"The Cybercab is among the splashiest parts of Tesla's pivot away from its core business of selling cars (or at least those driven by humans). Musk is dead set on turning Tesla into a company that makes robots and robotaxis. Earlier this year, he killed the Model S-the vehicle that initially made Tesla into an electric-car giant-freeing up factory space to manufacture Optimus, a humanoid robot he says has the potential to be the "biggest product of all time.""
"For all the hype surrounding the Cybercab, it's not clear that Tesla can legally sell a car without a steering wheel. The technology also remains unproven: Tesla operates a fleet of robotaxis in Austin, where they have crashed at roughly eight times the rate of American drivers, according to an analysis of Tesla's self-reported crash data."
"The program has been dogged by public embarrassments and failures: At a Tesla event in December, an Optimus robot tasked with handing out water to guests lost its balance and dramatically tumbled backwards. Meanwhile, Tesla's car sales are tumbling as Musk has seemingly lost interest in making human-driven cars."
Tesla has produced its first Cybercab, a driverless electric vehicle without steering wheel or pedals, with Musk promising a sub-$30,000 price and potential for owners to earn money through autonomous ride-hailing. This represents Tesla's strategic shift from traditional car manufacturing toward robotics and autonomous vehicles. Musk has discontinued the Model S to allocate factory resources to Optimus, a humanoid robot positioned as potentially the company's biggest product. However, the transformation faces substantial obstacles: legal uncertainty regarding steering-wheel-free vehicles, unproven autonomous technology with Tesla's robotaxis crashing at eight times the American driver rate, and public failures of Optimus robots. Meanwhile, Tesla's traditional car sales have declined, with no new models since 2020 besides the underperforming Cybertruck.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]