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Interesting that the marketing image on that page is clearly meant to suggest driving around on Mars. I think it is clear from the design and marketing that thi
by TaylorAlexander 3y ago
Interesting that the marketing image on that page is clearly meant to suggest driving around on Mars. I think it is clear from the design and marketing that this truck is meant as a fashion statement not a work vehicle. It will be interesting to see if it catches on. I like some of the ideas used in the vehicle's construction, though I do not like how dangerous it appears to be for pedestrians.
If I made a prediction, it would be that lessons learned from the cybertruck will influence a new generation of vehicle designs. It seems to be a design that takes a lot of risks and tries new things, and I would expect some of that to stick. Tesla certainly has experience making vehicles and a desire to simplify and innovate, so I would expect at least something of this design to inspire new vehicle designs.
A lot of people are saying its ugly. I feel that way too though I am unsure if it will grow on me. But as much as people say that, I think it will catch on anyway. It's a very flashy fashion statement and I think that will appeal to people with money and those aspiring to look like they have more money than they do.
- taurath 3y agoI feel like it already has limited social value except as a sort of MAGA hat for Elon. I predict it’ll have some rabid adherents but also develop a reputation as a vehicle for assholes - already in a lot of circles the Tesla brand has a negative association due to Elon behaving like a nepo bully.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoYou know that's a good point. I know everyone in my circles will feel that way. You can get away driving a normal Tesla but this one is really going to say something in particular. That you also have this sort of immature brash attitude that has led to Musk's negative public opinion. So you are right that might tank the product.
- nomel 3y agoI wish I was just an allowed to like things, without people coming up with some BS, especially political, about why I shouldn't. I suspect the bigger problem will be people like you, being judgmental assholes, rather than the "assholes" just buying something they think is neat. I'm mostly looking forward to cars/trucks maybe not looking the same as they have for the last 50 years.
- threeseed 3y agoYou are free to do whatever you like. And others are free to do what they like. Which for most people includes making judgements about who you are based on the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the style of haircut etc. And buying a Cybertruck does imply that you either (a) agree with or (b) are ambivalent about Musk's behaviour.
- nomel 3y ago> Which for most people includes making judgements about who you are based on the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the style of haircut etc. But, it's important to understand that the people with some hairstyle aren't the assholes. That would be entirely on the people saying they're assholes for their choice of hair shaft placement. > And buying a Cybertruck does imply that you either (a) agree with or (b) are ambivalent about Musk's behaviour. I don't believe most Tesla owners are aware of this. Most that I know see an obvious choice in a product with no real competition.
- dragontamer 3y ago> I don't believe most Tesla owners are aware of this. Most that I know see an obvious choice in a product with no real competition. Cybertruck isn't even released yet, all the dates here are 2024. Meanwhile, Ford 150 Lightning and Rivian actually exist (and have existed for literally years). You can't even properly call the Cybertruck a competitor until its truly available. And the low-price model has a "might be released in 2025, we don't have the specs either" right there front and center. That's not competition, that's vaporware.
- nomel 3y ago> Cybertruck isn't even released yet, all the dates here are 2024. I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that only the purchase of a Cybertruck is related to this "behavior", but not a Model 3/Y/X/S, when you said: > And buying a Cybertruck does imply that you either (a) agree with or (b) are ambivalent about Musk's behaviour. Is there some Cybertruck related behavior I'm not aware of? Maybe you could state the behavior that Cybertruck and/or Tesla owners are supposedly agreeing with/ambivalent about?
- 0xDEAFBEAD 3y agoProbably lots of truck buyers wearing MAGA hats already, they know their target market? Standard business advice: It's better to have a product that a few people love than a product that lots of people think is just OK.
- jedberg 3y agoI've seen a lot of Teslas around the Bay Area with bumper stickers that say "I got this before Elon went crazy".
- angoragoats 3y agoI've seen these stickers too, and if you ever see one on a Model 3 or Y the owner is full of shit. Elon was in full-on crazy mode at the latest by 2017, well before either of these models even shipped to customers.
- czbond 3y agoGotta virtue signal! I don't know Elon's views - nor do I care. I drive a Jeep - and couldn't care less about the executive's political views & wouldn't be insecure enough to place it on a bumper sticker.
- acdha 3y agoThis is the tragedy of Musk’s poor self control: there’s a fair chance a Jeep exec is nutty about something, but they’re smart enough to keep their mouths shut and not turn away customers. If he just stuck with the standard Republican mainstream, it’d be fine - everyone assumes rich dudes are voting for the people giving them tax cuts - but he just can’t stop publicly supporting wildly repulsive things which force people to ask whether they can stomach giving him money. The bar is so low and yet he can’t stop tripping over it…
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoUnfortunately now that Musk is ruler of one of the world's largest communication platforms it's becoming extremely difficult to ignore his increasingly polarized views. And even if you avoid them, other people will not.
- starcraft2wol 3y ago> cybertruck is the maga hat of trucks How is this a real comment?
- Always_Anon 3y agoEDS: Elon Derangement Syndrome
- CaptWillard 3y agoThe hate for Elon is trite, tedious and says more about the weakness of the hater than their virtue.
- taurath 3y agoBecause it’s not. You changed what I said.
- starcraft2wol 3y agoPlease correct with your intended interpretation.
- m463 3y agoI think there are lots of people that want an EV, but drive terrible roads.
- WheatMillington 3y agoAre roads in the US that bad that you can't drive a normal car on them?
- m463 3y agoMaybe not LA or NYC, but some parts of the country are not urban: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_States#Historical_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_the_United_Sta... Folks there have country roads and long gravel or dirt driveways and ... That said, yeah some people just buy 4wd to go skiing in tahoe without chains.
- nomel 3y agoYou're assuming everyone has a freeway/city owned roadway to their garage.
- standardUser 3y agoAre there issues with EVs on dirt or gravel roads? I've lived in a rural area where driving on both was neccesary and we never gave any thought to what car we were driving.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> this truck is meant as a fashion statement not a work vehicle This describes most vehicles.
- cmac2992 3y agoEspecially most trucks
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> Especially most trucks I'd argue not. Many trucks are driven by folks in the trades. If I were to guess, I'd put my money on SUVs having the largest fraction of users who rarely if ever push the vehicle to its limits. That or sports cars.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoI looked it up and the top 3 most selling vehicles this year were big trucks. A total of 1.3 million trucks just from the top 3 vehicles this year. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g43553191/bestselling-cars-2023/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g43553191/bestselling-cars... I doubt all these new trucks are for trades people. Honestly most tradespeople I see drive older trucks because they are beating them up anyway. There's a LOT of people driving trucks who are not trades people.
- wharvle 3y agoI’ve noticed large regional differences in truck prevalence (vs. more jeeps and even more SUVs, it seemed to my eye, in the relatively-low-truck regions) so that may be account for difference in perception. In my part of the Midwest, the vast majority of trucks aren’t seeing truck-like use more than a countable-on-fingers number of days per year. A relatively small proportion are owned by tradespeople, who are at least as likely to drive a van-body vehicle as a normal truck, from what I’ve seen. Most are owned as status symbols, in-group signaling consumption, and (no joke, many owners will tell you this) so they’re more likely to “win” in a crash and/or so they feel bigger on the road (again, not mean-spirited speculation, I’ve repeatedly heard that cited as a reason to favor trucks, from truck owners) Some of these folks will say they really need them for that handful of times a year they tow or haul, but the price and gas consumption difference vs a sedan would likely cover years and years of delivery fees, paid towing, lake slip fees, et c, so that’s not really what’s getting them to sign on the dotted line for these things.
- rurp 3y agoThe folks who buy EVs as a fashion statement and those who buy flashy trucks as a fashion statement seem to have very little overlap. I suppose the plan is to bridge that gap and expand their market. I'm skeptical that it will be a success, but Elon is world class as getting money from people so I won't be surprised if it works out for Tesla.
- rainsford 3y agoA quote I've seen attributed to Carl Sagan comes to mind, "But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." The Cybertruck is definitely different and attention grabbing. But there's good and bad versions of that and I really feel like this is the latter. Previous Tesla vehicles were also different and bucked certain traditional vehicle design trends but did so in a way that made them look like they were moving beyond current cars and legitimately belonged in the future. The Cybertruck also looks like the future, but as envisioned by a SyFy movie of the week that stars Lorenzo Lamas and that ran out of money and built their future vehicle out of spray painted plywood sheets. There's quirky bad, it grows on you bad, and then just bad bad. I also find it reminiscent of the Pontiac Aztek and some quick Googling tells me I'm not the only one. This is perhaps not the comparison you want to evoke. I've never seen an in-developed product gets such a huge amount of derision of its visual design and then come out essentially unchanged. Maybe Elon and Tesla have vision far beyond everyone else on this point, but it's difficult to imagine the appeal of this outside of an extremely niche market...perhaps of people who were sad their Pontiac Aztek died and that it didn't cost them more money.
- quickthrowman 3y agoI actually saw an Aztek on the road yesterday, I was shocked > The Cybertruck also looks like the future, but as envisioned by a SyFy movie of the week that stars Lorenzo Lamas and that ran out of money and built their future vehicle out of spray painted plywood sheets. 100% agreed
- demondemidi 3y agoEveryone with a brain knows this is a vanity project by a very rich person who can do whatever he wants. The success doesn't matter. I don't think that's a good or bad thing, it's just a thing. If anything it demonstrates what a bored rich nerd can do for fun. I guess I might do something like that if I had billions to throw around, maybe I'd just make one for myself though, and not an entire product line that would put my main source of wealth at risk. Or maybe I wouldn't. Hard to say how warped billions would make my mind.
- standardUser 3y agoI'm no defender of Musk, but he (and the people working for him) seem pretty serious about making Tesla and SpaceX enduring companies. And honestly, if I had billions to throw around I might want to build rockets and replace ICE cars too. Having said that, I simply cannot contort myself enough to pretend he is not deliberately tanking Twitter.
- demondemidi 3y agoI don't disagree with you at all. He has hired very brilliant people and it is easy to list a dozen things that would have taken decades or more to happen if he hadn't gone full nerd-billionaire and thrown gobs of money at his passions. Whether or not Musk himself is smart is besides the point: he took his childhood dreams and spent big money to make them happen. Who wouldn't do that? That being said I think he's an evil POS, and I think the biggest struggle popular culture is having is that of simple naratives: people are all-or-nothing, black-or-white. It's possible someone can be a crapoid earthling and still cause beneficial things to happen in spite of who they are. That's a hard pill to swallow from either direction, and I have a very tough time with it! I personally don't think the ends justify the means here, but that's because of where I set my bar. Other bars may vary.
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- busymom0 3y agoI do think the raw metal color of the truck looks better on mars background than typical black tar roadways.