- Elon Musk needs the steering wheel in steer-by-wire-equipped Teslas to remain centered whereas on Autopilot.
- The one Tesla outfitted with steer-by-wire is the Cybertruck.
- Tesla is especially betting on autonomy and its Full Self-Driving expertise, and fewer on newer and extra inexpensive fashions.
Steer-by-wire opens up numerous new potentialities for the way we’ll drive automobiles sooner or later because it implies that there isn’t a bodily connection between the steering wheel and the wheels. You can simply drive a steer-by-wire-equipped car outfitted with a gaming console controller or one thing fully totally different that wouldn’t require the arm twirling sometimes related to steering wheels. We’ve even seen ideas whose steering controls are designed to retract into the dashboard once they drive autonomously, however no producer has introduced plans to place one thing like that into manufacturing.
Tesla isn’t a typical automaker, although. And CEO Elon Musk reportedly mentioned prior to now that he needs to take away the steering wheel from the corporate’s automobiles. One guide claimed he insisted that the Mannequin Y launched completely as a self-driving automobile with no helm, however Tesla engineers put one in anyway and created the world’s best-selling automobile of 2023.
Extra lately, Musk took to X to specific his opinion about steering wheels in automobiles. He defined that in Teslas with steer-by-wire (which at present solely contains the Cybertruck), the yoke mustn’t transfer with the steering whereas the car has Autopilot enabled. This was a reply to a video posted by a Cybertruck proprietor who was completely satisfied to see his car’s yoke transfer by itself whereas the car was routinely parking itself.
X customers rightfully questioned how the driving force may take management in a harmful state of affairs, prompting a barrage of feedback difficult this level’s validity. Frankly, not having the yoke flip with the angle of the wheels would make it very laborious to intervene, even when it immediately began transferring to the right place when Autopilot was disengaged.
Plus, it simply sort of seems cool to see the wheel flip by itself, like if you’re in a Waymo robotaxi, which at present really delivers the sort of autonomy Tesla has been promising for a while.Â
However Musk could have a degree that in a self-parking maneuver, the wheel within the Cybertruck doesn’t want to show since you can cease the maneuver just by stepping on the brake in case you noticed it was about to hit one thing. Our expertise with the refreshed Mannequin 3 revealed that counting on the Autopark characteristic, which lacks ultrasonic sensors and solely depends on cameras for parking, will be dangerous.
The steering wheel may stay fastened in place if you summon your Tesla, for example, since there wouldn’t be anyone within the automobile to maneuver the wheel anyway. Nevertheless, we don’t see another use case for this with the present state of Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving tech, which continues to be just a few steps faraway from being really autonomous. Full Self-Driving is incrementally getting higher, and it’s in all probability probably the most superior such system within the trade, nevertheless it’s nonetheless removed from completed.
Elon is thought for his left-field concepts that he appears satisfied about however provides up on over time in all probability engineers clarify why they’re unimaginable to implement. Preserving the yoke fastened whereas on Autopilot may very well be one other one for that checklist, at the very least till Tesla proves that its autos can drive themselves with out the necessity for human supervision (and interventions). That time continues to be just a few years sooner or later, however relaxation assured that when Tesla does lastly attain it, in all probability with the following era of autos, yokes and steering wheels will slide right into a recess within the sprint and never transfer with the steering—this appears to be a aim in and of itself for Musk.
