The Cybertruck's Latest "Innovation": Parts That Self-Eject
Elon's $45 billion "unbreakable" metal origami experiment has reached a new milestone: every single one requires a recall because the roof trim is attempting to escape its dystopian design. The "cant rail" panels—appropriately named since they literally "can't" stay attached—are secured with what appears to be the same adhesive used on Post-it notes, but with less staying power.
Tesla's cutting-edge solution? Actually using nuts and bolts like every other manufacturer from the last century. Revolutionary! Nothing showcases disruptive innovation like hastily welding studs onto your "production-ready" vehicle because the original engineering approach involved hoping really hard that glue would work.
This eighth recall establishes the Cybertruck as Tesla's most consistent product—consistently recalled, that is. While traditional automakers waste time on extensive testing, Tesla boldly pioneers the "let customers discover the flaws" approach to quality control.
The timing couldn't be better, as owners were just mastering the art of pretending not to notice parts of their $100,000+ "future of transportation" littering highways behind them. At least the obscene gestures from passing motorists provide some entertainment while waiting for service appointments.
Perhaps next time, instead of launching cars into space, someone might suggest testing whether they can survive Earth's hostile environment—like air, roads, and reality.
Hell, the fog light body panels on my partner's Audi Q5 was press-fit. We found out it was held in with a couple plastic tabs after it went missing (presumed stolen) and we had to replace it.
Even better, should it ever fly off, the plastic covering would do less damage than the Cybertruck's heavy steel body panels.
What other manufacturers glue large steel panels on the sides of their car?
Sure, some other car makers use glue and tape to adhere some parts of the car together. Usually things like plastic trim pieces, not large steel panels.
As an engineer I would be genuinely interested in a comprehensive "lessons learned" from the Cybertruck. I'd love to see how far you can diverge from standard processes/design and how much you must undo in order to fix the problems that creates. Could there be a reliable Cybertruck 2? What would it need to sacrifice from its odd design to accomplish that (drop the gigacast frame? 2 windscreen wipers? etc).
When it was announced, it had vibes of being a car meant for Mars (or the Moon); but there's so much wrong with it in practice, that whoever does eventually build bases on those bodies* will better off starting from scratch.
* I now only give 70% odds of Starship getting to Mars ever, including one-way test flights that crash rather than landing correctly: if SpaceX can't launch to Mars before Trump stops being president, they more than likely never will — I think Musk will be directly told by the sucessor that he's no longer allowed to work on rockets, or any government contracts, due to being seen as a security risk. And without Musk, why bother with Mars?
That's what you get when Tesla maintains a monopoly on service of their cars. Suppressed information, hidden recalls. The dealership model is more open and the power balance makes it harder to mask problems.
At the unveiling it was promised to start at $39,900, just under $50k in today's dollars.
Yes, that was for a base model that wasn't produced, but we are a long way from the promised stats on the upper trim. Promised to be under $70k, or about $87k in today's dollars (nope), 500+ mi range (nope, 300), payload 3500lbs (nope, 2500), tow rating 14000 (nope, 11000). By 2021 (nope).
It does come close on two of the promised stats: 0-60 in under 3 seconds and top speed just under the promised 130. I'd much rather have it be good at being a truck than being a massive hunk of pointy steel that can be thrown around with that much torque.
The Cybertruck is just trash. It will be relegated to the scrap yard of embarassingly bad cars. Unless you want to argue it's actaully an embarassingly bad truck.
As a European coming to USA and seeing cybertrucks for the first time in real life I think it looks really fun, much more fun than on the pictures.
Having lots of problems is expected though...I have an electric car in Europe and I knew there will be lots of problems when I bought it. Still, I wouldn't go back even with its frustrations.
Readit News
Elon's $45 billion "unbreakable" metal origami experiment has reached a new milestone: every single one requires a recall because the roof trim is attempting to escape its dystopian design. The "cant rail" panels—appropriately named since they literally "can't" stay attached—are secured with what appears to be the same adhesive used on Post-it notes, but with less staying power.
Tesla's cutting-edge solution? Actually using nuts and bolts like every other manufacturer from the last century. Revolutionary! Nothing showcases disruptive innovation like hastily welding studs onto your "production-ready" vehicle because the original engineering approach involved hoping really hard that glue would work.
This eighth recall establishes the Cybertruck as Tesla's most consistent product—consistently recalled, that is. While traditional automakers waste time on extensive testing, Tesla boldly pioneers the "let customers discover the flaws" approach to quality control.
The timing couldn't be better, as owners were just mastering the art of pretending not to notice parts of their $100,000+ "future of transportation" littering highways behind them. At least the obscene gestures from passing motorists provide some entertainment while waiting for service appointments.
Perhaps next time, instead of launching cars into space, someone might suggest testing whether they can survive Earth's hostile environment—like air, roads, and reality.
Many other manufacturers secure some exterior trim pieces with glue or tape.
Even better, should it ever fly off, the plastic covering would do less damage than the Cybertruck's heavy steel body panels.
Sure, some other car makers use glue and tape to adhere some parts of the car together. Usually things like plastic trim pieces, not large steel panels.
Deleted Comment
* I now only give 70% odds of Starship getting to Mars ever, including one-way test flights that crash rather than landing correctly: if SpaceX can't launch to Mars before Trump stops being president, they more than likely never will — I think Musk will be directly told by the sucessor that he's no longer allowed to work on rockets, or any government contracts, due to being seen as a security risk. And without Musk, why bother with Mars?
Dead Comment
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/CyberStuck/comments/1dx47vh/another...
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/CyberStuck/comments/1ek88mj/the_cyb...
The amphibious vehicle that traps its passengers inside to die
The self driving car with the awareness of wile-e-coyote
This is the dictionary definition of film-flam. All yours for a low $100,000
Yes, that was for a base model that wasn't produced, but we are a long way from the promised stats on the upper trim. Promised to be under $70k, or about $87k in today's dollars (nope), 500+ mi range (nope, 300), payload 3500lbs (nope, 2500), tow rating 14000 (nope, 11000). By 2021 (nope).
It does come close on two of the promised stats: 0-60 in under 3 seconds and top speed just under the promised 130. I'd much rather have it be good at being a truck than being a massive hunk of pointy steel that can be thrown around with that much torque.
Deleted Comment
Having lots of problems is expected though...I have an electric car in Europe and I knew there will be lots of problems when I bought it. Still, I wouldn't go back even with its frustrations.
I would have suggested rivets. Big, forged rivets, through a steel band around the edge. That would have looked so much cooler.