Musk on Cybertruck: If They Don't Like It, We'll Go Boring

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was on top of his game during an interview with Automotive News last week. By that, we mean his ego and various personality quirks came through like a shaft of sunlight parting a fog bank.

Musk announced during the talk that his company performed no customer research before designing and revealing the polarizing and still-not-clearly-legal Cybertruck to would-be buyers, laughing at the idea. If folks don’t like it, he said, there’s a plan.

“We just made a car we thought was awesome and looks super weird. I just wanted to make a futuristic battle tank — something that looks like it could come out of Blade Runner or Aliens or something like that but was also highly functional,” Musk said, adding, “I wasn’t super worried about that because if it turns out nobody wants to buy a weird-looking truck, we’ll build a normal truck, no problem.”

Surely there’s a detailed design of this backup-plan truck ready to go, but something tells us there most definitely is not.

Cybertruck, scheduled to commence production at a new Austin, Texas assembly plant late next year, is aimed at North American consumers, Musk said, apparently confirming its non-global role in the automaker’s lineup. Some 200,000 would-be owners have made a deposit, the CEO added, hinting that the model’s appearance and stated abilities have endowed it with apocalypse appeal — something not many people were thinking about in 2019. (Note: This writer is always thinking about the apocalypse.)

After tooting his horn on the truck front and boasting of the company’s sky-high valuation, Musk then addressed the ongoing concerns over his company’s oft-maligned Autopilot driver-assist system. Calling criticism of the name and concerns about driver misuse “idiotic,” Musk said the name hails from aircraft terminology. And if people misuse it, that’s on them, as Tesla tells them to pay attention to the road.

Once upon a time, the company, or at least Musk, was much more cavalier about the system’s abilities. In the years since the system’s introduction, several high-profile fatal collisions have occurred, with numerous investigations ongoing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“The people who misuse Autopilot, it’s not because they’re new to it and don’t understand it. The people who first use Autopilot are extremely paranoid about it,” Musk said. “It’s not like, ‘If you just introduced a different name, I would have really treated it differently.’ If something goes wrong with Autopilot, it’s because someone is misusing it and using it directly contrary to how we’ve said it should be used.”

He continued.

“It’s not like some newbie who just got the car and, based on the name, thought they’d instantly trust the car to drive itself. That’s the idiotic premise of being upset with the Autopilot name. Idiotic.”

[Image: Tesla, IIHS]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Thx_zetec Thx_zetec on Aug 03, 2020

    Must does amazing things, but he is kind of an idiot-savante. Always good to have some Muskepticism. Look at the electrically actuated, power door handles. The freeze shut in winter, break frequently and cost $1200 to fix. For what? An extra 30 ft of range and cool-factor? Looking at this truck: 1. The windshield is huge and way too sloped. In Phoenix at noon in July you'll need a 2-ton HVAC, and you'll be blinded by the sun. 2. That huge windshield is never perfectly clean. It will impair vision more than regular windshield. Can you imagine cleaning the inner windshield? 3. The "exoskeleton" is really just unibody. Some advantages but how to hook winch, snowplow, campber, hitch, or steel rack for hauling stuff? 4. this thing is incredibly heavy. this means more expensive tires and EV's already burn through donuts super fast. 5. It is hard to garage. 6. This thing weight much more than model2, and has similar power and range so likely a lot more battery. If it charges at same energy/time it will take longer to recharge. Do you have spend longer at supercharger on long trips? 7. Peripheral vision impaired by giant sail panels. 8. People are calling Musk a genius for using stainless and saving money on paint shop, OK paint shops aint cheap. But neither is stainless, rough calc says 700 bucks extra material cost for stainless which is pricey. 9. Is this thing practically repairably post crash?

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    • Vulpine Vulpine on Aug 06, 2020

      @thx_zetec: I would be careful about throwing out prejudice, if I were you. The logic of the Cybertruck design is obvious to those who aren't blinded by "tradition." 1. Aerodynamics is both an art and a science. Modern pickup truck design by the legacy OEMs has been trying to use science to improve the fuel mileage of their trucks while keeping them looking like what they are: boxes on wheels. Oh, they've done ok, their Coefficient of Drag is pretty good but their frontal area is huge! This big, slab grilles and upright windshields mean they're still pushing more air than they need. The frontal area on the Cybertruck is less than half that of a conventional truck, meaning it needs less energy to push it through that air... meaning more range on a smaller battery than those others. Don't believe me? Ask them what size battery they plan to put in their trucks for the given range. Nearly all of them EXCEPT Tesla are claiming 200kWh or more to achieve their claimed 400-500 miles (empty.) 2. I've already addressed this one. I won't repeat myself. 3. Keep believing that. Just remember, bullets pass easily through the body panels of most trucks today...even more so now that they're aluminum on some models. 4. Those EVs that burn up their tires are treated like sports cars. When it comes to agility, softer tires give more grip. So again, you don't HAVE to put speed-rated tires under the Tesla if you don't want to, just like you don't HAVE to put load-rated tires under a conventional pickup. One or the other, not both. Decide on how you're going to use the vehicle and tire up appropriately. 5. ---- 6. ChargER capacity. Find out for yourself. The data is out there. 7. Yeah, and because there's a gap between the cab and the bed, the frame of that F-150 twists like a pretzel, no structural rigidity at all. Even GM has shown how that flimsy frame can actually prevent you from opening the tailgate if you don't park on flat ground and such flexibility also makes its road handling very questionable on certain surfaces; I've experienced that myself in two different Ford trucks. 8. Never said the savings was free but unpainted is ALWAYS less expensive than painted. I also said you could choose any color you want, AFTER you take delivery. At least he didn't put it like Henry Ford: "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black." 9. Umm... This stainless steel don't bend; and that's the point. The parts are cut either by water jet or plasma jet. This is a flat-pack design, if you haven't noticed. I have looked at the Bollinger and it exaggerates everything that is wrong with conventional pickup trucks. It's design harks back to the cars and trucks of the 1920s but I will note one thing: it, too, is a 'unibody' design, even if it does have a more conventional-looking 'frame' under it to carry the suspension That body is rigid front to back and has to be, considering the nose-to-tail pass through for lumber, tubing, etc. It also makes no claims of being economical to drive outside of low-speed and stop-start commuter driving. It may have range but if you go faster than 35mph, you'll lose a lot of that range or be carrying one heck of a battery under it. Even the Rivian is better than that.

  • La834 La834 on Aug 04, 2020

    Weird-looking cars and novelty cars have a shelf life of about two years before nearly everyone who wants one has one; after that its sales plunge. AMC Pacer a good example, as well as certain oddball SUVs and crossovers.

    • Luke42 Luke42 on Aug 04, 2020

      The Jeep Wrangler is a weird looking novelty car. And, yet, it has an enduring appeal which has lasted more than 70 years.

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