Tesla is finally launching the Cybercab — let’s hope it’s ready
Tesla is finally launching the Cybercab — let’s hope it’s ready
特斯拉终于要推出 Cybercab 了——但愿它准备好了
The company’s gold-tinted driverless car is central to Elon Musk’s dreams of robo-domination. But what if the software isn’t ready? 这家公司那款金色的无人驾驶汽车是埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）“机器人统治”梦想的核心。但如果软件还没准备好怎么办？
The Tesla Cybercab, that golden two-seater central to Elon Musk’s robo-supremacist ambitions, is finally nearing its public launch. Whether or not the no-steering wheel and no-pedal vehicle is actually ready for public roads, let alone customers, remains very much in doubt. 特斯拉 Cybercab——那款作为埃隆·马斯克“机器人霸权”野心核心的金色双座汽车——终于接近公开发布了。这款没有方向盘和踏板的车辆是否真的准备好上路，更不用说服务客户了，目前仍存在很大疑问。
According to The Information, Tesla is planning a public launch of the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, as soon as this month. The driverless vehicle has been popping up around the country, although often with a steering wheel and pedals, as employees are continuing to gather data. Tesla employees have been testing the fully driverless version on private roads around the company’s campus since July. And it recently completed a training with first responders in Austin, teaching them how to move the vehicles in the event of an emergency, Brad Cesak, a spokesperson for the city of Austin, confirmed. 据《The Information》报道，特斯拉计划最早于本月在德克萨斯州奥斯汀市公开发布 Cybercab。这款无人驾驶车辆近期在全国各地频繁出现，尽管通常仍配备方向盘和踏板，因为员工们仍在持续收集数据。自 7 月以来，特斯拉员工一直在公司园区周边的私人道路上测试完全无人驾驶版本。奥斯汀市发言人布拉德·塞萨克（Brad Cesak）证实，该车最近还完成了与奥斯汀急救人员的培训，教导他们在紧急情况下如何移动这些车辆。
Tesla’s Robotaxi account on X recently confirmed that a “Cybercab launch event” was imminent, inviting followers to take a ride in the company’s Model Y robotaxis in order to win a ticket. 特斯拉的 Robotaxi 官方 X 账号最近证实，“Cybercab 发布会”即将到来，并邀请关注者乘坐该公司的 Model Y 自动驾驶出租车以赢取入场券。
But given what we know about Tesla’s autonomous driving project so far, the Cybercab could be heading for trouble. The Cybercab operates using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, which the company claims is significantly safer than human driving. However, independent safety experts and federal regulators have called into question this claim, noting that FSD requires constant driver oversight and remains under active investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for traffic compliance failures. 但鉴于我们目前对特斯拉自动驾驶项目的了解，Cybercab 可能正面临麻烦。Cybercab 运行的是特斯拉的“全自动驾驶（监督版）”软件，公司声称其安全性远高于人类驾驶。然而，独立安全专家和联邦监管机构对这一说法提出了质疑，指出 FSD 需要驾驶员持续监督，且因交通合规性问题正受到美国国家公路交通安全管理局（NHTSA）的积极调查。
Over a year after its launch, Tesla’s Robotaxi service still uses human safety monitors in some markets. But the Cybercab is designed to operate without any human intervention, which removes one layer of safety on which Tesla can fall back. The company says it employs remote operators who can take control in case of an emergency, but experts question whether signal strength and latency could hamper reactions, especially during incidents in which every second counts. Tesla recently started adding Starlink to its Cybercabs to address this question of connectivity. 在推出一年多后，特斯拉的 Robotaxi 服务在某些市场仍需人类安全员监控。但 Cybercab 的设计初衷是无需任何人工干预，这去除了特斯拉原本可以依赖的一层安全保障。公司表示，他们雇佣了远程操作员，可以在紧急情况下接管车辆，但专家质疑信号强度和延迟是否会阻碍反应，尤其是在分秒必争的事故中。特斯拉最近开始为 Cybercab 加装星链（Starlink）设备，以解决这一连接性问题。
There’s also the question of data, and whether Tesla has enough of the right kind. For years, Tesla was assumed to have an advantage in the race to put driverless cars on the road, thanks to the millions of vehicles on the road, passively gathering data to help train its autonomous driving models. But the Cybercab is a different type of vehicle with a unique platform that requires its own specialized data, Musk said during an earnings call in July. 此外还有数据的问题，以及特斯拉是否拥有足够且正确的数据。多年来，人们一直认为特斯拉在无人驾驶汽车竞赛中占据优势，这得益于路上数百万辆汽车在被动收集数据以帮助训练其自动驾驶模型。但马斯克在 7 月的财报电话会议上表示，Cybercab 是一种不同类型的车辆，拥有独特的平台，需要其专属的专业数据。
“We need to accumulate driving data that is specific to the Cybercab before we can put a lot of them on the road,” he said. “我们需要积累 Cybercab 特有的驾驶数据，然后才能将大量车辆投入道路使用，”他说。
Once considered to be a leader in data collection, Tesla may actually be a laggard. During that same earnings call, Ashok Elluswamy, the company’s head of AI, said that Tesla’s unsupervised robotaxis have driven 380,000 miles across six cities in two different states. Waymo, which has operated a commercial robotaxi service since 2020, has driven over 220 million fully driverless miles on public roads — or about 579 times more miles than Tesla. 特斯拉曾被认为是数据收集领域的领导者，但实际上可能已经落后。在同一次财报电话会议上，特斯拉人工智能主管阿肖克·埃卢斯瓦米（Ashok Elluswamy）表示，特斯拉的无人监督自动驾驶出租车已在两个州的六个城市行驶了 38 万英里。而自 2020 年以来一直运营商业自动驾驶出租车服务的 Waymo，在公共道路上已行驶了超过 2.2 亿英里的完全无人驾驶里程——大约是特斯拉的 579 倍。
Tesla uses a mix of unsupervised and supervised vehicles as part of its current Robotaxi fleet, but that ratio appears to be in a constant state of flux. According to the crowdsourced Robotaxi Tracker, the company was operating 16 unsupervised vehicles in Austin, four in Dallas, and one in Houston. 特斯拉目前的 Robotaxi 车队混合使用了无人监督和受监督的车辆，但这一比例似乎处于不断变化的状态。根据众包的 Robotaxi 追踪器显示，该公司在奥斯汀运营着 16 辆无人监督车辆，在达拉斯有 4 辆，在休斯顿有 1 辆。
Tesla also hasn’t submitted its safety claims for independent analysis, instead relying on self-published statistics while actively working to block public scrutiny of the data it’s required to provide to federal regulators. Meanwhile, Waymo has published several studies in peer-reviewed journals. Recently, the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety examined Waymo’s first 50 million miles of fully autonomous driving across multiple cities and concluded that its crash rates were significantly lower than those of human drivers. 特斯拉也尚未将其安全声明提交给独立机构进行分析，而是依赖于自行发布的数据，同时积极阻止公众对其必须提供给联邦监管机构的数据进行审查。与此同时，Waymo 已在同行评审期刊上发表了多项研究。最近，非营利组织公路安全保险协会（IIHS）审查了 Waymo 在多个城市的前 5000 万英里完全自动驾驶里程，结论是其事故率显著低于人类驾驶员。
The Cybercab launch comes at an odd moment for Tesla. Whereas other vehicle launches have excited Tesla’s many fans with their cutting-edge technology, the Cybercab remains a bit of a curiosity. It’s the lightest, most efficient electric vehicle Tesla has ever produced. But it’s unclear whether the technology powering it is adequate for commercial operations. Still, it’s more like the Tesla Semi than the Model Y or Cybertruck, insofar as it seems destined for commercial service and not personal ownership — despite Musk’s claims that you will eventually be able to buy one. Cybercab 的发布对特斯拉来说是一个微妙的时刻。虽然其他车型的发布曾以尖端技术让特斯拉的众多粉丝感到兴奋，但 Cybercab 仍然让人感到有些好奇。它是特斯拉有史以来生产的最轻、最高效的电动汽车。但目前尚不清楚支撑它的技术是否足以满足商业运营需求。不过，它更像是特斯拉 Semi 卡车，而不是 Model Y 或 Cybertruck，因为它似乎注定用于商业服务而非个人拥有——尽管马斯克声称你最终将能够买到它。
The Cybercab’s lack of traditional controls means it will be hamstrung by federal safety rules that require things like pedals and side mirrors before they can be sold to the public. That said, if Tesla were to receive an exemption from federal regulators, allowing the company to produce and sell thousands of Cybercabs, that calculus could change. Amazon’s Zoox recently received permission to begin charging for rides in its purpose-built robotaxi. Whether Tesla is also seeking a similar exemption is unknown. Cybercab 缺乏传统控制装置，这意味着它将受到联邦安全法规的限制，这些法规要求车辆必须配备踏板和侧视镜等装置才能向公众出售。话虽如此，如果特斯拉能获得联邦监管机构的豁免，允许其生产和销售数千辆 Cybercab，情况可能会发生变化。亚马逊旗下的 Zoox 最近获得了许可，可以开始对其专门制造的自动驾驶出租车进行收费运营。目前尚不清楚特斯拉是否也在寻求类似的豁免。