The most baffling thing I saw at this recent Los Angeles Auto Show – and, really, at any auto show I’ve ever been to – is the Aitekx Robotruck on display right in the middle of the show, in the large area between the main halls often reserved for startups and other low-volume companies. It was baffling because the quality of the Robotruck – which absolutely looked like a bootleg Tesla Cybertruck – was, to put it generously, abysmal. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen toddler-crafted gingerbread houses that looked more carefully constructed. I already wrote something about how miserable this thing looked, but that doesn’t really answer the bigger question: why? We talked to the people behind the baffling truck to try to find out. It was more awkward than you can possibly imagine.
There are lots of questions worth asking: Why would a company bring something so crude and poorly-built to one of the biggest auto shows in the world? What is thing going to be, anyway? Is the company real? How likely is it that it will actually be built? Are they really taking $100 reservations? Who the hell is giving this company $100 after seeing this thing?
David and I couldn’t get this remarkable mess out of our heads, so we knew we had to talk to the people behind the Robotruck. We did, and, boy, did it get awkward.
Here, you really should just brace yourself for the awkwardness and watch the whole thing, which is embedded above. You can also watch it here on YouTube.
Company Representative On His Own Truck: ‘I don’t Like It’
There’s really no way it wouldn’t get awkward, of course, since we’re going up to a startup company and asking them to explain why they decided to bring such a half-assed prototype — with a design that looks to us like an obvious knockoff — to the auto show; there’s just no nice way to ask that. I want to be clear that we’re not trying to scuttle anyone’s dreams here; if they genuinely have something they believe in, then I sincerely wish them all possible success – we need small, innovative automotive startups!
But the reality is what we saw out there on the show floor was in no way anything that would inspire confidence in the abilities or mission of this company. So we had to ask them about it, and things went in a very strange direction.
I think the strangest part is when Ed – that’s the only way we know him, as when we asked his last name he responded with “I don’t want to tell you” [Ed note: We think he’s likely Edmund Shen, see the update below]— actually agreed with us that bringing such a rough prototype to the auto show was a bad idea, saying “I don’t like it.” He actually recorded a video of David and me for one of his colleagues, stating just that. Ed said he did this because he did not like the rough bodywork, and disagreed with his “developer,” and wanted to show him that, essentially, he was right, and it was a bad idea to bring such a crude vehicle to show in public.
I think Ed was right.
Denying That The Robotruck Draws Inspiration From The Tesla Cybertruck Is Bizarre
Also strange, but perhaps slightly more expected, was the insistence from everyone at Aitekx that the company’s Robotruck was not in any way supposed to look like the Cybertruck (we didn’t even ask about the name similarity). But, while there are differences — sure, come on — it’s pretty clear what truck inspired the look of this thing:
The resemblance is especially clear in these idealized renderings of what the Robotruck is supposed to look like. And by the way, pretty much every other media outlet agrees:
And yet, AITEKX representatives denied that the truck was meant to look like the Cybertruck; in fact, they’ve denied it to others as well, with tech/startup online newspaper TechCrunch writing:
Don’t call it a Cybertruck
A previously under-the-radar company called Aitekx debuted its RoboTruck at a small booth by the auto show’s west hall.
You tell me — does this look like a Tesla to you? When I asked someone at the booth if the vehicle was inspired by the Cybertruck, he responded with a firm “no.”
I should note that on the second public day of the show, Saturday, after the slew of articles talking about the “Cybertruck clone” had appeared, they removed the big triangular “sail” piece from one side of the truck, in an effort to lessen the Cybertruck-like-look of the thing, if I had to guess.
Still, the company literally has this picture on its website:
By the way, here’s a totally unrelated and in no way similar image of the Tesla Cybetruck:
Who are we trying to kid here? And more importantly: Why?
Quality So Bad It’s Hard To Take Seriously
The real-world Robotruck is, of course, far crappier than the truck’s renderings show.
You can see some of that crappiness a few photos up, where some smaller pieces of side glass mate with the huge windshield; what appears to be black silicone sealant is just smeared in the cracks. The photo directly above also shows some of the shoddy build quality; look at the gap in that rear door, which is — believe it or not — actually closed. Here I am fitting half of my hand into that door gap as David stands by utterly shocked:
But we were even more shocked when we saw that, below the outer door panel was a gap and then another outer door panel of the donor truck on which this Robotruck was based — a Toyota Tacoma, we’re pretty sure. And the donor truck’s door handles were still there! Check it out:
By the way, here’s why we think the donor is a Toyota Tacoma — we found this on the glass:
The passenger’s side door gap, by the way, doesn’t look much better:
And if you go to the front of the car, you’ll realize that the “headlights” are literally just LED light strips stuck onto the car:
These light strips can produce white or amber output, and appear pretty much identical to these I found on Amazon for $7 a foot:
The taillights are no better; they’re also just LED light strips with a red plastic lens screwed over top:
The center high mounted stop lamp (CHMSL) is also just an LED light strip that appears to have been haphazardly installed over top of sloppy bodywork:
And I do mean sloppy bodywork; here you can tell that some kind of filler appears to have been smeared over the truck’s body prior to paint:
I could go all day showing the Robotruck’s poor craftsmanship, but there’s just no time.
The Chassis Appears To Be Unique
The two AITEKX reps pointed us to a video of the truck actually driving. Ed, who, again, literally told us he doesn’t like the truck his team brought to the show, made it clear that they’re trying to show off their technology — the body is just meant to show the concept of the truck, whose chassis his team is proud of. And by the way, that chassis does appear to be unique; this isn’t just a Toyota Tacoma underneath, to the company’s credit.
I’m going to pass to David for some commentary about the chassis:
Here’s a look at where the battery mounts to the body:
Here’s the front suspension from behind the front axle:
Here’s the front suspension from the front of the car:
Here’s the rear suspension from ahead of the rear axle:
Here’s the rear suspension from behind the rear axle; you can see the motor/drive unit:
Still, even though the chassis does appear to be AITEKX’s own design, the heim joints everywhere, flat-welded steel control arms, and square and round metal tubing — it doesn’t look to me like what you’d expect to see from a modern OEM. Seriously, here’s a Rivian front lower control arm:
And here’s the Robotruck’s:
The build looks like something you might see on a custom off-road race truck, and while the Robotruck is supposed to be an off-roader, the way the company is advertising it with pictures and videos of it on the street implies that this is meant to see some road use, and Ed told us the company plans to crash test it, so it doesn’t seem like this is just a small company making off-road-only buggies for select customers.
The Website Matches The Truck
It’s worth noting how AITEKX describes itself on its website, which is also as poorly crafted as the truck shown at the LA Auto Show. From AITEKX’s “About” page:
About
AITEKX Inc is a US Corporation located in Silicon Valley California, dedicated in versatile AI clean energy vehicles and mobility robotics development and manufacturing.
Because this is a Silicon Valley-based company, apparently, I don’t feel bad pointing out just how egregious some of the company’s website’s spelling/grammar errors are. I know I make plenty of these myself, but here at the Autopian, we do take the time to edit, usually. Check these out:
The website features a call for visitors to follow the company on social media:
The LinkedIn page brings you here:
There’s not much info to be gathered; apparently, the company has between 11 and 50 employees, and 22 folks follow it on the platform. There are no people associated with the company. The Facebook and Instagram links all lead to messages saying the page isn’t available, while the Twitter link gets you this:
Seems legit.
AITEKX Representatives Wanted Us To Write Positive Things, Leave
Also alarming about our interaction with the company was the way the two representatives – Ed (who, by the way, wouldn’t tell us the size of AITEKX’s engineering team or who the company’s financial backer is, and who told us he has no title) and a gentleman who claims to have once worked for the ill-fated Lordstown Motors – tried to convince us that the media should be writing only positive things about the companies at the car show.
Well, it was more Ed saying that, the other guy just wanted us to leave. That’s not how this works, though, Ed.
If we see a truck being displayed front and center at the Los Angeles Auto Show (look at the coverage from the Auto Show itself below), and if the makers of that truck are taking real (albeit refundable, they claim) money for reservations for this truck, then you absolutely have to understand that the quality of the truck that is shown there is going to be scrutinized by not just media, but everyone. And, sure, it’s a prototype, and you can’t expect final production-level quality from that, but even so, I’ve never seen any prototype or pre-production car built as poorly as this.
Discover Aitekx at the 2023 LA Auto Show, where cutting-edge technology meets automotive innovation! Experience the future of driving with their latest advancements. #AllRoadsLA #LAAutoShow pic.twitter.com/drMao8RMpW
— Los Angeles Auto Show (@LAAutoShow) November 22, 2023
If I made this in my driveway, I’d be proud as hell! But I’m not taking it to the LA Auto Show, and I’m not taking deposits on it, or promising it will go into production.
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Maybe Aitekx is legit. Maybe they’ll end up building top-quality Robotrucks by the thousands. Maybe everyone who dropped $100 on this thing will be thrilled when they get theirs in 2025 – you know, like 14 months from now. Who’s to say?
But, as it stands now, based on the look of the thing and the way the interactions went with Aitekx’ representatives, I’m not sure I’d suggest any breath holding.
Update: Based on this filing, and these photos, it seems like the person who would only identify himself as “Ed” is likely Edmund Shen. Big thanks to our friend Bozi for finding those.
I think Tesla is behind this. By showing how awful the build quality is on this prototype is it makes the build quality of the Cyber Truck look awesome.Now Tesla is getting compliments on the Cyber Truck because of this thing!
False flag conspiracy theory! Let’s get Elon on Fox News ASAP so he can decry these imposters! J/K. Funny as hell, but I think it’s likely just a company that made a really bad decision to show up at the auto show with a terrible prototype. Ain’t nothing that a little company wind down and transfer of assets to a company with a new name can’t fix, amirite? Maybe this is really ChangLi trying to test the american waters? Who knows.
Hey, “Elon” ~ “Elio”, so it has definitely for sure ha penned before!
Aitekx sounds like what he’d name his 1265th kid + that x he’s obsessed with at the end, so it’s plausible.
Maybe he’s behind Vinfast too!
Torch looks like the gummies are starting to kick in.
While it doesn’t look exactly like a Cybertruck, it’s clear the design was Cybertruck-inspired.
But yeah, based on the quality of this prototype/concept, they don’t have a snowballs-chance-in-hell of making it.
This truck is a meme right? I guess if you have $100 you don’t care about it would be funny to reserve one. You could print the picture of Jason putting his whole hand in the door gap while David laughs to post on your office wall. Impress all your friends!
“We’ve got a Robotruck, Laddie!”
“You mean Cybertruck?”
“Sssshhh! are you trying to get us sued?”
Groundskeeper Willie style.
The “not Ed” guy with the bad haircut kinda reminds me of V.M. Varga, the Fargo s3 villain. Like a low-rent version of the same scam being pulled.
The result of a Lambo, Cyber Truck and Avalanche threesome.
To put it delicately, this ‘truck’ doesn’t look like that was consensual.
I’ve got it: this reminds me of those Brazilian Supercar ‘clones’ from the old site 5 or 6 years back
In fairness, Franz von Holzhausen recently brought an actual Cybertruck to a public event where people could get up close and take pictures — and there were more than a couple visible issues. It may have been an earlier prototype and not one of the recent release candidates — but people don’t know that. If bringing a prototype to a show, there’s going to be scrutiny. The Cybertruck’s issues were far from as extreme as Robotruck’s, but the issues are amplified if presented by a big company.
BTW, isn’t it likely that the reps didn’t want to admit that their truck was inspired by Cybertruck (no matter how obvious it is) for fear of fueling a lawsuit?
Oh I would 100% get banned if I made the joke I REALLY REALLY want to make about Torch and the panel gap…
Nobody is gonna talk about the “booth” ?
At least they had carpet for David to lay on.
Poor Ed.
Anyone who has ever said to their boss, “Really, don’t do this. It is a bad idea, and we have difficulty recovering from it if we do.” only to be met with, “Just go with it. We have to do something, and this is it.” will know the species of corporate insanity we are dealing with here.
Poor Ed.
Get a different job Ed. This will not end well.
Yep. And if you happen to be honest with the press or prospective customers, your head will roll.
Nevermind why they sent the prototype to the show, why did they send THOSE guys to man the booth?
After a day or two of criticism, one of them should have developed a way to address the build issues.
I have never seen someone in a show booth refusing to identify themselves. Usually can’t keep people from shoving a business card in your hand. Hell, aren’t booth staff usually wearing a show pass with their name and company printed on it?
Even if the company could build it, it doesn’t seem like they’d be able to sell it.
I see they used the traditional ChangLi method to mount the rear motor-drive unit! I’m not sure anything underneath that chassis can take a hit off road.
But at least a battery swap is just one chainsaw away.
“You’ve seen enough” is a lot better than being told, “You’ve seen too much.”
Looks like you got pwned or owned or whatever.
That’s kind of endearing. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I’d guess they were tinkering with an electrified conventional pickup, when suddenly their funder or leader gets a bee in their bonnet about making a big splash by beating Tesla to the show with a Cybertruck clone.
And then oops, by the time they realize they can’t deliver something that’s show quality, they’ve already screwed up their demo unit too much to show it in non-Robotruck guise.
Reminds me of submitting a paper to a conference and then 6 months later you either haven’t done the research or it didn’t pan out and you’re left throwing together a presentation about something in the hotel room the night before. Not that i’ve done this.
It seems like their pre-meddling show piece would have just been a Tacoma with a crude electric chassis under it.
That may have been something worth displaying five years ago, but isn’t so impressive today. Welded suspension arms show that they are a while away from production. Welded spindles show that they are a million miles away from production.
They may as well just paint a bored ape on the hood and try to sell this scam as an NFT.
I like how DT appears to be trying not to laugh like an insane person in the photos.
And Ed should have stayed quiet, and remained in the Witness Protection Program.
Speaking of which, El Chapo’s kids want their truck back…
It just occurred to me that David and Jason are probably the two scariest auto journalists you could come in contact with if all you’re bringing is bullsh*t. Their combined knowledge and expertise is at legendary levels.
You guys rock. I am now convinced you are the future of automotive journalism in ways even Top Gear couldn’t imagine.
It’s not even batman and robin, its like batman and deadpool or something.
I can totally see Deadpool eating shower spaghetti, and you just know Batman has some weird kinks, why not tail lights?
What a truly steaming pile this thing looks. The Chinese dude looks like a reject from Chery Automobile Co. Ltd. And I can not take anybody who dares challenge accredited and respected auto journalists like they did for simply telling the truth and berates them for not having anything positive to say. If they wanted to bring a bag of shit to an autoshow and people call it a bag of shit, so be it. I can guarantee that this will never go into production.
Yeah that bastard never should have quit his good job at Temu…
Yeah, I don’t even think Malcolm Bricklin would touch any of this…
So what interests me is how did this thing get approved for entry into the show?
I mean if I show up with a Radio Flyer Red Wagon with a house-fan and a car battery strapped to the back of it, can I display it and take deposits for my new EV?
Asking for a friend who all the components awaiting assembly in his garage.
Dude!
Yeah, I heard some startup is almost ready to show their prototype flying car. Finally!!
I reckon it’s as easy as paying for the space.
Maybe that’s what the $100 reserve deposit is for? Gotta pay the LA Auto Show somehow.
Just give it a name like an Amazon phone charger, and you’re golden
Trade shows like these (and no matter how prestigious they try to make it seem, it’s still a trade show) you basically pay for the booth, submit a plan/drawing for what it’ll be, bring your hardware at load-in time, and bring a gift for the (likely) union guys setting the booth up and you’re golden.
They’re not in the business of vetting for haughtiness.
I wonder if these people came from the clothing industry. I worked a trade show in Vegas many years ago. Among the highlights, was hearing a designer from one company explaining that they had taken a jacket with a hot design from another company “The North Face”, and put new tags on it. They said “If we get lots of orders for it, well make them… This seemed shocking to me, but everyone else acted as though that’s normal.
Thanks for the entertainment.
That website looks like it was dictated by JarJar Binks. Meesa thanks you forsa you hundred dollarydoos!
A poorly built EV with questionable origins, dangerous design and some, um, quirks?
So it’s a full-size Changli?
Basically, what you described also applies to the Cyber(junk)truck
Would rather have the Changli
When you posted about this the first time, I figured that we were seeing some elaborate new form of satire. I imagine we’ll eventually discover that Musk commissioned this thing, due to the possibility that the comparison would increase the likelihood of someone saying that the Cybertruck “isn’t that bad, I guess.”
Telling Jason and David to get off their lawn at the auto show, classy move, definitely no issues to hide there. Meanwhile 100s of other people with cell phones doing tik tok riffs on their “not cybertruck”, but at least they drove off those Autopian scoundrels!
If it wasn’t for autopian and those meddling kids that call themselves journos they would have gotten away with it too! Too bad they didn’t try to remove the bad guy’s mask to find out who he or she really is!
Zoinks!