If you’ve read my older posts then you’ll already know what I think of electric cars. I’m an old school car lover and love my combustion engines, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that because working on them is my passion and hobby. With that noted, please don’t take my onion of Cybercab too literally. At the end of the day I’m glad the world is turning to work cleaner energy solutions to save the wildlife and all that, but that doesn’t mean I have to like AI-powered cars.
If you weren’t aware, Elon Musk’s newer invention, the Cybercab, is supposed to be rolled out in 2026. I won’t go into a ton of detail here about it because you can read about it on Wikipedia (but I suggest looking into it before you keep reading here if you didn’t already know what Cybercabs are). This is more of a ramble about how I think about them.
The first thought I want to share is what’s going to happen to all the Taxi driver jobs? These people are going to need to find work elsewhere depending on how successful Cybercab is. My second thought is whether it’s really too early to trust AI-powered cars to roam free on our roads. I know there hasn’t been many reported accidents of AI-powered cars yet if you suddenly triple the amount of them in one year, things could quickly change. My third thought is do we really need them? Like seriously, is it a product that we really need? Uber and local Taxi companies are already providing the service of getting carless people around, not to mention trains and public transit. The idea is a cool from a sci-fi fan perspective but as a practical mechanic I don’t see it being essential. Usually Elon Musk’s inventions are things people actually need, like affordable electric cars, space ships to go to Mars, and roof solar panels that look like real shingles (come to think of it that’s not all stuff we actually NEED either). Then again, none of us really NEED iPhones when there are cheaper alternatives, but people flock to them anyways. Maybe it’s something people WANT then? But who really wants a Taxi that drives itself? The only reasonable answer to that is people who want safer, and less congested roads.
Like I said in an older post, I’ll never drive an electric car because my passion is with older vehicles, HOWEVER if these Cybercabs actually succeed in making Monday morning traffic less hectic than I’m all for it. You just won’t find me riding in one; you’ll see me tailgating one to test just how safe they are!