Forget the truck (please), can we talk about that trainwreck of a reveal?

[Curious George]

Aren't the Semi's windows shatterproof? I assume this was based on some of the same stuff.

Was there a similar demo of the semi window?
I just glossed over the show to see how ti broke . I was thinking, the window was hit with a sledge hammer.

I expected to see some serious towing after what Ford showed off last month. This truck doesn't seem ready at all. Looks like Tesla started working on it after it announced the reveal date. This is why no one has seen any spy shot. The shape is so odd that no one would have missed it if it was ever in the open.
I also thought, it will be outdoors with some demo runs and may be people riding it too.

Was the interior shown? Everyone came out from the other side, right?
If I remember, in Model X demo where Elon went and sat in the second row to show headroom.

 

[AMPd]

It's on the web:

That steering wheel is a horrible choice for a vehicle that’s capable of off roading.

 

[eprosenx]

That steering wheel is a horrible choice for a vehicle that’s capable of off roading.

Yeah, very futuristic, but not practical in a lot of real world situations. When you are needing to rapidly correct for a skid like on ice you want uniform steering wheel geometry.

 

[AquaMan]

I

That steering wheel is a horrible choice for a vehicle that’s capable of off roading.

I doubt that will be in the production units. It's one of those things that looks cool and you see it at all the auto shows but everyone knows it isn't practical.

 

[APotatoGod]

My guess as to what went wrong is that they tested the window impacts individually, and the sledgehammer hits individually, but not the two in sequence, and the sledgehammer hit damaged part of the window's mounting mechanism, messing up some of its impact resistance. Too bad Elon didn't think to improvise a comparison with the generic truck door they used earlier (assuming it had a window), and show how much worse it fared than the cybertruck.

I don't think the shattering was a big deal overall, other than as fuel for anti-tesla memes, like images from the Joe Rogan interview, and as the one thing the general public knows about the car ("is that the one who's window's break?", like the Samsung note 7 is "the phone that explodes", despite most of them being functional and mostly harmless)

 

[whitex]

Then why demo it live? You would assume they tried this 10 times before the live reveal.

ROFL. Tesla try something 10 times before shipping?

 

[whitex]

Surprised they got the cararra marble dash in there for under $40k

The armored glass is to keep the marble shard from flying through the windows in case of an accident.

 

[malcolm]

I agree and it was too short. All that hoopla and was such a fail. Although it wasn't a bizarre S&M theme, it was a Bladerunner movie theme.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe"

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Look on the bright side.

At least this time he was only around 5-10 minutes late.

ZING!

 

[redi]

Alas, in 2022 goobers will be throwing stuff at my truck (or shooting it) to see what happens.

What were they thinking?



Maybe they'll have free warranty/insurance to replace the glass and repair the bullet holes as a result. Some might remember the battery armor in 2014.

 

[Tam]

That steering wheel is a horrible choice for a vehicle that’s capable of off roading.

I have never driven with a square steering wheel before so I am not sure I will like it either.

I guess a round steering wheel came from the sea to control those ships and it got to the cars for all these years as well.

Racers do use square steering wheel for some advantages:

1) No visualization obstruction of the instrument panel in front.
2) Smaller size to suit the cramped space in a race car.
3) Ultra-fast steering ratios...

But I am not sure why those above 3 would apply to CyberTruck.

 

[Rockster]

I love Musk but he really needs a visit from the ghost of Steve Jobs to learn how to conduct a product reveal demonstration.

 

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Eh, this is what happens when you cut SG&A. It's not the greatest look for Tesla, but I'll take an engineering >> media company like Tesla over a media ~= engineering company like everyone else any day.

 

[MacGreiner]

He has since said they tested it multiple times before it was done onstage. Micro fractures? Who knows.
He did seem simply unprepared or even flustered. Even before the window. Skipped several slides. strange.
The dude (dudette) operating the slide show needs to be fired. Those wait times would have been hard work for even a polished presenter.

 

[Sealander]

Best Tesla paint job yet!

 

[fbitz777]

Best Tesla paint job yet!

DeLorean!

 

[PalmBeachPaul]

He got worse after the broken windows. Elon was really upset by it.

I'm wondering if someone fitted that prototype unit with regular auto glass and they neglected to tell Elon.

If bullet proof glass is like hurricane/impact windows, they are supposed to shatter but not let the projectile pass through. Perhaps the glass did what it was designed to do but not what Elon expected.

 

[Luso7]

My guess as to what went wrong is that they tested the window impacts individually, and the sledgehammer hits individually, but not the two in sequence, and the sledgehammer hit damaged part of the window's mounting mechanism, messing up some of its impact resistance. Too bad Elon didn't think to improvise a comparison with the generic truck door they used earlier (assuming it had a window), and show how much worse it fared than the cybertruck.

I don't think the shattering was a big deal overall, other than as fuel for anti-tesla memes, like images from the Joe Rogan interview, and as the one thing the general public knows about the car ("is that the one who's window's break?", like the Samsung note 7 is "the phone that explodes", despite most of them being functional and mostly harmless)

that still wouldn't explain why the 2nd. rear window would shatter. he only hit the sledgehammer on the driver's door

I think Elon and company just play fast and loose with these presentations, don't rehearse or test much, and wing it a little at these presentation. I part of that is charming -- I kind of like when Elon is speaking off the cuff and a little disjointed. but a major component failure and the staff not keeping up correctly with the slide decks was bad

 

[Struja]

Tesla fanboy here.

Thought the truck was fugly. That's worse than ugly, if you didn't know.

Thought the presentation was cringe-worthy bad. So bad that I tuned it out after the window fail.

Can't bring myself to read anything about today because of my bitter dissapointment. At least my 14 year old thought the truck was "sick" (but in a good way) when I showed it to him this morning. Although.. he loves Call of Duty and thinks this would be a perfect in-game assault vehicle... not exactly what I think will take any meaningful market share from the F-150.

 

[RHawk1]

He got worse after the broken windows. Elon was really upset by it.

I'm wondering if someone fitted that prototype unit with regular auto glass and they neglected to tell Elon.

That was my guess, a lot of the presentation seemed disjointed as though they weren't on the same page. My thought is someone didn't expect them to do that, though the drop test was it and didn't install the correct glass on the truck...

They really need to spend some money on people to clean up these presentations especially as they become more mainstream. You want people to watch these and have confidence in the brand, instead of wondering if this was such a mess what is the vehicle going to be like.