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Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck. Apparently, many people think it's ugly. I absolutely love it. It took the jellybean esthetic of modern vehicles and ran it over. Twice. There's simply no point in saying anything about this truck -- you have to look at the pictures:
In order to make this TFS less short, a few specs, but really, they don't matter until you see if it appeals to you which it either will or won't in spades. The low end 250 mile range version is supposed to be about $40k. The body is unpainted cold rolled stainless steel. Upmodels will have a towing capacity variously described as 10-14k pounds and at the top end, a 500 mile range. They'll cost a lot more.
"Bulletproof" Musk Cybertruck fail
Elon Musk bragged that his "cybertruck" was bulletproof to a 9mm round, but two separate attempts to demonstrate just how tough it is failed when ball bearings thrown by hand literally caused the windows to come crashing down in pieces. So much for safety glass; even on cyber trucks, windows sucks.
We created an exoskeleton," Musk said to rapturous whoops from those attending the Los Angeles launch. "It is literally bulletproof to a 9mm handgun."
Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla's chief designer, asked Musk if he could lob a metal ball at the window of the vehicle. "Really?" said Musk. The window smashed. "Oh my fucking God," said Musk. "Maybe that was a little hard."
Showing confidence in the vehicle, Von Holzhausen then suggested he should lob it at a second window. "Try that one? Really?" asked Musk moments before the rear window was also smashed. "It didn't go through, that's the plus side," a stunned Musk said.
Also at Ars Technica and Wccftech.
See also: Hot takes as opinion cools on Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla trademarked Cybertruck and 'Cybrtrk' ahead of its planned debut
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday November 22 2019, @10:08PM (1 child)
after aiming for coefficient of drag in the 0.2-0.25 range for all the other vehicles, and 0.36 for the semi [teslarati.com], this thing looks like it is competing with refrigerators.. but then, with Ford F trucks managing 0.42 [newcartestdrive.com] and other vehicles not much better [ecomodder.com], it really isn't about mileage with US gasoline prices [globalpetrolprices.com].
Compared to some [fuelcheck.com.au] parts of the world, the US has it easy [globalpetrolprices.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday November 23 2019, @08:48PM
I suspect this design won't be too bad for Cd. The sloped bed cover is a huge improvement over traditional pickups. The air suspension will also help with overall drag (although Cd is dependent on the cross-sectional area... so reducing the profile might increase Cd). Lastly, electric vehicles remove the large radiator and typically have smooth underbodies which are very costly in terms of drag for vehicles.