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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: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Saturday November 23 2019, @03:04AM
When I saw the first picture of the Cybertruck, I instantly thought that it has the lines of an old Giuigaro (1975-1988) Lotus Esprit. And indeed, it seems to be the key inspiration - I read that Musk had even said so. In fact, not only that, but he bought the Esprit that served as submarine in "The spy who loved me" and put it into the Tesla design studio. With the flat panels, it squarely oozes the Giugiaro spirit of the old cardboard-folded classics like the VW Scirocco I, the original Seat Ibiza, Lancia Delta, Fiat Panda and Uno, and so on.
Now, that heavy monster is miles away from the lightweight ride&handling-focused thinking of Lotus - but from being designed so radical I think that it's an instant classic because of that alone. I'd dare to mention it in one sentence with the Chevrolet El Camino and the Toyota Hilux, as far as seminal pickups go. And if it becomes the first car being driven on Mars, it would actually earn its merits.