Watch Musk’s solutions to solve the transportation crisis and replace human drivers
Yesterday, Thursday, Elon Musk ended the long awaited event which he had longed for and through this event, Tesla revealed its most important future projects, which are a self driving car that aims to replace the usual taxi drivers under the name CyberCab and a self driving bus under the name Robovan. These products represent the most important innovations of Elon Musk recently and the project that he has been working on for a long time and paved the way for it through the primitive self driving systems integrated with Tesla cars in general, but can these innovations replace the usual means of transportation?
Cyber Cab Automated Taxi
At first glance, the resemblance between the self driving Cyber Cab and Tesla’s electric truck of the same name, the CyberTruck, is clear, and this may be the reason behind the similar name between the two vehicles.
From the outside, the features appear similar between the two vehicles, whether in the futuristic metallic color or the extended headlights, in addition to the wheels completely covered with a metal layer that mimics the color of the body, in addition to the doors that open upwards like a butterfly, a very futuristic design that enhances the idea of the car coming from the future that Elon Musk is trying to convey to users.
But in the interior, the differences begin to appear, as the Cyber Cab cars come with a cabin that only accommodates passengers with a complete absence of all the car’s controls inside the cabin, as there are no brakes, steering wheel, or even additional buttons to control the car and stop it in the event of any danger, which may change with the final design of the car and the addition of future safety mechanisms to protect users, as it relies on a wireless charging mechanism instead of the usual charging sockets.
Musk sees the self driving taxi as one of the company’s most ambitious innovations in recent years, boasting that it is up to 20 times safer than a regular taxi and is also more economical to use, with a mile long ride costing just 0.20 cents.
Attendees at the event, which took place at the Warner Bros. Studios and Theaters area, also had a chance to try out the new car, which includes a large number of informal roads within it that the company has spent a long time tinkering with the cars’ computers in preparation for this moment.
Of course, the CyberCab is still a future project anytime soon, as the company plans to roll out the self driving systems first in Texas and California next year, then start manufacturing the car by the end of 2026 or 2027 if it is delayed. If the Cybertruck is any example of the company’s production schedule, this project could be delayed even further.
The future bus Robo Van
The RoboVan bus is the real surprise at Elon Musk’s party, as no one expected it to appear, in addition to the distinctive and unique design that makes it look like a train car from the future, and Elon Musk pins a lot of hopes on it to solve many of the problems of mass transportation.
Although Musk is a staunch opponent of mass transportation, the RoboVan is not the end of the road for Tesla’s participation in this sector, as the company’s future plans reveal the possibility of launching a bus larger than the RoboVan in the near future.
This truck is part of the mobility network that Tesla seeks to develop and implement in many areas around the world, and it is expected that this network will receive more additions in the form of vehicles of different sizes, but of course, users can purchase the Robo Van and use it personally.
It is worth noting that competition in the electric bus sector has begun to intensify with the entry of many competitors such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Ram and Ford as well.
Fierce competition
Although the self driving car sector is still emerging without a final model, there are many companies that have contributed to its development, and offer more superior and capable competitors than Tesla’s current systems, most notably Waymo and Cruise.
These companies have been able to individually test self driving mechanisms for distances exceeding millions of kilometers collectively around the world, which makes their systems more superior and accurate than Tesla’s systems in general, specifically Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Google, and its cars have been able to drive autonomously for a distance exceeding 11 million kilometers since their first appearance.
Of course, these mechanisms have been tested in the most crowded cities in the world, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, in addition to comparing the car’s self driving data with human driving data, where Waymo found that self driving mechanisms are less likely to cause accidents or even appear in police reports.
Can Tesla compete in the self driving car sector?
Tesla was one of the first companies to announce its entry into the self driving car sector, and it is also one of the companies seeking to reach the third stage of this technology, which is fully self driving cars without any human supervision or intervention.
To this end, the company has developed many different and diverse mechanisms to reach the closest model of self driving cars, however, the Tesla project has faced many challenges represented by numerous malfunctions that affected the systems at different times.
These malfunctions have caused numerous accidents, whether they were collisions with bicycle passengers or pedestrians being run over on the streets, and in some cases, traffic accidents between different cars, in addition to disrupting roads when the system malfunctions, all of which are challenges that have led to a large number of lawsuits being filed against the company.
In addition to these issues, federal road safety and accident regulators have warned the company more than once, examined its self driving mechanisms, and imposed some fines on Tesla, in addition to sometimes stopping these systems until they are updated.