While in Cabo San Lucas on the hunt for a winter home to escape his Colorado icebox, Autopian reader Mario found himself blocked into his hotel parking lot by multiple Tesla Cybertruck prototypes. “Funny thing, they blocked me in so I couldn’t leave this morning,” he told me. “But when your rental car is a base model Kia of some sort, your man card doesn’t allow you to go out and say ‘excuse me, can you move your tundra and Cybertrucks, I have places to be.'”
There were two Cybertrucks and one white “chase/support truck,” as Mario put it via email. “I didn’t want to interrupt their photo shoot and prep but here are the best I could do,” he said, attaching the following photos that he took early this morning (check out the cool paint schemes, and the RC “Release Candidate” branding on the nose:
I’ll crop in a bit more to get some extra detail.
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Here you can some Maxxtrax recovery boards on the tailgate, plus there’s something dangling under that rear bumper.
Here you can see what looks like a pretty standard tailgate cable, and a tie-down rail on the inside of the beside:
Here you can see some door panels, a rack on the tilted roof, and some instrumentation:
Here’s a rear shot. Hmm, what is that in the bed? [Update: Looks like it’s a wheel cover! -DT].
I’m not sure. It looks like some kind of cover? It’s large:
Try to say something nice, try to say something nice… I like how the brake lights are integrated into the back of the truck so they are visible when the tailgate is down. Something else, something else… hmmmm… That’s a decent frunk!
But seriously, that tailgate is going to slice open some legs and the rear windows look so high that most adults won’t be able to look out them, let alone kids!
This thing is rubbish, and has already been tagged by drug dealers in the bad part of town.
Those doors (and door cards) look thick as fuck. This is going to be a massive truck, with a cramped interior.
Like, surely that’s some cameo piece on the upper section and they didn’t go full bulky flat surface all though the interior to match the exterior did they?
Kids in the back seat better be used to not seeing anything, because that window sill is HIGH
They do look better dirty but it’s still a car I have no idea what the use case is other than “look at me!” (which is fine). Those back windows look useless and the wind noise at speed is going to be insane. Did they ever get it to stop leaking? I’m still glad it exists, as I do like quirky, even if I don’t “get it”. The reviews will be interesting.
Mr. Meeseks car!
Not going to make redundant comments to all of the ones pointing out the absurdity of the CT but I have one comment…
…the roof racks. If you put anything on them in the way that roof racks are intended to carry anything, the tip will be pointing up and will catch an absurd amount of air. Imagine a surfboard with either end pointing forward at highway speed.
Just further proof of the nonsensical nature of this thing IMHO.
Just make the rear rack taller. Problem solved.
But yeah, this is a common issue with existing SUVs with sloped roofs. My Wife had a small hatchback with the same issue. Not as dramatic but still annoying.
I was thinking how much a sheet of plywood would drop your range with that angle
I just can’t get used to how ugly Cybertrucks are. When compared to the Rivian, the Ford F150 Lightning, the upcoming RAM electric truck and even the Hummer EV, the Cybertruck looks cheap and nasty.
Personally I feel like those trucks all look like caricatures of normal sized trucks that have been blown up to a ridiculous size.
I wouldn’t say I like the look of the Cybertruck, but it’s different and I’d rather have variety in the traffic I see.
Well seeing as how the Rivian is not a full-size, and the F-150 and Ram are literally based off of the ICE versions, I guess this only applies to the Hummer… which if we reduced your statement by 75% then it is very correct. The Hummer is indeed a very intentional caricature.
Oh no, I meant that ‘full-sized’ trucks look grotesquely big to me. Something that big would have trouble fitting down my street.
The Cybertruck is certainly different and although I don’t like it, I believe its existence is a very good thing! I agree wholeheartedly with you: the bigger the variety of vehicles people have to choose from, the better. Variety is the spice of life, as they say!
While i’m feeling slightly less sick every time i see these, i’ll never like the wheel surround.The back one is especially awkward.
Maybe the graffiti is intended to distract from that?
Despite disliking the “bar of soap” design of the 3 and its fat twin, I will still buy it.
It is, by all metrics, the better car (daily driver).
For now, all the Cybertruck has to do is be better than the F-150, and that might not happen.
Simone Giertz made a rough pick up from a model 3 and others have made a really nice estate version of model S. Why Tesla has not picked this up (no pun intended) and made model Y Ute and a S estate with 6 seats, is a bit strange to me.
I don’t think Tesla can afford to gamble on variations of current models, to be honest. It’s a lot of investment for an unknown outcome. They barely even do facelifts.
And that’s a shame because a Model S station wagon would actually be pretty cool.
They would be better off making an electric version of a creatively improved and styled normal pickup truck.
This is a swing and a miss from a batter who refuses to leave the batter’s box because he believes he is a superstar hitter.
Oh, for sure, they would’ve 100% been better off if they hadn’t spend whatever amount they’ve been wasting on the Cybertruck if they went with a more conservative design; but then again, Tesla is a tech company so when they change, they, ugh, disrupt. They wouldn’t just go for a practical design, they had to come up with something else entirely (and to be fair their strategy was not so bad when it came to pumping the stonks). They’d never copy tried-and-tested ideas from established automakers. Tech companies only ever steal each others’ ideas.
It’s hard to explain, but the more pictures I see of these in the wild, the more “unfinished” (?) they look? For some reason they would look more production ready and complete if they were covered in camo?
It’s “The Homer” car to satisfy Elon, just like he insisted on the falcon wing doors on the Model X even though plenty of people within Tesla absolutely hated that design feature as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPc-VEqBPHI
Alternate headline:
“My uncouth neighbors left their rubbish bins in the middle of my driveway again.”
I can’t believe that was dumb enough to put a deposit in on one of these, but I did. I tried to cancel, but I didn’t get my $100 back yet. Maybe losing 100 was the appropriate punishment
You know… I get why people were excited when it was unveiled, and I totally understand that so many deposits were put in. especially since the deposit was cheap. But I think Tesla consciously conned a lot of people out of 100 bucks, and that sucks. I think it was clearly part of their strategy to try and have as many deposits as possible from people who would give up on them, effectively turning the deposit into a donation.
How long ago did you cancel?
I cancelled a over a year ago, when the Twitter purchase fully exposed Elon’s truly awful personality and confirmed that we’re going to have to live with his trolling for the rest of his life. I had my reservations when he was more private, and probably would not have completed the purchase due to Elon, but wanted to reserve the option in case he was being smeared.
I thought the month it took for my refund was an extraordinarily long time to wait for a huge corporation to pay back my money, but I’ve also heard many stories of missing refunds like yours.
I guess there is a subject for Torch right there.
I thought car blog commenters were all about variety. “I’m sick of all these blobs” they say. Then somebody makes a non blob and they say “Wouldn’t want to hit my elbow on that.” So then it’s back to crv and bz4x and rav4 and other combinations.
If I say I’m sick of eating mac and cheese everyday, and you put a plate of dogshit in front of me, am I supposed to be grateful that it’s different?
Actually you weren’t supposed to notice it was dogshit until after you ate it.
The more I see of these the uglier they get. I wonder if these guys had the balls to run some of the Baja 1000 race course?
The Cybertruck is designed to haul big egos. Most of the $100k trucks are too nice to do truck stuff. I like it because its different.
It looks like what a first-gen Honda Ridgeline would look like rendered in “Test Drive III: The Passion,” the MS-DOS game from 1990.
Them bringing a Tacoma for a support truck says all there is to say about this joke of a truck
COTD
I’ve seen one of their mobile repair vehicles around here before–it was a Ford Transit Connect. I mean it makes sense to use a van for that, but there’s a bit of irony there regardless.
My good even uglier in real-life. Like an ugly brother and sister mated and the local gang spray painted graffiti on them to hide the ugly.
I can’t be certain due to the distance from the object, but it doesn’t look like these meet the +/-0.01mm surface tolerance dictated by Musk
When every surface is flat from the bare sheet metal, it’s actually an easy goal to achieve!
Actually, a flat surface is even harder to control since there’s no strain in the panel
They look like they get sold “pre-vandalized” or something. Good luck bringing anything home from the lumber yard that’s more than a couple feet long, getting your full sized motorcycle in the back, or even dragging a bunch of yard stuff to the dump.
It doesn’t look all that capable of doing actual truck things. I’ll keep my 24yo F150XL. The Cybertruck can’t do any of the things I need a truck to do, especially for the premium I’m sure they’re going to charge.
Granted, I don’t think you could get the proverbial dead hooked and a set of golf clubs back there.
…The edge of the tailgate…
I was looking at the sharp pointy bit on the side
I saw that and immediately thought “Ouch”
These things have a LOT of camouflage on them. Once those fake, flat panels are off, we’ll see the smooth curves of the production design. Wait, what?
My money is on the thing below the tailgate being structural because I think this is just going to end up being built on one of their existing chassis.
My money on model x on big tires. Put low profile tires on those rims, and there is no more ground clearance.
These still remind me of the triangular poop emoji, only melted and flattened out, which I find entirely appropriate
The graffiti is there to hide/distract from the flat panel issues.
I’m now officially calling it the KET (Ketamine Ego Trip).
More like an acid flashback to me.
Believable.If there is a way to ruin already flat metal,Tesla will find it XD
Sorry but in the natural world, (not press photos) this thing looks even shittier than I thought it could.
Actually it looks like something built in a garage out of recycled stainless steel refrigerator doors by a lunatic. Seriously.
I’ve seen drawings of trucks by 5 year olds that looked far better than Elon’s newest turd.
Sorry, not sorry.
Maybe built by Hamster, May, and Jeremy over a weekend of heavy drinking?
That’s what I was looking for. Well said.
It does look a bit like George without the moostach
Actually George and Elon have the same idea about telling the truth.
“It’s not a lie if you believe it Jerry.”
Actually I was referring to George the guys EV they built
Sorry. We had to give up pay TV years ago. So the reference point had slipped my mind. Touche’
All is forgiven if you canexplain to a Boomer how to get internet and television without the expensive companies. I will cut the cord but so far it seems no matter what the cost is the same.
Boomer here too. And yes they have us by the short hairs.
It sucks.
Yet but apparently Genx is so tough. I lived out that and more. BOOMERS ARE THE BEST.
Do they try to shut you out too? I mean the employees are great but the younger generation is certainly trying to shut out any truth they don’t believe in.
As an old person I agree. I don’t believe in a lot of stuff, but am especially annoyed at being told we are irrelevant strictly because of age. Just really hypocritical as hell.