I took Elon Musk's 'golden robot' for a test drive — and saw the Cybercab's strengths and weaknesses first-hand

Rush-hour traffic is backed up, with cars reversing and pulling forward again to untangle the chaos in the lot.

It's not a particularly complicated situation — but one that can really only be solved by communicating with other drivers.

A few yards on, the Cybercab repeats the maneuver — a feat other self-driving vehicles might well have failed at.

There was no need to scan license plates the way you would with an ordinary taxi or Uber order.

Add to that almost 450,000 taxi, shuttle, and chauffeur drivers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.