BARCELONA—Of all the vehicles you could roll up to MWC to show off mobile technology, Tesla’s Cybertruck might be the worst possible fit. That steel trapezoid on wheels is too heavy and too angular for EU vehicle regulations, and Tesla sales have fallen off a cliff in Europe as CEO Elon Musk has promoted far-right political parties on the continent.
And yet, a Cybertrack graces Oracle’s exhibit here at MWC—done up in black and white like a police car, with “Oracle Public Safety” painted on the doors as if it had driven in from a cyberpunk future in which the Austin multinational firm operated its own police department.
The truck also featured blinking blue-and-red LEDs atop the giant windshield, on the step plates below the doors, and behind a hefty brush guard on the front that itself might violate EU pedestrian-safety rules.
It’s a marketing exercise for Oracle’s public-safety software and services. “We brought it here for more of a showpiece,” said Shane Ruiz, head of product marketing, as he demonstrated the features of the Oracle Public Safety Dispatch Command Center running on the truck’s giant touch screen.
An incident-command screen allowed quick management of law-enforcement assets; for example, ordering up a drone to surveil a crime scene or dispatching a SWAT team. In either case, the system could display live video from the camera on the scene. “We have jail management as well,” Ruiz said, showing how the software could bring up records of individual suspects.
The demo vehicle featured such aftermarket additions as a Starlink antenna mounted under the glass roof, 5G antennas, and radar. That last one is a feature that Musk deleted from Teslas a few years ago as part of his crusade to build in “full self-driving” capability as cheaply as possible.
A panel in front of the octagonal cupholders offered large physical buttons to control the vehicle’s lights and other add-on law-enforcement hardware—a distinct contrast to Tesla’s practice of moving basic controls to its touch screens.
Ruiz said Oracle is looking to upgrade law-enforcement officers from the ruggedized laptops they generally have in patrol vehicles today, which in practice would mean trading in those computers for the tablets that Oracle sells.
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“Oracle will not sell a Tesla,” Ruiz said. “We’re not in the car business.”
While some police departments have adopted Teslas—the Pasadena, Calif., department last year switched to Model Y and Model 3 vehicles—the $80,000+ Cybertruck has yet to see significant adoption.
A separate MWC exhibit of police technology five halls away featuring Catalonia’s police department offered its own reminder that law-enforcement vehicles need to be practical. The car shown off, with a drone perched on its roof for quick deployment: a Cupra four-door hatchback.
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About Rob Pegoraro
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