4 ms·

Basically: the stainless steel, hard edged design has quite a few cost-savings for manufacturing but may effect aerodynamics, weight, and durability (large flat

Basically: the stainless steel, hard edged design has quite a few cost-savings for manufacturing but may effect aerodynamics, weight, and durability (large flat sections of metal are more likely to dent than curved). It will be interesting to see how the pros/cons play out for Tesla with the cybertruck!

mikepurvis 7y ago
The whole stainless steel thing is fascinating to me. The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12.
- maxcan 7y ago
  Wasn't that aluminum?
  - VectorLock 7y ago
    Brushed stainless on the DMC-12. Although now Ford F-150s are getting aluminum bodies.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    Definitely stainless. Unlike the rest of the chassis. https://www.deloreanguide.com/new-posts/frame-rustquite-possibly-the-1-value-killer-in-delorean-cars-today https://www.deloreanguide.com/new-posts/frame-rustquite-poss...
- interestica 7y ago
  "Well, if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.....watch out!" I always wanted the rest of that line. As though the writers had thought up some way to make 'stainless steel' a necessary part of the the time machine construction.
  - mikepurvis 7y ago
    Brilliant writing, though— hint that the reason is there without actually filling up the script with made-up gobbledygook. Author Sid Fleishman said that if you had a plot hole in your story, all you had to do was point to it and it would disappear: ---- For example, in McBroom’s Zoo I wanted to use the Hidebehind, a fabled frontier creature. No one knows what the Hidebehind looks like because every time you look, the animal hides behind you. I saw the hole at once. All McBroom needed to do was to hold up a mirror and he’d see the Hidebehind’s mug. I plugged the hole by pointing to it. Works like magic. “I even tried walking around with a hand mirror.” McBroom declares. “But the Hidebehind was too eternal clever for tricks like that.”
    - interestica 7y ago
      Kinda like the lampshade trope. It's interesting to compare to writing/acting in terms of a product like this. The launch is basically a written and choreographed performance - all done live. And in this case, something went seriously wrong (the so-called armor glass shattered during the live test). What does the performer do to hold a mirror to it (or lampshade on it) to make it go away? It's actually crazy that it would fail so distinctly in the demo that was supposed to show its strength. Was it the first time they used the metal ball? Had all testing just been done with hammers and crowbars? Maybe they should really highlight how and why it failed.
- serf 7y ago
  > The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12. the metallic finish made the entire care near un-repairable. It showed flaws exceedingly well, and the properties of most stainless hinder most efforts at regular dent and ding repair. Aside : I got to smog certify a DeLorean when I was a mechanic in a previous life. It's one of the most memorable cars I have ever had the pleasure of driving. It wasn't that great a driving car, but it was just such a neat image to see in real life.
  - detritus 7y ago
    For me, I like my tools to age with the patina of use - scratches, knocks and dents. I'd love to see this taken up on a larger scale, but sadly can't rationalise the cost or commodity of a Cybertrunk here in London...! ed - * Cybertruck, obviously. Although I'm now working on a SAAS solution named 'cybertrunk'.
  - preommr 7y ago
    Wouldn't it be more easy to maintain because you could just sand and blend away defects as opposed to dealing with paint where flaws are more noticeable.
    - serf 7y ago
      paint can be filled and repainted, bare metal cannot without exposing fillers and ruining the finish. realistically no one is blending the metal during most repair jobs; the panels either get replaced or bondo'd, sadly -- unless we're talking about vintage or nostalgic cars that have inherent issues with panel supply.
      - mikepurvis 7y ago
        Sounds like their plan for this is just that the panels are super thick and therefore really hard to dent, though I don't know what that means for crumple zones and safety. Perhaps there's an argument here that the bare metal will acquire a kind of patina, that the accumulation of small blemishes will over time contribute to an attractive worn look? That's certainly not how cars conventionally age, but it will be interesting to see what a Cybertruck looks like once it's got 200k miles on it.
grecy 7y ago
> durability (large flat sections of metal are more likely to dent than curved). I take it you didn't see the part of the presentation where they hit the Cybertruck with a sledge hammer with no effect. The "regular pickup door" did not fair so well.
- empath75 7y ago
  So what happens when you get into an accident with this thing? Do you have to replace the entire body? Or does it just not properly crumple and you’ll just be dead or crippled so you won’t have to worry about it.
  - roland35 7y ago
    I would imagine it would probably be similar to any current car, it looks like it has panels which could be replaced. The roof was difficult to tell though, if there was a weld or seam on to top which was part of a larger panel

mikepurvis 7y ago

The whole stainless steel thing is fascinating to me. The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12.

maxcan 7y ago
Wasn't that aluminum?
- VectorLock 7y ago
  Brushed stainless on the DMC-12. Although now Ford F-150s are getting aluminum bodies.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  Definitely stainless. Unlike the rest of the chassis. https://www.deloreanguide.com/new-posts/frame-rustquite-possibly-the-1-value-killer-in-delorean-cars-today https://www.deloreanguide.com/new-posts/frame-rustquite-poss...
interestica 7y ago
"Well, if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.....watch out!" I always wanted the rest of that line. As though the writers had thought up some way to make 'stainless steel' a necessary part of the the time machine construction.
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  Brilliant writing, though— hint that the reason is there without actually filling up the script with made-up gobbledygook. Author Sid Fleishman said that if you had a plot hole in your story, all you had to do was point to it and it would disappear: ---- For example, in McBroom’s Zoo I wanted to use the Hidebehind, a fabled frontier creature. No one knows what the Hidebehind looks like because every time you look, the animal hides behind you. I saw the hole at once. All McBroom needed to do was to hold up a mirror and he’d see the Hidebehind’s mug. I plugged the hole by pointing to it. Works like magic. “I even tried walking around with a hand mirror.” McBroom declares. “But the Hidebehind was too eternal clever for tricks like that.”
  - interestica 7y ago
    Kinda like the lampshade trope. It's interesting to compare to writing/acting in terms of a product like this. The launch is basically a written and choreographed performance - all done live. And in this case, something went seriously wrong (the so-called armor glass shattered during the live test). What does the performer do to hold a mirror to it (or lampshade on it) to make it go away? It's actually crazy that it would fail so distinctly in the demo that was supposed to show its strength. Was it the first time they used the metal ball? Had all testing just been done with hammers and crowbars? Maybe they should really highlight how and why it failed.
serf 7y ago
> The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12. the metallic finish made the entire care near un-repairable. It showed flaws exceedingly well, and the properties of most stainless hinder most efforts at regular dent and ding repair. Aside : I got to smog certify a DeLorean when I was a mechanic in a previous life. It's one of the most memorable cars I have ever had the pleasure of driving. It wasn't that great a driving car, but it was just such a neat image to see in real life.
- detritus 7y ago
  For me, I like my tools to age with the patina of use - scratches, knocks and dents. I'd love to see this taken up on a larger scale, but sadly can't rationalise the cost or commodity of a Cybertrunk here in London...! ed - * Cybertruck, obviously. Although I'm now working on a SAAS solution named 'cybertrunk'.
- preommr 7y ago
  Wouldn't it be more easy to maintain because you could just sand and blend away defects as opposed to dealing with paint where flaws are more noticeable.
  - serf 7y ago
    paint can be filled and repainted, bare metal cannot without exposing fillers and ruining the finish. realistically no one is blending the metal during most repair jobs; the panels either get replaced or bondo'd, sadly -- unless we're talking about vintage or nostalgic cars that have inherent issues with panel supply.
    - mikepurvis 7y ago
      Sounds like their plan for this is just that the panels are super thick and therefore really hard to dent, though I don't know what that means for crumple zones and safety. Perhaps there's an argument here that the bare metal will acquire a kind of patina, that the accumulation of small blemishes will over time contribute to an attractive worn look? That's certainly not how cars conventionally age, but it will be interesting to see what a Cybertruck looks like once it's got 200k miles on it.

grecy 7y ago

> durability (large flat sections of metal are more likely to dent than curved). I take it you didn't see the part of the presentation where they hit the Cybertruck with a sledge hammer with no effect. The "regular pickup door" did not fair so well.

empath75 7y ago
So what happens when you get into an accident with this thing? Do you have to replace the entire body? Or does it just not properly crumple and you’ll just be dead or crippled so you won’t have to worry about it.
- roland35 7y ago
  I would imagine it would probably be similar to any current car, it looks like it has panels which could be replaced. The roof was difficult to tell though, if there was a weld or seam on to top which was part of a larger panel