We all remember the Tesla Cybercab, right? Sure you do. It was the car Tesla revealed last month that was to be a fully-autonomous ride-hailing car, with no steering wheel or pedals or anything. It’s only been demonstrated in a context that’s about the same as a theme park ride and had gold rings painted on the tires to give the illusion of a lower-profile tire, and I’m pretty skeptical it’ll be available any time soon, but whatever.
I have had a bold realization about the Cybercab, and I’m going to share it with you, if you can handle it.
Can you handle it? Let’s find out. Here it is:
The Cybercab’s one row of seats is, in fact, the back seat.
That’s right, friends! It may be the first car to only have back seats! [Ed Note: Oh boy, what is this blog? -DT] I know we’ve lamented that, for a cab, this thing really should fit more than just two people, because, jeez, come on, but we’ve never specified just which row of seats the Cybercab has as its only seats.
And I maintain the one row it has is actually the back row, not the front. That’s because the Cybercab, one could argue, has a “virtual” or “digital” front seat, because the front seat in a taxi is where the driver sits. Since there is no physical driver, that means there is no physical front seat. The seat that does exist is designed to take passengers, who, traditionally in a cab, sit in the back seat.
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If a car has just one row of seats, that row can as easily be considered the first row of seats or the last – it’s the same either way, physically. But conceptually it’s different. If one of those seats is designed for a driver, then that seat is the front row. That’s why a Bugeye Sprite or a Triumph Spitfire or a Miata’s one row of seats is the front row, because that row is designed to accommodate a driver.
But not a Cybercab. The one row is only for passengers, which means it’s a back seat.
So that’s how it is. The Cybercab only has back seats. It’s a two-row car, but one of the rows is digital.
Do you agree? Do you think I’m a fool? About this? Tell me! Let’s discuss! Loudly!
[Ed Note: I just… I…I got nothin’. -DT]
I think we’re getting hung up on the whole front and back thing because that’s the paradigm of most modern passenger vehicles. In a way the Cybercab is more like a buckboard or a Benz Patent-Motorwagen, except of course that those had a driver and were powered by horseflesh or gasoline.
It’s not a front or back seat. It’s just a seat.
I see where you’re coming from, although I think I agree with others that it’s a “passenger row” rather than “back seats”. I think we’re arguing prescriptivism and descriptivism here. Prescriptively, that’s a “front” (or only) row. Descriptively, yeah, you have a point.
At any rate, it reminds me of this picture of a GM concept from 2018:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/12/577688125/gm-says-car-with-no-steering-wheel-or-pedals-ready-for-streets-in-2019
Even though it obviously didn’t happen, I do love the utopian concept image of the interior.
The dystopian vision is that the seats aren’t secondary, the occupants are.
It’s a Tesla, the occupants and all others on the road are all secondary. Elon is Primary. HAIL ELON.
So by your lead-infused logic, a Tesla Model 3 in Full Self Driving Autopilot mode actually has only back seats and third row seats?
I think he would say the row of seats closest to the front of the car has a steering wheel and pedals which makes it designed for a driver, so is still front seats. Although it can be transformed into a back seat in use, I think his main argument was physical inputs for driving make a front seat.
In order to have a back seat you have to have a front seat. It only has 2 seats and both seats are side by side, making them the front seats.
It does only have passenger seats though.
But in order to have a front seat you have to have a back seat. These are just the seats.
Toché
From taking a backseat to no one, to bringing only a backseat to everyone, the decline of Tesla has truly begun.
But what if the main ECU that processes all the camera input and drives the car is behind the seat? All that extra junk in the trunk it might be.
All I see are two sidecars joined together with no motorcycle.
I’m more interested in your take on it’s turn signal indicators.
umm, it’s called the Hightower row:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i908fdwfOYk
I don’t even need to click on that link to know what it is. God, I’m old.
Came here for this and I’m not leaving disappointed.
No argument there, as Elon himself is a complete Asshole.
Not back seats, just passenger seats
Do the cabs from Total Recall count? I’m not sure if they are from the past or the future.
Er, there’s no front or back row. It just has seats.
Same for a two-seater roadster. There’s no ‘row’.
What about an instance in which the “back seat” is technically the front seat of the car, as seen in the Millburn Electric of the early 1900s?
I have to agree now that you pointed it out, I’ll surely be bringing it up to everyone at the automotive seating bar after work, when I stop in for my usual after work Lear-Soda.
If the seat is in front of the front door, it is a front seat. Tough to tell from the pictures shown.
Unless the CC has only back doors as well?
Yes, only back doors.
Prove me wrong: The Tesla Cybercab was a hastily reworked Model 2!
I’m very certain it is, cut down Model 3/Y platform, signs of obvious cost cutting/decontenting (cheaper seats, less glass area), suspiciously short development tineline between entry level project cancelation and pivot to Cybercab. Throw a steering wheel and pedals in there and this is probably 90%+ accurate to what would have been the new sub-Model 3 entry model
This argument is irrefutable, I can find no flaw in his logic, damnit the CyberCab is the first vehicle with only a back seat.
But to be a back seat, one has to have a driver in the front seat that one can criticize and yell at.
(ie: “Mrs Marcus” in “Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World”)
This is more like a ski lift.
Don’t fall off!
I’ve had whitewall tires, I’ve even had red-stripe tires, but never gold-wall tires.
I wonder if Vogue is going to be the sole-source supplier for Cybercab tires?
I would suppose it has neither front nor back, as those are relative terms. They’re just… seats.
You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.
For it to have front or back seats would require it to ever carry actual passengers, at any point in time, ever, which I don’t see happening. That said, they’re definitely back seats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_LIqn_gxA