This is an interesting article comparing the design of the newly revealed Tesla Cybercab with popular cabs from the UK and Japan, which raises a lot of the same questions I have about it.
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This is an interesting article comparing the design of the newly revealed Tesla Cybercab with popular cabs from the UK and Japan, which raises a lot of the same questions I have about it.
https://www.theautopian.com/how-does-the-two-passenger-tesla-cybercab-make-any-sense/
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by [email protected]
Another commenter speculates that what was revealed as the Cybercab was originally supposed to be the long-ballyhooed affordable Tesla Model 2, but that Musk got bored with the idea of making a cheap car and just ordered the wheel and such pulled out so he could sell it as a much buzzier "self-driving taxi," which is honestly the best explanation of why you'd make a two-passenger taxi anyone has offered
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@[email protected] oooooh, I smell vaporware (unsurprisingly). Or more to the point, I smell labor exploitation: no way that thing is self driving, especially with just cameras. That’s a remote controlled car, right there. His insistence that cars don’t need LIDAR is almost certainly because it’s cheaper to exploit humans than to throw a LIDAR in there.
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@jalefkowit for a long time now there’s been this argument that the reason for the stock’s value is the autonomous taxi program, so that actually sounds reasonable. but not like musk being an idiot, just them understanding what they’re supposed to be trying to do. If this is how the engineers back door an affordable version with the same exterior panels when this thing crashes and burns (likely literally), then at least they don’t lose several billion in tooling
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@jalefkowit my four person family traveled to London and Paris with my parents in 2023.
In London, basically every black cab could hold all six of us.
In Paris, we nearly always had to call two cabs.
*Such* a huge difference.
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@lkanies Imagine if you'd gotten Cybercabs. Three cabs!
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@timmy I guess I could see it if the design they repurposed made any sense for a taxi. But this one doesn't -- two passengers max, swoopy roofline that cuts into cargo space, etc.
If the brief is just "give me something I can sell as a self-driving cab," it meets that. But I'd think if you'd bet the company on producing a self-driving cab, you'd want it to be a good cab.
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Confused beaverreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit even if they were making a cyberpunk miata it's still kinda weird. Like, I'm not sure it fills the same niche and people who just wanted a cheap car aren't going to buy something this impractical :BlobShrug:
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Confused beaver last edited by
@rune I could see a cheap (read: approximately US$30K) electric two-seater being appealing to some folks. Maybe not a LOT of folks, given how niche two-seaters are in general. But maybe it's a compromise you make to hit the price point -- we get rid of the back seats to get the price down under that magic $30K level.
But as a taxi??? Just baffling
