One of the selling points of Tesla’s much-hyped Cybercab — its purpose-built robotaxi — is that it doesn’t need manual controls. That’s why it doesn’t even come with a steering wheel or pedals.
But an early passenger who got to ride one of the self-driving cars after they launched in Austin last week discovered that they secretly have manual controls hidden in a touchscreen — the most practical way to control a car, as everyone knows — after its software glitched out and accidentally revealed them.
In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. However, in practice there absolutely IS!
In theory, I would love to take a nap, eat lunch, have sex, etc while the car took care getting me safely to my destination. Since enshittification, I absolutely want to have active, mechanical, physical controls over what my vehicle is doing, at every moment.