This was the most compelling explanation of the visuals. They are saying that Telsa put function radically over form to reduce manufacturing complexity and efficiency. This is a purely utilitarian approach that is not self-evident.
I hope Telsa will put together a better presentation to explain this to the public. This is the sort of technical progress you'd like to see in other domains.
Saw this on Reddit. Seems to show a panel there which opens up. I don't think we can trust anything but the major bullet points making it to production though. This thing is a prototype and much of what we see could be up in the air.
Is there any reason they wouldn't just make those independant panels and weld those joints? It's a little slower than stamping, but cutting and welding panels like this is well within the capabilities of their existing robots.
Basically: the stainless steel, hard edged design has quite a few cost-savings for manufacturing but may effect aerodynamics, weight, and durability (large flat sections of metal are more likely to dent than curved).
It will be interesting to see how the pros/cons play out for Tesla with the cybertruck!
> The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12.
the metallic finish made the entire care near un-repairable. It showed flaws exceedingly well, and the properties of most stainless hinder most efforts at regular dent and ding repair.
Aside : I got to smog certify a DeLorean when I was a mechanic in a previous life. It's one of the most memorable cars I have ever had the pleasure of driving. It wasn't that great a driving car, but it was just such a neat image to see in real life.
"Well, if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.....watch out!"
I always wanted the rest of that line. As though the writers had thought up some way to make 'stainless steel' a necessary part of the the time machine construction.
So what happens when you get into an accident with this thing? Do you have to replace the entire body? Or does it just not properly crumple and you’ll just be dead or crippled so you won’t have to worry about it.
How is it function over form? They use electric motors on the door handles, bed cover, and ramp. They made the bed sides super high and hard to access the bed. It has no floor tie-downs. They gave it a glass roof where you'd lean stuff from the bed!
This is absolutely form over function, they just picked a form which is controversial.
PS - I actually like the Cybertruck. But I'm self aware to know it is due to all the impractical toys that will ultimately be a maintenance hazard. It is cool but impractical.
Uh it looks like there are at least holes where the tie downs can fit. The glass roof is kinda nuts for sure though. Those high walls are also annoying if you want to put tool boxes in your truck. It might be possible to still be practical by making some changes to how you might store things for easy access like on a normal truck but it probably can't use current existing solutions. :/
>Ditch the heavy, traditional, body-on-frame, and rethink the structure as weight-efficient trussed bridge in its simplest load-spreading configuration: a triangle set on its hypotenuse. One side is the Cybertruck's wedgy cab, the other, its tapered, sail-sided bed, their meeting point at the truck's tall peak resulting in a huge cross-sectional area for maximum stiffness.
So one little mishap with a heavy object in the vicinity of the bed rails and the truck's structural integrity may be compromised. All the pros listed to the design seem valid but this seems like a very high stakes bet on exactly the functions this truck does and doesn't need to perform.
I was actually prepared to dislike it before I saw a picture of it, because I'd seen other conceptualizations of hypothetical Tesla trucks and they look sorta like they're trying too hard to look like the sedans, but end up too bubbly and cute.
However, this truck is dope as hell and I'd drive it. It makes you look like a retro-80s action star. I think I would have to grow out my mustache if I drove it, and I don't mean that ironically.
It looks like in a couple of ways, though, they maybe did go with form over function.
1. It looks the roof over the passenger compartment peaks over the heads of the people in the front seats, and then lowers towards the back. (See photo 42 of the first gallery in the article, or photo 22 of the second gallery, or photo 10 of the third gallery, or the second photo in the Ars article [1] gallery).
This could get annoying for tall people in the back seats. For a family car, where the back seat will usually be kids, less headroom there is fine. A pickup is work vehicle and so should assume adults in back and so should have adult headroom back there.
2. The walls on the side of the cargo bed are not flat. That angled line from that end to the peak of the roof does look great...but it also means that existing truck campers [2] or camper shells [3] won't fit.
My understanding is that while bed sizes aren't quite standardized, what one manufacturer calls a short bed, standard bed, and long bed will and what another manufacturer calls short, standard, and long will be close enough to each other that a lot of accessories like campers and shells can be designed to work with both.
It looks like the Tesla will need new accessories, which only work with Tesla.
Tesla missed opportunity to describe headroom in backseat. A 6'5" man sat in back seat when asked how much leg room, he said "I have days" [1] and his head doesn't appear to touch glass ceiling.
> This could get annoying for tall people in the back seats. For a family car, where the back seat will usually be kids, less headroom there is fine. A pickup is work vehicle and so should assume adults in back and so should have adult headroom back there.
4-door full-size pickups are the modern giant family sedan. Just look at one with a cap on the bed, and it just looks like a giant 1950s sedan, (edit) only taller
>Working pickups in the wild are subject to lots of sharp impacts that regular cars do not normally get.
realistically this vehicle has very few of the traits needed in a work pickup.
Expensive and remote repair, lots of gadgets to break, difficult to remotely fuel, very likely costly compared to the cheapest alternatives.
It's like an anti-Jeep.
This seems to me to be like an electric Honda Ridgeline; a truck made for grocery-getting, mall-hopping, and very light offroad duty.
Also : there are glass formulations that are better suited for tear and puncture resistance than bulletproofed materials. There are trade offs when those materials don't need to deal with the same kinetic energy as a bullet, but i'm not educated enough on the subject to say much more.
The fact that the truck looks like a Warthog from the Halo video games aside, I feel that this truck is destined for the defense market.
Overly sturdy frame, bulletproof windows, no gasoline.
Electric vehicles that can self-charge through solar seem to be a massive logistical advantage. You can reduce the need for fuel supply lines.
Because station wagons aren't as profitable for Ford. I'm not even kidding. A lot of groups benefit from increased consumption from this. Auto companies get protection in the light truck segment from foreign competition. Gas companies sell more gas. There is more churn on the consumer loan market as people overextend themselves to buy them (instead of getting more practical coupes or sedans and renting pickups as needed).
I commute with a 2.5L Golf, I get 25 mpg in urban mountain driving. Stick shift, it's a blast to drive. However, it's also a massive pain in the ass to get in and out of. Especially since my recent abdominal surgery.
When I slip into my SUV I really appreciate the extra space.
When I load all the crap modern children have (car seats, strollers, pack and play, ect) and lug them 300 miles to their grandparents (which I used to do monthly, now once every two months), I also appreciate the extra room.
Speaking of kids, I really appreciate having an extra 1000 lb of inertia (vs. the Golf) protecting them when some idiot on his phone crashes into me. Fellow millennials! Put the phone down!
If (when, really) I move back to CND, I'll appreciate towing 5000 lb trailer worth of stuff to have while the moving companies does their thing.
And you know the best part of the SUV? The Golf doesn't get much better millage! I save more money from the cheaper tires the Golf takes than I do on the gas!
Readit News
I hope Telsa will put together a better presentation to explain this to the public. This is the sort of technical progress you'd like to see in other domains.
so I've checked around the pictures, apparently the marketing material has seams along the angle, but the car in the presentation has angled plates.
something doesn't add up https://imgur.com/a/HO1HnGC
https://imgur.com/a/r4drdJh
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_(sheet_metal_bending)
It will be interesting to see how the pros/cons play out for Tesla with the cybertruck!
the metallic finish made the entire care near un-repairable. It showed flaws exceedingly well, and the properties of most stainless hinder most efforts at regular dent and ding repair.
Aside : I got to smog certify a DeLorean when I was a mechanic in a previous life. It's one of the most memorable cars I have ever had the pleasure of driving. It wasn't that great a driving car, but it was just such a neat image to see in real life.
I always wanted the rest of that line. As though the writers had thought up some way to make 'stainless steel' a necessary part of the the time machine construction.
I take it you didn't see the part of the presentation where they hit the Cybertruck with a sledge hammer with no effect.
The "regular pickup door" did not fair so well.
This is absolutely form over function, they just picked a form which is controversial.
PS - I actually like the Cybertruck. But I'm self aware to know it is due to all the impractical toys that will ultimately be a maintenance hazard. It is cool but impractical.
I think a lot of buyers will be people who would normally buy a large, 2-row SUV, or truck owners who keep a cap on their bed.
So one little mishap with a heavy object in the vicinity of the bed rails and the truck's structural integrity may be compromised. All the pros listed to the design seem valid but this seems like a very high stakes bet on exactly the functions this truck does and doesn't need to perform.
However, this truck is dope as hell and I'd drive it. It makes you look like a retro-80s action star. I think I would have to grow out my mustache if I drove it, and I don't mean that ironically.
1. It looks the roof over the passenger compartment peaks over the heads of the people in the front seats, and then lowers towards the back. (See photo 42 of the first gallery in the article, or photo 22 of the second gallery, or photo 10 of the third gallery, or the second photo in the Ars article [1] gallery).
This could get annoying for tall people in the back seats. For a family car, where the back seat will usually be kids, less headroom there is fine. A pickup is work vehicle and so should assume adults in back and so should have adult headroom back there.
2. The walls on the side of the cargo bed are not flat. That angled line from that end to the peak of the roof does look great...but it also means that existing truck campers [2] or camper shells [3] won't fit.
My understanding is that while bed sizes aren't quite standardized, what one manufacturer calls a short bed, standard bed, and long bed will and what another manufacturer calls short, standard, and long will be close enough to each other that a lot of accessories like campers and shells can be designed to work with both.
It looks like the Tesla will need new accessories, which only work with Tesla.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/11/tesla-wants-to-reinvent...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_camper
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camper_shell
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=105&v=-oW-BVxoQF...
4-door full-size pickups are the modern giant family sedan. Just look at one with a cap on the bed, and it just looks like a giant 1950s sedan, (edit) only taller
realistically this vehicle has very few of the traits needed in a work pickup.
Expensive and remote repair, lots of gadgets to break, difficult to remotely fuel, very likely costly compared to the cheapest alternatives.
It's like an anti-Jeep.
This seems to me to be like an electric Honda Ridgeline; a truck made for grocery-getting, mall-hopping, and very light offroad duty.
Also : there are glass formulations that are better suited for tear and puncture resistance than bulletproofed materials. There are trade offs when those materials don't need to deal with the same kinetic energy as a bullet, but i'm not educated enough on the subject to say much more.
I commute with a 2.5L Golf, I get 25 mpg in urban mountain driving. Stick shift, it's a blast to drive. However, it's also a massive pain in the ass to get in and out of. Especially since my recent abdominal surgery.
When I slip into my SUV I really appreciate the extra space.
When I load all the crap modern children have (car seats, strollers, pack and play, ect) and lug them 300 miles to their grandparents (which I used to do monthly, now once every two months), I also appreciate the extra room.
Speaking of kids, I really appreciate having an extra 1000 lb of inertia (vs. the Golf) protecting them when some idiot on his phone crashes into me. Fellow millennials! Put the phone down!
If (when, really) I move back to CND, I'll appreciate towing 5000 lb trailer worth of stuff to have while the moving companies does their thing.
And you know the best part of the SUV? The Golf doesn't get much better millage! I save more money from the cheaper tires the Golf takes than I do on the gas!
I think that they used pure white anywhere shows where they expect the market to be.
Aesthetically I like it, it's different and looks like something you'd see bouncing around Mars.