I'm rooting for it despite it being silly and not a practical pickup, strictly because every car people are buying looks identical (picture a crossover SUV from Toyota, Chevy, BMW etc. Basically shoe-shaped things).<p>This looks like a concept car that would never come to market. I hope it sells really well and convinces others to bring actually-creative designs to market.
This is what we call vehicle weight inflation. As cars get heavier and heavier, the roads get increasingly more dangerous for smaller cars, which causes everyone to get bigger cars. And the loop continues.
1kg of petrol/gasoline is ~48MJ.<p>1kg of Lithim-ion battery is ~0.25MJ/kg.<p>Gasoline is ~192X energy dense compared to Lithium-ion batteries. Li-on is the most popular battery due to its cost and weight.<p>In terms of weight:<p>Tesla model Y = ~4,500 lbs.<p>F-150 lightning = ~6,500 lbs.<p>Rivian R1T = ~7,000 lbs.<p>Hummer EV = ~9,000 lbs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯<p>Cybertruck = ~5,400 lbs<p>A human roughly weighs 160lbs (~72kg).<p>Buying electric trucks IMO is pretty awful for the environment and the road itself. From the energy spent mining the raw materials for that heavy of a battery, to energy spent just moving that battery. The battery weighs more than the passengers.<p>We're playing stupid games to win stupid prizes in the name of climate change.
If it is a great car, but flops because it looks weird, that's a shame.<p>If it's a terribly-built car, with reliability issues, and a super difficult production cycle, that's a shame, but for a different reason: you'd think after the snafu over the Model X, where certain features (the X-wing doors) were a production nightmare and ballooned the cost and tanked the reliability, they wouldn't make the same mistake again. But if that is the case here, then they did make the same mistake, but even bigger and with worse consequences.<p>But ignoring all that, at least it's different, and I'm rooting for its success. If it fails, though, most likely Tesla will only have themselves to blame.
I've been seeing a bunch of them in Bay Area, I thought it was already launched and started deliveries. In person, it looks like something out of a movie set.
I saw one at the mall last week. Much bigger than I expected. Like bigger than a Tundra. I don’t get it. You can’t fit much in the back. A lot of people like how traditional trucks look and this is a big departure. I hope insurance companies jack up their rates for these things, it’s going to destroy everything it contacts.
I just wish they kept the ultrasonic sensors instead of solely relying on Tesla Vision. That was a huge mistake and they refuse to acknowledge it and instead insist Vision is better and all that is necessary. It's an inferior product.
Really glad this ugly POS probably won't be street-legal in Europe. Just look at the old Defender 2016. And that has no sharp edges or reflective surfaces.
My eyes can't ignore the little left-facing chevron flying upward at the end of the video loop (on the right of the video).<p><a href="https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/video/upload/ct-logo.mov" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/video/upload/...</a>
These launch countdowns are silly. Yes, you're going to be really cool the first year or so with that Cybertruck. But after you go to a party and five other people have one, (1,000,000+ reservations since 2019) it'll seem much less alluring.
The outside look of it is really terrible. It's like someone made a rough sketch of a truck and then told the team to build that exact sketch. Which is almost certainly what actually happened.
I understand the nostalgia for those rock solid steel bumpered behemoths people used to drive. Knocking your bumper on the curb and shelling out a few grand for some plastic sucks. But think just for a moment about how the physics of that equation work out. There's 3 tons of rolling steel coming to a stop, and something's gotta give. It's either the car, or you.<p>Best of luck to anyone who drives ones of these. I'll be interested to see the NHTSA results.
I’m still somewhat on the fence. But it’s looking pretty good: <a href="https://www.theautopian.com/i-saw-a-production-spec-tesla-cybertruck-and-it-looks-decent-here-are-a-bunch-of-pics-so-you-can-judge-for-yourself/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.theautopian.com/i-saw-a-production-spec-tesla-cy...</a>
The back of it kind of looks like the back of a garbage truck: <a href="https://insideevs.com/photos/868833/tesla-cybertruck-malibu-cars-and-coffee/#7530100_img_4372" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://insideevs.com/photos/868833/tesla-cybertruck-malibu-...</a>
Placed an order on announce day. My main reason was the 500 mile range (for the tri-motor variant). As much as I'd like to buy the thing, if the range offered doesn't meet or exceed the promised value, I'll cancel my order and get my $100 back. If it does meet spec, I've got a check ready.
Pet theory: Musk's justly hated destruction of Twitter,<p>and accelerating descent into open literal racism and antisemitism,<p>are both meant to distract from the stupidity and imminent utter failure of the abomination that is the Cybertruck.
I love how the Cybertruck looks like something out of a SEGA Saturn game, but I still don't want any EV from any manufacturer until I can get one that won't spy on me.
I know nothing about the actually physics, but all those polygonal, angled surfaces remind me of the chapter in Ben Rich’s skunkworks book about how a lot of the radar-defeating properties of the F-117 was due to the similar-looking geometry of the plane. I wonder if cops will discover it’s weirdly hard to speed check these :P
So tomorrow they will begin the live stream: <a href="https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ZkKzjaBdmLKv" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ZkKzjaBdmLKv</a>
I happen to think that Musk is a loon, but I am rooting for the success of the truck, because, in the US, truck buyers are a super conservative bunch, and if you win them over, then the EV transition really kicks in. Truck buyers cannot afford machines that get between them and earning their livelihood.<p>The question for me is whether this, and the Ford F150 Lightning, are poser trucks, or genuine work trucks. Its winning at the latter that is important. Can they drive on non paved surfaces like construction sites? Can they carry a full sheet of drywall? Can they tow a horse box? Are there weird protuberances that are going to get a accidentally smashed by a kid trying to load a 2x4? Are there accessories like tool boxes available? Will it start at 4am in a Minnesota winter? I'm more convinced by the F150 here than the Cybertruck, but I'm waiting for real people to allocate real scarce resource to buy it rather than tech bros with excess cash.
I had a chance to see it in person at the local Tesla Charlotte showroom. It's a lot longer than I anticipated but definitely a lot shorter that I thought it would be.
I wonder how much the demand for this vehicle has changed since it was first announced.<p>I was definitely on the bandwagon from this thing from the first time I saw it. Four years of Elon's dumb antics and I now absolutely will not spend a dime at any company he's associated with.