4 ms·

Ask HN: Was the Tesla Cybertruck designed primarily for police/military use?

abudabi123 4y ago
Elon Musket and his supporters see around more corners than his pro psy opps don't know they don't know \s
PaulHoule 4y ago
I don't think they were thinking that far ahead, I think it was just another not quite half-assed scheme like the Boring Company or buying Twitter.
anigbrowl 4y ago
Why do you ask? If you are not bringing any relevant context you might have better luck at Quora.
- readonthegoapp 4y ago
  i assume by relevant context, you mean i should have added some text to the question, or in a comment? i have a tough time keeping track of HN rules. anyways... i saw a really cool-looking military truck online (which i'm guessing has a very interesting backstory), and it made me think a lot of them just look like ass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novator_(light_armoured_vehicle) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novator_(light_armoured_vehicl... so my next thought was the cybertruck, which also looks like ass, imo, but at least it looks intimidating and threatening and deadly and like a terror machine, generally, so i thought, well... what about that glass-breaking demo incident? why was it important to have shatter-proof glass. or maybe bullet-proof glass? then i thought, oh, well, yeah, sure, it's marketed to consumers a bit, but is that the _real_ intended market? it's like consumer saas vs business saas. there's no money in consumer saas -- business saas is where it's at. so, if i'm musk, and i can sell a few thousand monster terror SUVs in the neighborhood - fine - but what if i could sell a few tens or hundreds of thousands of them to the US and other militaries of the world for a 10-100x price? pretty soon you're talking real money. given that US society is still growing more unequal, and the militarizing of police forces is continuing partially as a result of that inequality, maybe the actual target for the cybertruck has always been the US military and police forces? it seems obvious to me now, but i think someone smarter would have recognized it when the SUV was initially announced. but maybe i'm wrong? thus this 'Ask HN'.
gregjor 4y ago
It seems primarily designed for stock pumping, but positioning it for government/military subsidies makes sense given Musk's proven mastery of corporate welfare. I think the ongoing production delays (now out to mid-2023) come down to a couple of problems remaining for Musk and team to solve: 1. Making unbreakable glass windows that actually don't break. Probably important for military and police applications. 2. Switching from Apple Pay to a more free-speech friendly online payment system to collect deposits. The rest looks pretty easy.

Elon Musket and his supporters see around more corners than his pro psy opps don't know they don't know \s

I don't think they were thinking that far ahead, I think it was just another not quite half-assed scheme like the Boring Company or buying Twitter.

anigbrowl 4y ago

Why do you ask? If you are not bringing any relevant context you might have better luck at Quora.

readonthegoapp 4y ago
i assume by relevant context, you mean i should have added some text to the question, or in a comment? i have a tough time keeping track of HN rules. anyways... i saw a really cool-looking military truck online (which i'm guessing has a very interesting backstory), and it made me think a lot of them just look like ass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novator_(light_armoured_vehicle) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novator_(light_armoured_vehicl... so my next thought was the cybertruck, which also looks like ass, imo, but at least it looks intimidating and threatening and deadly and like a terror machine, generally, so i thought, well... what about that glass-breaking demo incident? why was it important to have shatter-proof glass. or maybe bullet-proof glass? then i thought, oh, well, yeah, sure, it's marketed to consumers a bit, but is that the _real_ intended market? it's like consumer saas vs business saas. there's no money in consumer saas -- business saas is where it's at. so, if i'm musk, and i can sell a few thousand monster terror SUVs in the neighborhood - fine - but what if i could sell a few tens or hundreds of thousands of them to the US and other militaries of the world for a 10-100x price? pretty soon you're talking real money. given that US society is still growing more unequal, and the militarizing of police forces is continuing partially as a result of that inequality, maybe the actual target for the cybertruck has always been the US military and police forces? it seems obvious to me now, but i think someone smarter would have recognized it when the SUV was initially announced. but maybe i'm wrong? thus this 'Ask HN'.

gregjor 4y ago

It seems primarily designed for stock pumping, but positioning it for government/military subsidies makes sense given Musk's proven mastery of corporate welfare. I think the ongoing production delays (now out to mid-2023) come down to a couple of problems remaining for Musk and team to solve: 1. Making unbreakable glass windows that actually don't break. Probably important for military and police applications. 2. Switching from Apple Pay to a more free-speech friendly online payment system to collect deposits. The rest looks pretty easy.