I’ve been waiting for a while now to see an actual Cybertruck in person, and today it finally happened! I wanted to share with you my spontaneous, initial reactions; because when you see something this radically new for the first time, you will never see it the same way again!
I have been “car spotting” for decades now, and this is easily the most radical looking new vehicle I’ve ever seen! As we all know, seeing a car in person is quite a different experience from seeing a picture.
First of all, even though this mass of metal has four wheels, it really doesn’t look like a “car” or a “truck”. And it’s BIG–223.7″ long! (ED: it’s 10″ shorter than a Ford F150 crew cab with 6.5′ bed) That’s just shy of the biggest land yachts of the late ’50s. The sharp angles and flat surfaces of stainless steel make it look like a piece of industrial equipment–kind of like a smoothed-over Hummer. It has no face–just a panel of what looks like gold anodized aluminum. The flat windshield is steeply raked, and the huge single windshield wiper rests at the A pillar, not at the cowl. There are no door handles–I wouldn’t even know how to get in! I once called the 1962 Dodge Dart a “complex modern art masterpiece” and so is the Cybertruck–but in a different way. The Dart is Salvador Dalí and bebop jazz; the Cybertruck is brutalist, minimalist Cubism.
Rear view: Not much personality. Looks like someone’s hauling an office filing cabinet turned sideways. This vehicle is so new it still has a temporary New Jersey license tag.
And yet, the stainless steel finish is already stained! According to what I’ve read, this is a common problem. I also see some warping where the bed cover rubber seal meets the body.
Remember those 1970s dish soap commercials? “Look! I can see myself!” Well, sort of . . .
I tried to take an interior shot, but there was too much reflection. The small squarish-oblong steering wheel looks like it was lifted from one of those toy pedal fire trucks. (Or maybe a ’61 Plymouth Fury?)
Here’s an interior photo from the internet. There are no traditional gauges in front of you; the 4-wheel steering is “drive by wire” with no mechanical connection to the wheels. The whole atmosphere gives off a Star Trek vibe. I would probably need driving lessons before taking a Cybertruck out on the road. At least I can recognize the gas and brake pedals. (I should say “accelerator pedal”–the Cybertruck runs on electricity, not gasoline.) It probably cruises down the road in eerie silence, like the starship Enterprise hurtling through outer space.
After checking out the Cybertruck, I walked back to my 1959 Chevrolet. Chevy’s far-out Jet Age design really wowed people when it was introduced in October of 1958. Mechanix Illustrated’s Tom McCahill described it as “styling as wild as you’ve ever seen . . . pure Louis Armstrong: ‘Gone, man–gone!’ . . . Spaceship 1989!” Could it be that people’s first reactions to the ’59 Chevy were like my reactions to the Cybertruck? Is this the future? It turned out that the radical Chevy design only lasted two years–after that, conformity and rationality became the new standard.
View of a Cybertruck through the windshield of a 1959 Chevrolet (how unlikely is that?) Two clashing visions of the future.
The stainless steel body of the Cybertruck glistens in the mid-afternoon sun. MAD magazine’s 1958 auto prophecy has come true: “Eventually we will have chrome cars–then they’ll introduce paint trim!”
Notice how the styling of the Cybertruck seems to relate to the architecture of the office building in the background?
When I was a kid, Matchbox and Hot Wheels put out fantasy vehicles that looked way out and strange. That’s what the Cybertruck reminds me of. So to me it makes sense that kids who have now grown up would want a car (truck) that looks like the cool toys they remember. It seems that the Cybertruck’s appeal is not really based on functionality (how many owners actually plan to haul stuff with one?) It’s more about “image” and looking hip and cool. And automotive history is full of cars that were successful just for that reason. (ED: the Cybertruck is currently the best selling EV pickup and the #5 best selling EV overall).
More CC reading:
Tesla’s Cybertruck: Did I Just Dream That? (Styling Analysis by PN)
What’s This Tesla Cybertruck Doing At The Gas Pumps?
I would like to know how you put something in the bed near the front. Bed seems too long to reach in from the back, and the sides seem too high.
It’ll be interesting to see if these maintain current popularity or fizzle out after everyone who wants on and has the means gets one. The first one I saw was on a neighbors car carrier parked overnight. Rough character who I don’t really know. He put a barrier accross his lot for the occasion with a sign that read, “Yes it’s a tesla. Stay thr F<%$ off my property". Rather wisely I think, I refrained from close up pictures. I've seen several since including a co-workers with a matt black wrap. I thought I'd hate these but I don't. Whatever part of me is still a budding 8 year old car crazy kid reacts to these by thinking " cool!". Not something I'd own but fun to look at. Maybe I'll pick up the Matchbox version.
I was on the pre-order list but cancelled. But I did get the Matchbox version 😀.
Was this music playing..
When you first saw Cyber Truck? 😀
Yeah–and I had the same facial expression as Clint!
I’d take the Chev (if it was available that is). No thanks for the tank.
The interior view from the driver’s seat, with its sloping windshield and long dashboard resembles the interior view of the GM dust buster mini vans.
Those windshields were awful!
DMC DeLoreans also suffered from that kind of marking on the stainless steel.
I had a friend who worked in an appliance store whose job it was to clean all the Stainless Steel appliances with baby oil daily.
The last car to be finished in Stainless Steel – the DeLorean was a great film star, not a successful car.
A Cybertruck can be polished to a mirror-shine, although this may cause visibility and safety issues:
That is impressive
I’ve seen quite a few Cybertrucks, including an auto carrier half full of them yesterday, and they still elicit the same “okay, whatever” reaction.
That said, I did see a blue one in downtown Tampa back in June. That one left more of an impression on me – it does help to tone down the bizarre.
A pedestrian stands no chance against those sharp points. Even bumping against it in a tight parking space could be dangerous. Where are the insurers and feds?
The’59 Chev looked sharp but all the angles were rounded.
I’ve seen several Cybertrucks so far – but it’s the first time I saw one that sticks in my mind. My wife and I were sitting on our porch, and my wife said that some “real boxy” car drove by that looked weird. I hadn’t seen it, so I had no idea what the car was, but a few minutes later it drove by again, and was a Cybertruck. The term boxy wouldn’t jump to my mind when describing this car, but I can understand why she used the term. The next time or two I saw a Cybertruck, I took a picture of it, but they’ve actually become a bit numerous now.
This isn’t my kind of vehicle, but I appreciate a new take on an old idea.
Too bad you couldn’t get a picture of your Chevy and the Cybertruck next to each other. Two futuristic designs right next to each other would make for a great shot.
And regarding your comment about the cool toys that people remember: the Cybertruck is begging to be made into a Matchbox car (probably has been already, but this is a design that would look great in miniature).
Believe it or not, the dark-colored car next to the Chevy is also a Tesla, but a less radically styled model!
SHOP CLASS MADE THE CYBERTRUCK BODY ON A BENDING BRAKE.
Actually, many of the body panels are fabricated on press brakes using air bending. The jury’s out but tooling is cheap and can be added as needed to increase production rates at fairly low cost and lead time compared to stamping dies. One thing Tesla really understands is manufacturing.
John Delorean designed it for Logan’s Run was my impression. And the driver sits about as far toward the rear as that era’s 78 Eldorado.
I’m not going to lie… It looks homemade. It does, however, make me wonder what it would take to retrofit cameras in the back of a 1971 – ’73 Mustang SportsRoof. This thing must rely completely on cameras for rear vision.
Every time I see one, it reminds me of the toolbox trays we made in junior high school metal shop.
The Tampa Bay area is lousy with these things. Curmudgeonly though I might be, I think they’re a blight on the landscape, but progress of course can’t be stopped. I see almost as many Rivian pickups though, and don’t find them offensive at all. F150 Lightning sightings are fewer than either of the newcomers, oddly enough.
Agree on the Rivian. Looks similar to the Honda Ridgeline with a Daddy Warbucks face….
My first real-world sighting of one of these was when I was with a friend who is also into automotive design. It appeared at the crest of a hill and proceeded to come our direction; my friend asked me “What do you think?”. It honestly left a different impression than what photos up to that point had led me to believe, and after a momentary pause, my honest reply was “It looks like a garden shed…”.
Actually, I think the Cybertruck resembles the self-replicating cars that take over the world in the prophetic 1964 cartoon “Automania 2000”.
Houston is full of CTs…in fact I parked next to one this morning on my Starbuck’s run.
Personally, I find them hideous; the design is jarring to say the least. Other vehicles through the decades that have triggered me include the Triumph TR-7/8, the GM Dustbusters, the Nissan Juke, the Infiniti FX30*, and the Pontiac Aztec.
The CTs are stacking up like cordwood at the Tesla distribution center near the house. Well over 100 sitting in a field waiting to be adopted (along with hundreds of other Tesla models…Elon has a problem on his hands…). I think at this moment the “gotta-haves” got theirs and now it’s conquest sales. Not sure that’s going to happen quickly.
* This design actually grew on me to where I appreciate it these days. The others not so much.
I can see your point on all but the TR7 and FX35/45 – those I rather like. And as a 10 year old I built models of the TR7 and I didn’t build models of anything I hated. In fact within eyesight on my mantel right now is a PINTO WAGON that I built about 40 years ago, recently unearthed out of my parent’s basement. I sneak stuff like that up onto the mantel until she notices 8^D
As an aside to the Sitemasters, thanks for fixing whatever with my account such that my posts show up again 🙂
I see your point on both…it was just at the time, the designs were pretty radical for my moderate tastes. The FX has really grown on me…
I’m not a fan of the overall product, but I like the stainless steel body. I look forward to the day I see one body swapped onto an old diesel truck chassis. That’d be fun.
I’m always surprised at the perception that these are huge. Sure, in absolute terms they ain’t small but when you see you on the freeway in a sea of crew cab HD Rams and SuperDuties it doesn’t look big at all. I’ve seen several in matte black wrap, which doesn’t appeal to me at all, and a bright red one that looked good. Interestingly, I’m currently traveling in New Mexico near Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs and the EV population on the roads seems very high, but I haven’t seen one CT yet in this state.
Thanks for the even-handed post and the comparison with the ‘59 Chevy is priceless. Too bad yours isn’t an El Camino.
I did not see my first Cybertruck in the wild until last week. Then the CC effect kicked in and I saw another two days later. The first had the standard stainless steel finish and was on the road. The second had a matte black finish (a wrap perhaps?) and was parked in a neighborhood driveway with three gentlemen gazing into the frunk.
Why did it take this long for me to see a Cybertruck in San Antonio, Texas; a city of approximately one million inhabitants? My best guess is this is F150 (really more F250 now), Silverado, Tundra, and to a lesser extent, Ram and Titan country.
If I initially encounter 10 pickup trucks after leaving my house at least three will be Fords and at least two will be Chevys. Tundras are also very popular here, maybe because they are assembled just south of town.
I have seen a few Rivians over the past year or so. Ironically, the first Rivian I saw was on the highway immediately in front of the big Tesla facility just outside of Austin, Texas.
YUK! There is one in our neighborhood that I see parked in the owner’s driveway, on local streets, and at his job. Not my type of transportation. May the users of these be happy!
Now: MORE IMPORTANT. Today is “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” so. AAARRGGH, ye landlubbers! Look it up on the internet and do not be ashamed for calling people scalawags, landlubbers, wenches or whatever and likening them to swill.
Yours in Mirth (and my girth) – Tom
Stupid looking vehicle.
Agreed, it’s just ridiculous. I’ve heard people call it the Deplorean LOL
I’ve seen several, about half wrapped in matte black, and I think I know why- the SS panels on most I see do not match panel to panel, like on silver cars with a shoddy repair to one door. A lovely look for something you just spent 100 Grand on.
And I am an EV lover – we are on our 3rd. Just less than zero interest in one of these goofy things.
I can’t imagine this shape is very good for either aerodynamics or packaging efficiency. The rear seat looks hard to enter and exit with the low, sloped roof.
Most pickup trucks split their sales between commercial users and private buyers. Will this sell as a work truck? (Probably a moot point – I don’t think these are being cross-shopped with F-150s by most shoppers, not even the Lightning).
I expected these to sell well for the first year or two, but once they’re more common and no longer turn heads, will sales collapse? That’s the usual unusual-car pattern (see: AMC Pacer).
I have yet to see one, even though I stopped by a Tesla store to look for one.
I see vehicle carriers loaded with these in Los Angeles, I can’t see it as any sort of truck for actual carrying but if you’ve got the $ to burn and like it, why not ? .
That’s America in a nutshell .
-Nate
(ED: the Cybertruck is currently the best selling EV pickup and the #5 best selling EV overall).*
*only in the USA.
These are not sold in foreign markets, are they? Not sure where they’re even legal, outside of the US.
Deliveries to Canada and Mexico are imminent or have already started. Not likely in Europe, due to regulations. I would not be surprised to see them in the Middle East. China?
I wasn’t aware these weren’t sold in Europe – I was wondering how it could meet the EU’s strict pedestrian-safety requirements; I’m guessing it doesn’t.
Not even close, no. And there are numerous other safety regs it can’t meet, outside the North American regulatory island.
(If it is like almost every other Tesla model, there are also numerous safety regs it doesn’t meet here on the island, too. NHTSA occasionally takes a lackadaisical sweep at ’em, along the lines of “we have not had a response to our last letter; please be advised we are in the early stages of considering sending another letter”. Musk gets on xformerlytwitter and calls them the fun police. The sun rises in the East the next morning.)
I saw my first “in person” at a tractor show a couple weekends ago. It was quite jarring as it ambled up the hill between the old pickups and the steam traction engine in the foreground. The “styling” does nothing for me (spoken as a retired industrial designer).
Saw my second a couple days ago – it was painted black.
“As we all know, seeing a car in person is quite a different experience from seeing a picture.”
^^^Very true. I live close enough to affluence to have seen a few Cybertrucks, just as there are plenty of older/classic/experimental cars that I’ve never seen “in person”—and would really like to someday.
I don’t know what tops the list, but I’d love to see the Lincoln Futura (pre-Batmobile) and other FoMoCo one-offs from the 1950s, a Continental Mark II, etc. Even better, a day’s time travel to appreciate their impact _when_ they appeared, rather than with 2024 eyes.
🤮💩🤢
“Between the idea and the reality/ Between the motion and the act/ Falls the shadow” said TS Eliot (albeit in a very different context): it has long been clear that the genius of Musk is that he escapes that shadow, and makes the unlikely become actual. And, as from the first Model S, there seems to be no argument that this truck itself works, and very well at that.
It’s also long been clear, through repellant public statements and actions, that that genius is narrow (if spectacular), and it is very hard not to see the puerility of the truck’s appearance as anything other than a manifestation of the internal vacancy of a naked emperor amongst his sycophantic bros.
Lovely writing justy! thank you. This phrase I particularly like “it is very hard not to see the puerility of the truck’s appearance as anything other than a manifestation of the internal vacancy of a naked emperor amongst his sycophantic bros”
These do nothing for me, “brutalist” is the appropriate label. I originally thought that they were just a marketing ploy to stir up and maintain interest until the ‘real” model was ready. I don’t know how well they will function as a real working truck, most truck buyers like functionality, that’s why the Lincoln Blackwood failed. I see lots of Rivians and Lightnings on the road, I prefer the Lightning, the Rivian’s oval headlights give it a cartoon like appearance.
These will sell until they don’t. The Mustang Mach E is a perfectly good EV, but I don’t see that many on the road. I read that sales aren’t that strong.
I don’t have a personal animosity towards EVs, my Son and his Wife have a Tesla and a VW ID4 (?). I Don’t like the restricted ranges that they have for cross country travel, but I imagine that they are fine around metropolitan areas. Since these are new cars, they are expensive, and I just don’t drive that much anymore, since I’m retired.The savings over gas prices would never be amortized.
I’ve seen a few in person, but while the Boston area seems to have a disproportionate number of early adopters of unusual vehicles (Lucids, Rivians, and plain old Teslas when they were initially introduced), the same hasn’t seemed quite true of the Cybertruck. I’m not sure if this speaks to their overall rarity or what.
What I have seen a lot of are all of the videos and articles about how much people hate them, and at a basic level, I would probably agree with much in those…up until the point where I ultimately say “Who cares?”. If you have the money and want to spend it on that thing for whatever reason (and there are many many reasons offered in the various articles and videos) have at it. If these really were the harbingers of some kind of serious design trend, yeah, I might be concerned (fwiw). But something that looks like it was drawn by a 10 year old boy on the margins of his notebook in class, making “vrooom vrooom” sounds under his breath when he should have been paying attention to something else? Yeah, fine. I really don’t think that they’re going to sell a million of them. And I don’t think they intend to either. It seems to me that the intent behind the Cybertruck is specifically to be polarizing. And at least in that regard, they succeeded.
As to any kind of bigger trend, all I can say is that once I start to see women in any number driving them, I may be a bit more concerned.
Maybe is a visual perception thing, but I have seen several in person and they look exceptionally wide, and also very long. I agree that there are some huge monster Ford/Chevy/Ram lifted 4×4 pickups that are slightly bigger, but the Cybertrucks I’ve seen look just as oversized and ungainly. The CT seems like a fad that will run its course and be out of style/fashion within a couple of years just like the VW “New” Beetle and old Chrysler/Plymouth PT Cruisers.
I find it amusing; both the actual vehicle to look as well as the immense polarized reactions it generates.
Hehehe! It is both (and I’m one of the polarized!)
It actually has one idea l like – the (very) cab-forward double-cab truck. Styled with a different approach, perhaps smoothed off almost into a remake of those old ’40’s COE’s, this has the potential make such machines a good deal shorter, especially useful for ones on a smaller scale.
Wow, 42 comments already. Well not surprised as it does GRAB your attention. I have seen maybe five of them and this is close to their prime breeding grounds. Not quite Santa Clara but definitely the bedroom community for many who work there. There is one that is always tooling around Danville. Front looks like it was cribbed from Battlestar Galactica.
Now imagine a red light moving back and forth in that front black slit.
The first one I saw was in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware in late June while we were stopped in traffic . It’s pictured below (my wife was able to get a good shot while I was driving).
I think it’s hideous, not too surprising given that I’m a fan of voluptuous curves like those found on the 1965 GM large cars, 1968 Jaguar XJ6, and for that matter, the Tesla Model S.
There are now a fair number of CyberTrucks in Charlottesville, Virginia where I live.
Stainless steel is commonly used to form the guards on food processing equipment. Other metals would be problematic in the washdown environment of processing plants.
Relief ridges to add strength must be avoided on machine guards to prevent water pooling that creates microbiological risk. Not a problem for machines as there is robust under guarding framing and weight is considered an advantage to a point in most production equipment.
By contrast, eliminating weight is an important design consideration for vehicles. The microbiological threat of water pooling is not. There is probably sufficient supporting structure under the sheet metal to avoid the need for ridges. Even so, lack of relief ridges wastes the strength potential of all those stainless steel panels.
Wouldn’t be the first time styling took precedence over function. I wonder if it will work out any better for Tesla then it did for GM’s ’59 Chevy.
Re: Wouldn’t be the first time styling took precedence over function. I am having a hard time bringing to mind a single car built after 1940 or so where styling did not take precedence over function. (Just remembered the 1949 Plymouth featured the other day and it sold poorly.)
CC Fan – I was trying to think of one. Even the 1959 Mini, Citroen 2CV and Renault 4L were styled after a fashion and all sold well for a long time.
The only vehicle I can think of without styling is the Citroen H van, which is barely post 1940 and sold well. The CT reminds me a bit of the H van with it’s sharp corners.
I’d nominate ’50s and early ’60s “bubble cars” like the BMW Isetta and 600, Goggomobil, Messerschmit (sp?) and Fiat 600 Multipla – some people like their appearance or find them cute, but I think it’s safe to say functional requirements all but dictated their shape. To a lesser extent, the Mk1 VW Golf/Rabbit and cars that copied their shape, the original Chrysler K car, and several of GM’s early-to-mid ’80s efforts. These all has some attempt to make them look good, not always successful, but they were designed from the inside out with engineers getting more say than stylists. Not the case with late-’50s GM or Mopar like the ’59 Chevy (although even it had to use front doors designed for a Buick and a shared GM-wide greenhouse)
Form obliterates function. Absolutely absurd.
If nothing else, Musk is a huge gambler, and whether the CT flat-stealth-panel-styling dice come up seven or snake-eyes is the big question. I definitely fall into the not feeling it category but who knows? Maybe when (and if) the price drops down to mere mortal levels, things will be different.
Reminds me of the game-changing, melted-jellybean-in-the-rain 1983 Thunderbird, and that one panned out okay in the long run, pretty much changing automotive styling over the entire industry to this day.
Things can grow on you. You cite the ‘83 T-Bird. My first impression of that car was, ‘what is Ford thinking?’… then I’d come around, end up loving the look, and bought one as my second new car ever.
Yeah, that isn’t happening this time. While I sometimes like extreme style (I own a 2016 Civic EX-T Coupe), this is just too far out there for me.
To me, the Cybertruck looks like a big refrigerator.
And from the rear, some kind of dumpster. 😉
I’d buy a big refrigerator, but not a Cybertruck.
No, I’d get the truck. If I got a big fridge, I’d just eat too much, and I’d rather my truck was hugely overweight rather than me.
To say this vehicle is polarizing is an understatement. Your statement that the Cybertruck is brutalist minimalist cubism is spot on. Personally, it reminds me of the minimalist piece of sculpture by Tony Smith which was simply a huge flat black cube titled “Die!”
Haven’t seen one yet, being in Canada & all. I too appreciate the “Brutalist” description which makes perfect sense.
I find the visuals simultaneously intriguing and uninspired. Don’t understand all the hate, if you don’t like it don’t buy it seems sufficient.
Saw one in the metal for the first time about a month ago and what struck me (besides the odd look and proportions) was its size. That thing was huge. Seeing it in pictures, it somehow seems smaller than it is in reality.
Texas, pickups, and conspicuous consumption all go together, so these things have been rapidly proliferating on the streets of Dallas-Fort Worth since hitting the market last spring. While most retain the stainless steel finish, the ones I’ve seen with wraps include matte black (ugly, in my opinion), school bus yellow (meh), and fire engine red (yes!). Overall, I am indifferent to these things: they certainly attract extroverts, but the whole effect is kind of amateur and homemade, as though built from a Radio Shack kit, which is the opposite of the image the tech bros want to project.
I can’t imagine being comfortable parking this oddball machine and leaving it in your average lot.
Or, navigating it through tight spots.
Or repairing it for any reason, including body panel replacement.
Insurance must be “interesting”.
All things that Tech Bros either could not be bothered to anticipate or to care about before encountering. Upon which there will be (is) much online outrage around how existing laws and principles are unsuitable for those who feel that they should be exempt from laws and social-cultural reality. Or physics (which in some corners is just a complication that will “soon” be overcome).
Not a fan, but I’m a firm believer in “it would be a boring life if everything were the same”.
I love being inspired creatively, by great-looking design. I find the Cybertruck’s looks too sterile, to inspire me. In spite of its technical strengths.
James May posted a Youtube review of the Cybertruck and one word he said sums it up for me, “Incel.”
I have yet to see one – in fact afaik, there is only on that has thus far made it to New Zealand, just as a demo.
From the noise on the internet, it is clear that there are compromises and bad choices involved, but then that’s true of many cars. I think the problem is that the bad choices seem to come back to the door of Elon Musk, who always generates polarized opinions.
I’m glad that it’s out there. I have a feeling that a lot of the people complaining about it are also the “all modern cars look the same” people. I wouldn’t buy one myself, even if I had a use for it, because the practicality seems compromised. Also, I’m not a fan of “big for the sake of it” utes, and I do worry about how dangerous these are for pedestrians.
But amongst a bunch of cars/utes that have similar issues, at least this one looks different.
Shit, by and large, all moderns do indeed look the same to a mid-’50’s guy, so a bit of difference would be fine (though much better done), but it’s not that that bothers me for their use downunder – on Oz or NZ-sized roads, I just don’t want massively-fast vehicles that don’t physically fit, at least, not when not driven by actual truck drivers!
Elon Musk and his fanboys like to pretend he invented this thing all by himself. False! I had one in the early ’80s; drove it every chance I got. Hitting a rock or going over a hole made it blow up. Here’s some footage; look and tell me I’m wrong. Sound up:
Miss, your great contributions here Daniel. Come back soon!
Mr Stern, this was in the lavish pack of launch materials – perhaps you weren’t invited? – and is from a scan of the creator’s emotional intelligence (it’s at about the age level you were in the early ’80’s), so it’s no secret what you say is true.
Oh, hell, it goes back further than that, even. When I was really little, I had a Fisher-Price record player. Back then you could check records out the public library, including those ones that came with a book to follow along as the story was narrated on the record—”The Emperor’s New Clothes”, in the case at hand.
That reminds me of a variant on that toy that I kind of had…a GE Show and Tell; which for those in the know (i.e., kids in the 1960s) was a combination record player and film strip-kind-of-thing viewer that had the film strip on a kind of card that inserted in the top of the device. You put on the record, and the filmstrip would advance with the story on the record.
At least I think that’s how it was supposed to work, I don’t in fact 100% know since I only had the records and the accompanying film strips. Not the player device. As was typical in my household, my parents found a bunch of the record/filmstrip sets on sale in some store and figured that I could get at least 50% of the fun out of the toy by just listening to the records on the family’s Sears Silvertone Stereo console. I spent several years pondering designing some kind of device that would replicate the tv-style viewing console for the film strips. Then by around age 12 I discovered other toys and moved on.
But yeah, I believe it was on the Show and Tell (or in my case, just “Tell”) that I first heard The Emperor’s New Clothes.
The GE Show and Tell (from the web…since I certainly never actually had one)
I might be in the minority – I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. It’s kind of cool.
We have a Supercharger bank at our local grocery store, and I often see one of them charging up. They look better in person, but I wouldn’t be interested in one for myself.
I’ve seen quite a few now but then again we have a pretty high adoption rate of EVs in general and Teslas specifically. On the ones I’ve seen that haven’t been wrapped the sail panels are particularly wavy. The matte black wraps seem to hide that. The one I saw with a Lime Gold color shifting metallic wrap surprisingly looked pretty good. I saw one with a gloss black wrap yesterday and it looked pretty bad highlighting the wavy panels.
Definitely not for me as it isn’t that practical as an actual pickup with those sail panels. To no one’s surprise the Lighting would be my first choice and it was my son’s choice too. Our second choice would be the Chevy followed by the Rivian.
We did take his on a road trip recently and ended up charging next to a Chevy in Work Truck trim at an EA station in Montana. The conversation starter was that he really preferred the looks of the Lightning since “it looks like a real truck” while the Chevy looks like an Avalanche. He is an electrical contractor and uses it to tow his double axle trailer on a daily basis. He said he can get ~150 mi on the freeway with the trailer IF he babies it. So the massive battery pack of the Chevy was the big reason he went with it over the Lightning.
Same steering wheel as the one that got slagged in the Austin Allegro all those tears ago.
Though less Quartic than Rectic (which sounds most unfortunate).
What an ugly thing! I’d rather consider an Edsel…
Joe
I didn’t talk about the Cybertruck’s performance: 0-60 in about 4 sec. (some sources say 2.5!!!) Truly “Warp Speed”! Just what the world needs right now–a wicked fast, hard-to-see-out-of, 6600 lb. missile with some yahoo behind the wheel! What will terrorists do with this? Scary.
See one , occasionally rolling round “Mclean VA”. Still have not had the opportunity to see it parked where I could get “somewhere”, near it.
Remember when Teslas first hit the scene and were being lauded for finally not just being a viable EV, but an EV that doesn’t look weird or rudimentary like a Citycar?
My how times change
I would never have made that connection, but now I will never be able to un-see it!
My sightings on these are odd. Living in California they should be common. I hadn’t seen one before vacation in the “Mountain States” this past July. Where I saw a bunch. Then a couple of weeks after return, I dunno, late July/early August, I saw perhaps half a dozen in two days. Of which, one was painted Green, the other actually had something sticking out of it’s bed, like cargo or something. Isn’t the latter contractually prohibited? But I haven’t seen one since.
I’ve had plenty of hate for things I perceived to be bad automotive, but this one is more like just roll my eyes, whatever. Is it worse conspicuous consumption than a Chevy Suburban that is rated as having less load capacity than my BMW station wagon? Maybe? Maybe not, he says rolling his eyes. Just some guy trying to make a bunch of money. And succeeding.
I have seen a couple of these rolling around. The shape reminds me of wood block toy trucks I used to see in toy stores years ago. I have concern that vehicles are getting too big, powerful, fast, and heavy. I fear that someday, one of these 6901 pound Cybertruck behemoths will run over me in my CRX like a speed bump and won’t bother to stop because they never noticed.
A few months ago, I saw a whole bunch of these in a row in a lot where our local Tesla dealer stores its cars. I wish I had snapped a photo, because it was a scene that could have been used in a science fiction movie.
My reactions are not as strong as those of some others here. I don’t care for its looks. But then I don’t care for brutalist architecture, John Coltrane’s jazz of the 1960’s or art by the likes of Dali. But I understand that there are those who do like those things, and I imagine that the Cyber Truck appeals to them.
I have seen quite a few locally, some of which have been wrapped in colors. Color can soften the jarring looks, but it is still not to my taste. I am, however, fascinated by the concept. It is a very rare thing for someone to introduce a new vehicle that is not a copy of anything. They are often not successful, but can move vehicle styling in new directions. I have to salute Tesla for a swing for the fences, and wish them well. But I also hope that this does not usher in a new styling era for mass-market vehicles.
I think that owning a Cyber Truck reveals a deep seated inferiority complex that the owner compensates for by showing off his ability to spend a bunch of money ($130K+) on a toy, i.e. “Look at me, I am rich and I can buy something that you can’t and if you don’t like the way it looks so what”. Given all the date that is available today I say that it is a virtual certainty that Tesla/Musk knows exactly how many people in every Zip Code can afford this thing and how many (and probably who) has the psychological profile to be a likely buyer.
If Tesla gets lucky the CT may become the “Must Have” object needed to be part of a certain crowd.
Until now, I didn’t know this thing had fully electric steering with no mechanical connection. Hard pass on that alone.
I don’t think the styling is all that ground-breaking… it’s nearly a duplicate of my son’s Pinewood Derby car of 30 years ago!
Was in Dallas in August and saw lots of these around Highland Park (the too-much-money section of Dallas), and while I don’t want one, I’m glad they exist. They are ridiculous but make me smile because they’re just so wacky. I like the Autozam and the Daihatsu Midget and the Fiat Multipla. There should always be a market for weird cars.
The first picture I saw of one, I don’t remember what website it was on, made me laugh, I seriously thought it was a 6 year old’s picture of a car and the website posted it for a laugh. My opinion of it then, when I saw one in person, and now, is it’s just pitiful, I can’t really conceive a way to make it any uglier. The stories about how people can’t get into them with a dead battery, etc, do amuse the crap out of me. Ever hear of a door handle?
Ugly. Anti pedestrian and ugly. Lacking in any sense of grace or form. Ugly. As a passenger vehicle, it is probably as good as a really ugly passenger car Tesla. Musk is a bizarre and unfortunate person in our world.
The other day, I heard someone refer to one of these as a “Deplorean”. I like that.