It’s crazy how they blew their lead. In 2019 there was no Rivian, no F150 Lightning, just them and their goofy prototype. If they went for something they could have actually mass produced w/o the stupid gimmicks, they probably would have dominated the E-truck market before it even started.
I just liked their shatter-proof glass. That’s my favourite part of the Cyber Truck.
It’s actually kind of problematic, since tempered glass is an important safety feature in cars. It’s strong and resists impacts, but when hit with the right kind of tool will shatter into small ‘cubes’ that don’t have sharp and dangerous shards. Without safety glass it’s much harder to rescue people that are trapped in a vehicle, you basically have to hammer on the shatterproof glass for several minutes which you might not have if the car is sinking in water, near a fire, exposed to dangerous chemical spills, etc. Honestly, I don’t think that design for ‘cybertruck’ would be approved by US regulatory standards.
Yeah that seems like a very important safety feature. Any idea why Tesla went against that to a shatter proof glass? It’s not like this is a presidential suv or something
Any idea why Tesla went against that to a shatter proof glass?
Because Elon Musk is a manchild who thought it was cool and forced his engineers to entertain his idea? The entire design of the Cybertruck just screams “someone high up had a shitty idea and told engineering they had a month to figure out how to make it real without any regard for rules or regulations”.
someone high up had a shitty idea and told engineering they had a month to figure out how to make it real
Ever see that Simpsons episode where Homer gets to design a car? Always reminds me of that.
It’s also pointy as fuck. Mobile guillotine.
It’s also pointy as fuck. Mobile guillotine.
North American trucks in general are death on four wheels for pedestrians, cyclists etc. The tall vertical leading edges hit pedestrians in the hip and torso and then toss them under the wheels.
In the EU there’s regulations about this stuff, designed to ensure that people are hit (ideally not hit at all, but you know what I mean) in the legs and thrown up onto the hood. Plus regulations about spacing underneath the hood to the hard engine components which allows for a certain amount of cushioning deformity when the victim hits the hood. Would love to see that sort of thing regulated in North America but not a chance in hell of it happening.
Eh, to be fair, in 2019 Rivian was as much of a force as Tesla was. That year Tesla only had a Cybertruck prototype, but so did Rivian - in fact, they unveiled theirs two years prior in 2017. It then took them three years to stand up their factory and begin mass production, which they’ve done.
The Cybertruck isn’t really too comparatively behind schedule relative to Rivian. It’s not like Tesla had spare capacity at their existing factories, so they also needed to build a new one.
Elon probably thought he could save a lot of time by building a truck that didn’t need a full paintshop, and easy to stamp and weld in body shop. Of course, despite the added cost of complex steel/aluminum body panels and paint shops, these are well understood processes, with literally hundreds of thousands of people familiar with them in North America. Comparatively few know how to make a stainless steel vehicle.
I actually pre ordered this. That was like 4 years ago? Cancelled when I realized the company building my 100k car was lead by a man baby troll.
Same here. I bought a Tesla in 2019 and was foolish enough to pay for FSD. At the time, they were saying it would be available by the end of the year. They finally rolled out a “beta” a few months ago and it’s terrible. That’s after they had me on this bullshit robo-nanny software monitoring my driving.
The motors, battery, and charging infrastructure are great, but I would never buy another thing from Tesla as long as Elon Musk is involved with the company. He is a reprehensible troll and a dishonest businessman.
After all the scandals with pre-orders and the high quantity of disappointments almost every single time they are offered, regardless of whatever the product may be, why do people still pre order shit in 2023? It incentivizes mediocrity and rewards laziness.
I think there’s still a place for certain types of pre-orders.
There are many projects where the production of the product requires an upfront cost and a pre-order is needed to cover these.
I have pro-ordered many a small batch electronics device and have had no issues. However, in these cases the design of the device is already complete and the features/specs all known in advance.
The same goes for all the books I’ve pre-ordered from indie publishers, for the same reason, the book is already finished but production is too expensive for a small publisher to cover without pre-sales.
The issues come when pre-ordering something that _isn’t_ complete, especially if it’s working on an as-of-yet unsolved problem. Frankly, I wish that platforms like kickstarter would have a dedicated section for “production cost” pre-orders that had a different sales agreement and some vetting to ensure that products got delivered and were as advertised.
Elon is a fascist moron
Link to the wired article with more details on the leaked Tesla docs. OP’s article references this one at the end.
Sealing the vehicle appears to have been another challenge, which is an important element for keeping both weather and noise out of the cabin. “There are a number of areas that we do not have a clear path to sealing,” the documents reportedly says.
Holy shit. I actually know a thing or two about this, and I’m very curious how they ended up in that kind of situation. It’s got to either be they manufacture the vehicle in such a way it’s difficult for robots to reach the welds, or… I wonder if they didn’t think they’d need to seal at all???
