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It was originally supposed to be an exoskeleton of folded metal. This informed the whole design, it would lead to a lightweight, low cost truck that could be d
by ZeroGravitas 2y ago
It was originally supposed to be an exoskeleton of folded metal.
This informed the whole design, it would lead to a lightweight, low cost truck that could be delivered with the battery tech available at the time. They highlighted not painting it as a cost saving move at the reveal.
Then they gave up on that idea as unworkable, but kept the look, so it's like designing a bit of furniture around some fancy solid wood steam bending technique then trying to fake it with wood laminate.
It was also delayed so long that other truck manufacturers just used the cheaper batteries available by then to make competitive trucks based don standard truck bodies.
- disqard 2y agoI have never heard this until just now, and it explains so much! (from 2019) > The terminology Rickard used for this process was "to score" the sheet. Musk talked about how deep a score the Cybertruck needed for bends via Twitter. He said, “Even bending it requires a deep score on inside of bend, which is how the prototype was made.” After the design is drawn out, the corners and edges are cut out with either a laser cutter or a water jet, while the sheet lays flat. Next, the stainless steel sheet is folded, like origami, and welded into shape. “You basically take one or two sheets and fold them up into a truck, which is a huge cost-saving,” said Rickard. According to him, the whole process makes stamping machines unnecessary and lends itself well to robot laser assembly. https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/elon-musk-explains-cybertrucks-angular-steel-design https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/elon-musk-exp...