One of the great things about going to LA for the car show (we still have Autopians there, by the way, so stop by) is that you can also sneak your way into other fancy car-events, like the opening of the new Tesla exhibit being hosted at the Petersen Automotive Museum. David, Mercedes, and I managed to worm our way into the event, greedily downing the free sliders and guzzling booze we didn’t pay for, and checking out a sort of unlikely museum exhibit for a company so young. Still, it’s an important one, and despite being surrounded by a lot of Tesla fans who may not have minded so much were I to choke on one of those free sliders, the event was fun and the exhibit interesting, especially because it offered me a chance to inspect the Cybertruck prototype up close. Which I did.
Now, I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of the Cybertruck‘s low-polygon, rendered-on-a-Super Nintendo-with-the-Super FX-chip look, but I do appreciate that something so unexpected and bold exists. Well, might exist. Sometime late next year, probably. Maybe. That said, you can’t ever really judge a car or truck’s design until you’ve at least encountered it in person, so I was very pleased to finally be next to this big stainless steel beast.
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This Cybertruck is that very first prototype shown back in, damn, 2019. Since that time, there’s been at least one revised version built, which has essentially the same look and size but differs in many details, ssome of which I showed here when I wrote about it for The Old Site:
I mention this to be clear that the Cybertruck I saw is that first prototype, and as such is an over three-year old one-off, so I don’t think – I mean, I really hope – we can’t take its build quality and every design decision as a likely indicator of what a production Cybertruck will be like. And that’s important to note, because this thing is not exactly reeking of quality, if you know what I mean.
Here, look at this shit:
Oy. Did they run out of window rubber and were too cheap to get a new roll, so they just stuck in a scrap?
I’m not sure if the frunk actually opens on this, but it kinda looks like someone tried to jimmy it open with a crowbar.
Also, so much of this thing is sharp, and I don’t mean that metaphorically, I mean that literally. The Cybertruck is full of edges and surfaces and points that want to puncture you. It’s like a gleaming steel riot of stabbing and pinching opportunities everywhere you look and touch.
Some of our auto industry professionals on staff had a lot to say about the Cybertruck prototype when I showed them pictures, but I think the crucial takeaway is: Maybe it would have been better not to show anything at all instead of this. Ouch.
Now, I don’t know if I agree in the case of the Cybertruck, because it’s become such an icon to hardcore Tesla fans, but maybe I’d have made the exhibit so you couldn’t get closer than about ten feet away from the Cybertruck. I bet that would help with liability, too, because I pity the kid that trips and takes a header into this thing.
What I suspected about the Cybertruck from the beginning hasn’t changed much after seeing the thing in-person: I don’t think its fundamental design lends itself well to being, you know, an actual truck. A truck that does actual truck things, like having large objects loaded into and out of it.
Walking around the Cybertruck, it feels more architectural than automotive; its massive bulk is unrelenting, and while most modern trucks are absurdly huge, only the Cybertruck really presents you with large, nearly featureless walls of steel. The proportions are 3/4 cab and hood, and 1/4 bed, and that bed is walled in like a medieval city. If anyone has ever, say, helped a friend move from an apartment and had to load a couch into a truck bed while parallel parked on a road, I think you’ll be happy you didn’t do that in a Cybertruck.
Loading something via the side of the truck would be a massive ordeal, and possibly painful, too. If you’re leaning against the sides of the truck while you’re muscling some heavy, ungainly thing in, you’ll have sharp edges and pointy things jamming into your tender flanks.
Also, where would you step to reach up and over the sides and into the bed? I guess you’d climb on the tires? That can work sometimes, I guess. And if you load exclusively via the rear, the tailgate design has all the same unforgiving issues of the rest of the truck. Would you want a bedliner in this? I suppose the lack of rear wheel humps is nice, though, as it’s a perfectly rectangular bed floor.
[Editor’s Note: Packaging fetishists among you may have looked at the photo above and spit out your Fruit Loops. “Oh god, the wheels don’t protrude into the bed, meaning the bedsides are rather thick. What a waste of space!” you might exclaim to your six-year-old who couldn’t care less. “This is a tragedy! Even the old Chevy Avalanche used this space for storage!”
But calm down (and stop eating your kid’s food), for Tesla claims that there will be storage all over the place, including under that bed and in those sail pillars (those are those big flying buttresses that extend from the cab and become the bedsides). From Tesla:
How exactly one would access that storage space, I’m. unsure. But I have no doubt that a Tesla fan will tell me in the comments. -DT].
Sure, the bed has a couple of tie-down posts cut into the corners, but I don’t envy anyone who has to try to jam an under-tension bungee cord end into those sharp triangular holes with their fingers made of sliceable meat. And you’re going to block that narrow slit of a rear window pretty quickly, too.
There are cameras inset into the fender flares, possibly on the most vulnerable part of the sides of this already extremely wide vehicle. I mean, they look like cool triangular eyes, so there’s that.
As a design, all just feels so unforgiving, and just uninterested in being an actual, usable, truck. It’s got a very specific look and form that really have nothing to do with utility or practicality. I suppose if we’re honest, that’s probably fine, as most potential buyers are not likely looking to use this as an actual work truck. I get that. But then the whole massive size of this thing just feels even more absurd, and it becomes even more silly, conceptually. [Editor’s note: It’ll be interesting to see how big the production version is. -DT].
Look, maybe the later prototypes and then the production one will solve these issues. Maybe it’ll prove to be a fantastic truck on its own merits. But, if we’re going by what this prototype actually is, then I can’t imagine anyone who actually needed a truck would choose this thing.
DT Shows A Few Suspension Bits
I snapped a few photos of the prototype Cybertruck’s underbody, and though there wasn’t a ton to see, there was some. So let’s check it out.
The two photos above shows the front air-sprung double wishbone suspension. You can see the tie rods up front, lower control arms holding the air springs/dampers, upper wishbones at the top, and CV axle there amongst all the suspension and steering bits. The CV axle and all the steering and suspension bits are angled quite sharply, which could cause not only CV joint longevity concerns, but also “jacking” issues with the steering and suspension (basically, drastic changes in geometry when you hit a bump, causing handling issues). But of course, this clearly isn’t the standard ride height of this front suspension; the front end appears to be lifted, possibly because there may not be a full-size battery in this display model (I’m not sure; I am sure that this thing drives, though), and possibly to help the truck squat for the ramp at the rear of the truck (the ramp that allows one to drive an ATV/bicycle/motorcycle/whatever into the bed — you can barely see it in the image above).
Here’s a look at the front suspension from above; you can see the air spring/damper and upper control arm, which appears to be painted cast aluminum if I had to guess:
Here’s a look from behind.
There’s not a ton to see here, but you can view where the knuckle connects to the control arm’s ball joint, and you can see where the spring/damper fasten to the lower arm:
Here’s a close-up look at the wheel shown above, but from the front:
Here’s a look at the air spring, and the upper control arm mounting location:
Sliding towards the rear, all I saw was a totally-flat belly, which should do wonders for aerodynamics and — if covered in tough enough material — off-road capability:
It’s hard to see the rear multilink suspension, though what is obvious is that the rear spring/damper leans inward at quite a sharp angle, which severely impacts the suspension’s installation ratio and motion ratio. I won’t pretend to be a suspension expert, but I will say that I rarely see rear suspensions with springs/dampers with such a steep rake (as I understand it, you’d normally want them closer to vertical so that their displacement better matches that of the wheels):
I’ll also point out the wheel covers, because they’re bizarre, and because Jason didn’t show them before:
Anyway, this is just the prototype truck, so it’s very likely that quite a lot of what we’ve shown will change before this thing hits the market. Still, it’s cool to see the O.G., especially the infamous steel ball that splintered the truck’s “unbreakable” glass:
Check out the “INSIDE TESLA: SUPERCHARGING THE ELECTRIC REVOLUTION” exhibit, which is active until October 22 of next year, at the Petersen Automotive Museum.
I own a KV Mini 1, so I’m already covered for the sheet-metal-brake school of automotive design and construction, thanks. At least KV/KVS had the excuse that the entire factory/warehouse/distribution center/world headquarters was a single building containing one director, three employees, and very little by way of metal shaping equipment besides the aforementioned sheet metal brake. It now houses a plumbing supply shop but the old KVS diamond logo is still visible above the door:
https://live.staticflickr.com/4098/5395548121_2183371b5a_o.jpg
This article has definitely not increased my liking for this thing. It just keeps getting uglier and tackier the more I look at it. And to trot out such an obviously shitty looking thing for public consumption is silly.
It’s a ridiculous design that tries to be edgy for the sake of being edgy.
Agreed. It’s been 3 years and this still hasn’t evolved much from the original concept. If anything, it’s like Tesla is forcing the prototype to conform to the concept, instead of the concept morphing to fit an eventual production truck.
OMG! Who knew that alcohol actually comes Jason down!? Did you see how calm he was during the clip above? Did the Cybertruck fail to move Jason? I was certain he was about to blow sperm all over the Prius display at the L.A. Auto Show. That video is pure entertainment gold!
These two Autopian journalists are out there doing “God’s Work”, spreading automotive dreams to a new generation. I knew they would go on to better things (and become friends for life) after I saw that Volkswagen T6 video they did on that “other” site. There’s Jason dropping his nozzle out the window to take a piss. It’s here that we are treated to Jason in the background mumbling something about “yup, feels so good” while David is frowning, then mentioning something about “quite a flow rate you’ve got there.” David, the engineer, is apparently the introvert of the two. You can see his mind calculating Jason’s height by the volume of flow to come up with dimensions of the hole on the nozzle. Another automotive gold moment
Truth be told, I’ll never be able to afford a Tesla Cybertruck, so let me go find that Toyota Prius display at the L.A. Auto Show so I can add my own contribution…
So the latest price estimate was $40,000, but that was 2 or 3 years ago and the price of every car and truck has been heading due north. In the one-in-a-million chance this thing actually goes on sale, what will the base price be?
That suspension is awful. The rear suspension looks like they think the rear wheels will travel like a VW long travel sand buggy front end. Meanwhile the lack of cutout for the wheels will not allow for any suspension travel. The front looks cheap and poorly laid out. I think this is the real reason it has not been made. It was just put out there to create buzz with the fanboys and now that there are better trucks out there this will end up dropped. They will come out with something else to create buzz that will also never be made, until they can copy something from someone else since nothing Tesla does is unique, they just are not hung up on testing as much as other companies meaning they make things faster to the public.
That bed looks like one of those big stainless steel sinks you see in restaurants. It doesn’t matter Musk is too busy losing his shorts over on Twitter to concern himself with something he can actually sell.
I think the man has lost his marbles, Tesla stock is down another 6% today. The investors are losing confidence in anything Musk, but just keep Tweeting, Elon, it will all work out 🙁
I think this whole debacle rates just under the Twitter one. I seriously doubt money can ever be made off this joke of a vehicle.
If it had a flat roof rather than a pointy hat, I might even kind of like the design. As a fashion statement, of course, not as a practical vehicle.
That said, and perhaps because of that, Torch might have managed to find the one cool shot for this truck. That low angle picture of the front actually looks very interesting. In a fake sci-fi vehicle from an 80s TV show kind of way.
My first thought upon seeing this horror was “god, I hope every vehicle it crashes into still uses crumple zones.”
Also, I shudder to think about what even a light fender bender will cost for this in repairs of the truck
Thank you! My first question when I saw it when it debuted was, “where are the crumple zones?!” It was described as the frame being the body and that is why it was made the way it was, but if that is the case, straight lines don’t tend to crumple. This thing is a literal knife when it hits some other vehicle and adding the fact it will probably weigh 8000 lbs and go 0-60 in 3 seconds… i fear tragic consequences for a family of 4 in a Toyota. There is absolutely no way this thing can be made to meet modern safety standards, which is probably one of the many reasons it hasn’t made it to production. I applaud the creativity of the design study (I don’t like but I appreciate the effort), but that is the only thing it will ever be… just a design study. I hope!
Let’s imagine for a moment that there is a reason that car bodies, since the beginning of cars, have had nary a flat surface.
It’s almost like these companies that have been building cars for a hundred years know what they’re doing.
Of course they don’t! It’s ripe for some Silicon Valley disruption!
Build quality looks on par with most production Teslas to me
That prototype is pretty rough but I am excited for it to go into production. A stainless steel Cybervan with a built in inverter would be more my thing though.
Not too long after this debuted, someone showed up at a Lemmons race with something looking a lot like this. Actually, it looked better. Anyway, iirc, they had a pretty good race to much acclaim.
Which happens first: the Cybertruck actually goes into production or King Elon finally loses and takes a swan dive off the Golden Gate Bridge?
I’ll have to disagree on the side sails. This is meant to have a cover on the back, and those sails look to increase (tonneau) covered area by quite a bit. People have been climbing on tires to get to items in the bed for decades-that’s nothing new, and a requirement to get anything out of a new half tons. I’m sure someone will make a retracting step if it bothers you that much. That space is actually a big deal when looking at daily drivers as the pickup is commonly the family/road trip vehicle. Covered space in a Tacoma crew cab is probably smaller than a Camrys trunk.
That unexpected Tesla defense aside, this thing is hideous and has no real reason to exist. Pickups exist to either work hard or play hard, this is capable of neither
meh, all the angles are really intended to save on stamping tooling because making trucks is hard mmmmkay. Anyway, this one squats to make geting into the back easier, but it is still massive and pretty far from a working truck, so might as well have just flattened that back into a square and called it a truck because it has a roll up roof. then the space would be much more useful.
I’m not gonna lie, I can’t wait to see these in traffic. I don’t want to own one, not even a little bit, but they’ll make my commute more interesting when they finally hit the roads.
So you plan to be alive in 175 years? What’s your secret?
Eternal optimism
… and probably a disproportional number of the other cars on the road.
FIRE UP THE WILLING ENGINE, RESPONDING WITH A ROAR!
I have nothing to say about the truck, but what I want from those underside pictures is where that woman got those awesome boots…
Stylish, modern, and nice walkable heels…
Lucky for me I was just able to swivel my head 90 degrees in order to avoid spewing my rum & jumex juice cocktail directly onto the Samsung! Close call, I tells ya!
I love fall, or as I call it ‘women in boots season’.
But alas, it’s the end of summer dress season…
The best thing in all of those photos were the boots.
I find it usually is….
Comfortable walking footwear. Just what a Telsa owner should have.
Not to open a can of worms but honestly I don’t like heels at all, you’re compromising your stability and comfort for looks. Considering this is a car site I think you can understand why myself (and likely many others) think heels are stupid.
Gets uglier every time I look at it. It is definitely not growing on me.
Is it “more hideous” or “hideouser”
“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” Raymond Chandler
I will never not love a good Chandler quote. I don’t read a lot of fiction (autism), but when I do, I read him.
Lots of hackery holding this prototype together, hope the retail model doesn’t suffer Tesla’s usual build quality issues (if it ever makes it to production)
Tesla Cybertruck: When Keeping It Real (Trolling) Goes Wrong
Just a few thoughts;
1. This thing is ugly and should never be built as is.
2. This is a prototype and as such no prototypes are ever built without a lot of changes.
3. It seems impossible if you are Torchs height to load from the
side
4. Torch could not load any modern truck from the side.
5. With only a guarter of the length dedicated to the bed noway any business needing a pickup buys this.
6. This thing looks really close to being a dune killing beast.
7. What would be the best commercial use of this would be something totally new. Think slam as many portable batteries in the bed on top of the batteries already available. Make it a mobile charging/electrical generator. Add some solar charging panels and provide power to any site or emergency/hurricane/snow blocked turnpike and boom thats what this should be. Especially with rechargable removable batterirs for recharging EVs broke down.
6. This should be a mobile charging station.
I’m guessing anyone with a drink was asked to maintain a 10′ distance from this prototype, for fear that they’d spray it out with a comical spit take.
This thing looks like a garage-built homebrew project you’d buy off of Facebook Marketplace because the seller’s wife wanted her parking spot back.
You want to know why it’s not in production?
When Tesla approached toolmakers to make stamping sets for stainless steel body panels, they still haven’t caught there breath from laughing.
Stainless steel is often a royal pain in the ass to stamp. It’s quite springy that really limits the shapes you can do. And good luck to the body shops should you ding it up.
It’s one of the big reasons we don’t have stainless steel car body work.
Get the Northern Irish to do it! It almost worked for DeLorean.
Oh, it worked quite well for DeLorean.
Tesla nixed it because the panel gaps were far too consistent for them.
Worked well depending on what you consider “made of stainless steel”. DeLorean had stainless panels, attached to a fiberglass frame with steel reinforcement. Unibody, no.
Interesting. I always thought it was a unibody!
And after all that trouble, the guts and underside are still plain old rot prone materials. Should this vision come to be, we will be laughing at all those stainless shells lying around like tortoise shells with nothing inside them.
I just don’t get the points of this. Maybe I’m just not that sharp…
Cutting remark, that.
It’s Tesla, they’re always trying to be on the bleeding edge of things.
Or at least cause bleeding from the edges of this thing.
Yes, they are the apex.