Yesterday I saw Cybercabs already driving around New York City. Cybercab is Tesla’s autonomous taxi. There is just one small detail… there is a driver sitting inside! And it looks like he is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Under New York State law, a driver is required to keep a hand on the steering wheel, while TLC (the Taxi and Limousine Commission) rules do not allow autonomous vehicles to operate as taxis or ride-sharing services such as Uber or Lyft. Tesla has not even requested permission from the state to test autonomous vehicles.
Waymo, Google’s autonomous taxi service, received permission from the city last year to conduct tests, also with a driver behind the wheel. The permit expired in March, and nothing happened after that.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the taxi drivers themselves. TLC Commissioner Midori Valdivia openly talks about the risks to the livelihoods of 180,000 drivers. Incidentally, she was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who announced the appointment at LaGuardia Airport surrounded by taxi drivers. So the chances of autonomous taxis coming to the city are, to put it mildly, not very high for now.
My guess is that Tesla is testing Cybercab in New York because drivers, pedestrians, and especially cyclists and people on scooters rarely follow traffic rules here. So after New York, Cybercab will be much smarter on the roads of California and Texas. If extreme situations are rare in other parts of the United States, in New York they are simply part of the environment.
And a delivery worker on an electric scooter, riding the wrong way down the street with three bags of food, is basically considered part of the cityscape here.
