Tesla's self-driving Cybercabs might actually be driveable

The Tesla Cybercab.

Quick Summary

Remember the Tesla Cybercab? Tesla's great self-driving robotaxi?

It may now have traditional driving controls, too.

It was about this time last year that the Tesla Cybercab was unveiled. The promise was immense – self-driving, fully autonomous, not even a steering wheel in sight. This was the future, it seemed.

Sadly, the future is now, and now the Cybercab might actually have a steering wheel and pedals after all. The news – reported by The Verge – was let slip by the chair of Tesla's board of directors in an interview with Bloomberg.

Robyn Denholm – the aforementioned chair of the board – said, "If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals," in the interview. It marks a substantial pivot from the initial launch marketing, which heralded the Cybercab as something truly new.

Instead, the brand's flagship self-driving car could actually end up being entirely driveable in the traditional sense. It's an inevitability, really, given the regulations which surround the motor industry, but it still feels like a knockback.

If Tesla really does believe that the future of EVs – and transportation in general – is a fully-autonomous system, this feels like rather a bump in the road. After all, a fully self-driving car that features no steering wheel or pedals suddenly needing a steering wheel and pedals feels wrong.

(Image credit: Tesla)

Personally, I think the addition of traditional driving apparatus is a sensible one anyway. From a business perspective, it would enable the car to go through more traditional regulations, which should be easier to do and get the car on the road quicker. It would also appeal to more people – the market for EV drivers is a lot bigger than the one for self-driving cab riders.

But even beyond all of that, it makes much more sense from a position of safety. Even if fully autonomous driving becomes the norm, it won't be able to make every decision necessary to combat an analog world. At that point, some kind of manual override allows users to take charge, and that feels like the best possible hybrid to me.