okay so 2,500 robotaxis per year sounds like a milestone but I’m more curious what happens when someone sits in a car with literally zero manual controls. Like, we’ve had semi-autonomous for years and people still panic. Full autonomy with a steering wheel? You can grab it. Your brain knows the escape hatch exists.
But no steering wheel changes the psychological game completely. You can’t take control. You have to actually trust the system.
The wheel isn’t doing the psychological work here. Most people who grab the wheel in a Level 2 car aren’t executing a competent takeover, they’re panicking and making it worse, that’s half the reason handoff design is such a mess. The wheel is an illusion of control, not actual control, and illusions can be just as load bearing psychologically.
So I’d guess removing it doesn’t remove trust, it relocates it. People will look for some other object to point at: a button, a voice command, a big stop sticker. Take the object away and give them nothing else and you get panic.
Anyone seen the actual Zoox cabin? Is there anything in there that functions as a stand-in escape hatch, or is it just screens and silence.
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