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Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it (www.autoblog.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it::"They were like, 'You can't be serious.' They didn't want to have anything to do with it," Franz von Holzhausen said, according to Walter Isaacson.

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[–] 23 points 2 years ago (14 children)

Am I the only person besides Elon who likes the cybertruck? I hate agreeing with that idiot on anything, but I think the cybertruck looks cool.

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I mean I respect the opinion. I honestly think the design just needs to be workshopped. You could absolutely market a futuristic all metal pickup with bullet proof windows and all the other stupid shit it does. It’s just the design that’s the problem. It’s all Elon, and as we know now Elon is actually dumb as fuck. He’s a guy who mistook his type two bipolar symptoms as ‘flashes of genius’, got lucky in the dot com boom, and is now too rich to be told no.

    You need that guy in your corner that says ‘I like the first draft Elon, but what if we changed a few things, I think you’re on to something’. Elon fired all those guys. And he probably flatly refused to change his initial design. So we have this stupid shit.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I mean, I doubt he did any of the designing of the truck at all...he may have pointed at some presented options and selected this one, but that's probably the most "designing" he did...this is the shitty design-work of other people, put on display by him.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    It's intentionally designed to look polarizing. You're not gonna find a lot of people sitting on the fence on this one and since it looks so different from every other car on the market there's gonna be a lot of people who aren't into the change. But yeah I hate it.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    It looks like a car drawn by a 5 year old.

    I’m not even saying that as an insult, that’s literally what it looks like.

    My problem with it is that it’s just extremely boring imo

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I think it looks okay but it’s just way too big

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's smaller than a F-150.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That’s too big too

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I disagree with you, but not because I'm a particular fan but because I think trucks are meant to do a job and not be any kind of showpiece or daily errand-runner. To me, a truck should be large and capable and only used when those capabilities are needed.

    Honestly, the current consumer electric trucks are silly because their performance envelope is very small compared to their price. They are too expensive and heavy (in lithium and energy consumption) to make sense as a grocery getter and they are too limited to actually haul a real load or take a trailer camping.

    I applaud the effort and I do think the F-150 is cool and represents solid progress in the state of the art, but I think the most efficient and environmental option is to keep a smaller efficient electric sedan for most routine driving and maintain an older large diesel truck for when it's needed. No need to build new iron, there's plenty of good trucks that can be kept on the road with TLC.

    There are also industrial electric and hybrid (turbine-electric) trucks which are amazing, but we're talking multi million dollar specialty vehicles.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'll get one if it has 500 miles of range. I have a reservation but might wait to see how close Chevy gets before making a choice.

    It could look like a potato for all I care as long as it can haul a bed full of stuff for 500mi.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Tesla is notorious for lying about their range.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I have a model Y LR w/ 320 mi of range, and I have actually gotten that range before in ideal conditions, but yeah, it's unlikely at best.

    I'm in no rush, I can wait to see what Chevy and Tesla do before deciding. Maybe Rivian comes out with a 500mi R1S and I'll just deal with a trailer.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

    It's not just an ideal conditions thing, Tesla is further away from their EPA estimates than every competitor. It's borderline fraudulent and I wouldn't be surprised to see it at least land in court.

    I would buy any number of things from anyone else because of how big a liar Elon is, and how much he seems to get involved in fucking things up.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    I mean, ok, I get that, but it's never been an issue for me personally. I've never had a vehicle that hit it's EPA estimate when I drive 85+ with the AC at full blast when it's 105+ outside. My truck is rated for 517 highway and I've never got more than 330 out of a tank, so, it is what it is I guess.

    Edit: So I'm saying I assume I'll need 500mi to hit ~350mi, that's always been my base assumption.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm indifferent to it, but the amount of people who give a shit is hilarious to me. If it goes 500+ miles, requires no paint and is cheaper than other electric trucks, it's a win in my book. So weird how people use vehicles as an extension of who they are. It's a fucking truck. Have you seen the competition? Tundras, F150, Sierra, and Silverado all look like ass.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    They do all look like utter shit. But the cybertruck looks like single-digit iq shit, the other ones are at least closer to the center of the bell curve, even if they have tribal tattoos, goatees, and listen to the home depot guitar riff on repeat.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    If it goes 500+ miles, requires no paint and is cheaper than other electric trucks, it’s a win in my book

    I also would think it's a win if it flies, turned water into wine, and had an automatic blowjob machine installed, which is about as likely to be true as the rest of this shit.

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