Elon Musk introduced his Cybertruck this week. First enjoy the car porn
Then read some of the initial reactions from different angles
Wired on some of the features
As with its other models, Tesla gave Cybertruck some thoughtful goodies. It has 120-volt and 240-volt power outlets and an onboard air compressor, turning the truck into a mobile power station for work sites. According to previous Twitter reveals from Musk, it can parallel park itself (now a common feature in new cars) should it ever wander into a city. And, for unclear reasons, it’s bulletproof, at least to a 9-millimeter handgun. Though when Musk invited Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen to throw a metal ball at the window, the result was major cracking, and a somewhat embarrassed CEO.
Consumer Reports on the changing truck market
But other electric pickups are coming. Startup Rivian has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and has repurposed an old Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Ill. Its R-1T pickup is slated to go on sale in late 2020 starting at $69,000. Michigan-based Bollinger is promising a muscular-looking 614-hp pickup for $125,000. Lordstown Motors, a fledgling truckmaker, is taking over the GM factory outside Youngstown, Ohio, to make electric pickups. It said Thursday that its first truck, the Endurance, would go on sale next fall starting at $52,500.
MotorTrend on potential manufacturing efficiencies
If the Cybertruck is a shock to the eyes, it's a jump-start to reimagining the foundational assumptions about vehicle appearance, engineering, and manufacturing. Remember Elon Musk's plans to leapfrog car assembly with a high-speed, robotic, alien dreadnaught "machine-that-builds-the-machine" that would fire-hose Model 3s out its tailpipe? He had to sheepishly remove some of the robots and conveyor belts to speed things up. Now, the "machines-that-will-build" the Cybertruck will go dramatically skinnier, scaling the dreadnaught down to simple dinghies that groove and bend (with the $200 million paint shop getting an auditor's line drawn through it). Real progress is assembled from the debris of failures.
Autoblog on why the concept car will likely evolve
Given how extreme the design is, don't expect that the Cybertruck as presented last night will reach production unchanged. In fact, it’s about as concept car-like as any previous Tesla reveal to date.
In true concept car fashion, there are no mirrors or wipers, and the lighting is also questionable. This concept doesn’t even appear to have camera mirrors installed anywhere, and who knows when those will be greenlit by U.S. regulators anyway. The Cybertruck has just one light bar in the front and another light bar in back. We’re not sure where the third brake light is yet either. It looks like the turn signals may be hiding down by the bumper, but the light bar across the front appears to house both the headlights and one massive DRL.
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