[RahulNagaraj]

The Tesla Cybertruck has been one of the most anticipated electric pickup trucks ever since it was first unveiled by Elon Musk. Recent reports stated that the Cybertruck was finally headed for production at Tesla's Austin Gigafactory. However, the first models are reportedly so bad that Musk has sent out an urgent mail to all employees, demanding greater precision in the production process.



A car designer named Adrian Clarke stated that the only way the Cybertruck could get better was through a complete redesign. He mentioned that the issues on the Cybertruck are mainly due to the flat body panels, wherein even the small inherent imperfections of the production process become all the more clear.

Clarke said, “It's totally infeasible for production. Body panel tolerances are measured in whole mm to allow for variance in assembly and the tolerance stack.” He went on to state that this doesn't take into account the thermal expansion and contraction during the manufacturing & operation of the vehicle. As per reports, Elon Musk is aware of the issues but claims to be convinced that tighter tolerances will fix the Cybertruck.

The designer added that he & others in the industry are sceptical that the Cybertruck will ever enter production - at least now, without a serious redesign. He said, "As soon as we saw [the Cybertruck], everyone I know in the industry started laughing. We just thought there is no way they’re gonna be able to get that into production." Clarke assured that there was no way the Cybertruck would pass the crash and pedestrian impact regulations. He also mentioned that the "dead straight panels" will be extremely hard to make.

Clarke went on to add, "I get the impulse to design something simple and clean. Really, I do. But there’s a difference between something minimalist and something reductive. The Cybertruck strikes me as an attempt at the former that went off the rails and arrived at the latter."

Source: FastCompany

Link to Team-BHP news

[evolvo]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

"As soon as we saw [the Cybertruck], everyone I know in the industry started laughing. We just thought there is no way they’re gonna be able to get that into production." Clarke assured that there was no way the Cybertruck would pass the crash and pedestrian impact regulations.

No surprise here. The industry always laughs at revolutionary products, until they’re successful and forces the laggards out of business. Blackberry vs iPhone is a prime example.

Also, never bet against Elon…he is known to overcome humongous challenges…let’s see how this goes

[BANDHAV]

Originally Posted by evolvo

No surprise here. The industry always laughs at revolutionary products, until they’re successful and forces the laggards out of business. Blackberry vs iPhone is a prime example.

Also, never bet against Elon…he is known to overcome humongous challenges…let’s see how this goes

I echo this sentiment, if it would have been someone else I would also be apprehensive but it is The Elon Musk we are talking about.

[SmartCat]

Did some quick background check on this story:

- These comments are NOT by an ex-Tesla designer. It is just some random car designer working for an European car manufacturer. His bio:



- A car designer is unlikely to have much idea about challenges a company like Tesla faces in production, and how it is overcome. Production challenges & its solutions are not a car designer's area of expertise. Especially for an outsider who has never set foot inside a Tesla factory.

- This article's content about production challenges comes from an email Elon Musk himself sent. It is not an investigation story or an insider leak.

- If we scroll further down the article, the author seems to show disdain for both Musk and Tesla. For eg, he calls Elon Musk as "Professor X". And then goes to list out all the negative news about Tesla, which is unrelated to Cybertruck.

- That really made me suspicious. So I checked out Fastcompany.com's coverage of Tesla/Elon Musk. It is consistently negative. Sample headlines:

Tesla's CFO exits, in a fraught year for the electric vehicle maker
The first Cybertruck to roll off the line confirms Tesla's design problems
Tesla advertising is its best short to escape Elon Musk's toxic brand
The Cybertruck is years behind schedule, so Tesla is launching a $30 beer
Safety regulators investigate a crash involving a Tesla that hit a student

You can check out these and more at
https://www.fastcompany.com/section/tesla

[click]

Elon's aura of smartness has been shattered post the twitter takeover. Again and again he has proven himself to not know anything about the subject but keep on harping as if he wrote a book on it. There was a software engineer who once noted on twitter that till the time Elon spoke on subjects the engineer had no clue about, he thought the guy was a legend; but as soon as he started talking about the his field, he realised musk is full of hot air.

No doubt Elon has been clever with his investments and incredibly lucky... but don't think he is smart as he pretends to be. He also has a huge fanbase he takes advantage of, circa dogecoin and other cybercurrency bets.

Anyways, as far as cybertruck goes, designer is right, there is no way it will pass a crash test. Also unlike other tesla's they have managed to make it look even more ugly.

I am sure many fanboys will disagree, but these are my two cents.

[arpan_spark]

My 2 cents - Elon is more than a businessman. He looks into the tech side a lot. But he has too many things on his plate. Also, as seen from Twitter acquisition, we have seen that is not good at social of social media and has been out of touch with internet technology for long. That lead to arguments between him and Twitter employees on Twitter itself.

Cybertruck doesn't look like the original concept. But it's a radical product and may or may not succeed. But at least, they are trying. Even if it fails, there will be learnings. And I think Tesla has enough money to absorb a failed product.

[shrvenkataraman]

Post the twitter takeover, twitter has launched more useful features in 6 months than in the 10+ years of its existence under Jack and others.

I am not a fanboy but if there's a design or a production problem, I will any day bet that Elon will find a way to overcome it. He laid out a vision for Tesla to start off making luxury EV cars and by selling those, eventually launch affordable EV cars and accelerate the transition of the industry.

He has made that vision come true in the timeline he's laid out.

Everyone is an expert in car production and design here on team-bhp without ever having any semblance of what these guys are doing inside the factory.

So, i'd say we can just ignore the naysayers for a while and see what happens with cybertruck eventually.

[GTE]

Too much power in the hands of a single person can have disastrous consequences as we have seen up close. It may work for a while, then ego takes over and then it is downhill. Too bad because Elon has been responsible for some path breaking products. Now time is catching up.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Did some quick background check on this story:

- These comments are NOT by an ex-Tesla designer. It is just some random car designer working for an European car manufacturer. His bio:...

There is more FUD in media everyday about Tesla and Elon. I have learnt to ignore all of that and trust my own research these days. It is hard for the so called independent media which depends on advertising by car companies to be objective. That is the reason why our own Tbhp does not accept advertising from car companies.

Originally Posted by click

Elon's aura of smartness has been shattered post the twitter takeover. Again and again he has proven himself to not know anything about the subject but keep on harping as if he wrote a book on it. There was a software engineer who once noted on twitter that till the time Elon spoke on subjects the engineer had no clue about, he thought the guy was a legend; but as soon as he started talking about the his field, he realised musk is full of hot air.

Not so soon sherlock.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLoung...eer_of_spacex/

https://www.reddit.com/r/elonmusk/co...nse_to_people/

If this isnt enough, Everyday Astronaut has multiple videos on youtube with Elon Musk who goes into intricate details about rocket engines including an aha moment when they were talking about cold gas thrusters.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WY73exaVpyw?feature=share

The same is true for Autopilot software as well. He works by first principle design thinking which influenced his decision to get rid of radar and use purely vision for autopilot just like humans - we have two eyes and a neural network aka our brain and we drive just fine.

Their latest release of FSD Beta 12 is a huge deal where the system just learns by watching video without programming any heuristics.

https://twitter.com/farzyness/status...66366914961749

And they are investing billions of dollars in computer
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/...dojo_spending/

Originally Posted by click

No doubt Elon has been clever with his investments and incredibly lucky...

You mean investing everything that he had in Tesla when it was nothing to today when it earns $4bn a quarter in profits or SpaceX when no one had even thought of landing rockets. Yeah pure luck that. I wonder why no one else is that lucky including the legacy car makers which have been building car for over 100 years and still are beaten at manufacturing by an upstart American company.

Originally Posted by click

but don't think he is smart as he pretends to be. He also has a huge fanbase he takes advantage of, circa dogecoin and other cybercurrency bets.

Let SEC worry about the investment stuff. If there was something he would be behind bars by now.

Originally Posted by click

Anyways, as far as cybertruck goes, designer is right, there is no way it will pass a crash test. Also unlike other tesla's they have managed to make it look even more ugly.

And you say that in what capacity? Can you please explain why you think that is the case? Cybertruck is already in early production. How do you think they plan to sell it if it wont pass a crash test? Tesla's are already the safest cars on the road - Infact Model Y is the safest car that Euro NCAP has ever tested per their latest crash assessment protocol
https://www.tesla.com/en_au/blog/mod...ting-euro-ncap

[Comrade]

That designer & the world has not even seen the car in flesh, and are already commenting. Isn’t it a little prejudice! I would personally wait for Sandy Monroe to tear down a production Cybertruck & tell the world whether Tesla (not just Elon Musk) has failed with v1.0. We have seen time & again that Tesla (and not just Elon Musk) has taken critical feedback in their stride & have continuously improved the products.

Best example is the casting process for Model 3 & Model Y sub-frames. When Model 3 was released, there was huge cry that Tesla & its naive investors are doomed by Elon’s antics & unwarranted eagerness to release a half baked product. The initial cars were not perfect due to poor welding practices (even by industry/competitors’ standards) but they kept on improving the production processes to eventually move to completely cast a subframe, and today other manufacturers are copying their production processes & Tesla cars are no 1 sellers.

I wouldn’t think Tesla (and not just Elon Musk) will easily give up even if they fail in their first attempt.

[Mystic]

This is not to disrespect Elon but just trying to personally analyse his roots and understand if he is really an extraordinary person with intelligence like Einstein etc. and doing a great service to humanity in way of technology or randomly doing some things with his billions.

Errol Musk (born 1946) who is father to Elon Musk is a South African retired politician, electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who once co-owned a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.

It looks like Elon Musk is already a born billionaire and born with a golden spoon and hence has the risk appetite to do some revolutionary things in business and he is successful partially. This reminds of an old joke “ How to become millionaire quickly in Las Vegas. The answer is to go there as a billionaire”.

Coming to Cyber truck, I had already shared my thoughts in another thread.

Post # 10:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/elect...ybertruck.html (After Ford F-150, Tesla now trolls Toyota with Tundra pickup wrap on its Cybertruck)

[helios9406]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

The Tesla Cybertruck has been one of the most anticipated electric pickup trucks Link to Team-BHP news[/url][/b]

The design of Cyber truck is not everyones cup of tea. To me it appears to be deliberate attempt to look different and "futuristic " than anything else.

The new electric F-150 appeals better to me than the cyber truck - which doesn't have an organic appeal for living beings, it looks best as a vehicle for "Terminator " in movie sets.

So the author's mention that it might need a complete overhaul in design is very much relatable.

[srh]

It is the first time ever that I heard anyone imputing that producing flat panels to high tolerances is 'complex'. Wonder who is this talented designer and what are their credentials! It just seems like some click bait to me - best to be ignored.

Any assembly line, when going through set up needs to be calibrated and fine tuned. The first assemblies rolling down will always have fit and finish issues and are generally capitalized for internal use/ testing.

[Chisels121]

Looks like the designer missed seeing one car that raised similar discussions in Europe which was the Alfa Romeo SZ.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Chisels121

Looks like the designer missed seeing one car that raised similar discussions in Europe which was the Alfa Romeo SZ.

Attachment 2499497

Well, I would think Elon is trying to flock a few more of his cars compared to this AR. Only about a 1000 of these were produced/sold!

Besides, Quality Control or production design was never any of AR strong points! But you would be hard pushed to do worse these days

Jeroen