit. It sounds like he either confused it with the supervised ride-hailing service for employees in the Bay Area announced last quarter or the limited testing with Cybercabs at Gigafafactory Texas’ private roads that we have seen before.
This Cybercab with a steering wheel could show that Tesla is actually conducting these trials supervised, which would make more sense.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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