Tesla Is Recalling Cybertrucks Again. Yep, More Pieces Are Falling Off

Yep. There were endless articles and hundreds of comments here about how atrocious the crash safety of the cyber truck must be for occupants. Everyone knew for a fact it had no crumple zone, etc.

Then the actual crash testing data comes out…… And crickets.

Peoples intuition is very, very wrong.

Pickup trucks aren't flat vertical walls like a semi though. They are a high wall with a hood.

While "sharp" edge can certainly break bones, getting hit with a high hood causes people to slam their head into the hood with very little travel time compared to a low hood. Head injuries are far more likely to cause death.

Of course, the risk varies based on height. Sharp edges a couple feet off the ground are far more dangerous to someone only a couple feet tall.

The front is rounded which is the place you'll hit in the vast majority of cases.

clear case of bias infecting judgment.

I’m not sure if you mean to imply that most US vehicles aren’t sold in Europe, but I don’t think that’s the case -- there are plenty of US cars in Europe (including Teslas, although they’re going rapidly out of fashion).

2028.. Europe starves...

You would need to compare the data against the data of non-smart trucks. I'm guessing it's an order of magnitude more dangerous to be a pedestrian around a normal truck.

That first crash sure doesn't sound like Autopilot/FSD, given that the car kept going after the crash.

The last reason is the biggest imo. Previously if you didn't pay attention you would crash relatively often. Now you aren't punished in the same way. In the same way spell check made us worse spellers. You aren't required to pay attention to detail, so you never develop that skill.

> There has been at least one study out of Berkeley that suggests that people who drive more expensive cars are more likely to break the rules of the road.

In Germany, we have a joke - BMWs don't need turn signal indicators, they have built-in precedence that comes with paying the money one needs to have to afford a BMW.

Could you give me some numbers about deaths caused by Tesla versus other brands per mile driven? It seems to be very difficult to find enough information to draw any conclusions.

That's misleading. They don't test for pedestrian safety as part of the normal tests. But they test for it generally, not specific to any model and use those results to inform their rules about what can and can't be sold. Same story with rollover testing.

This is why hood ornaments mostly died and flip up headlights fully died.

Furthermore, the NHTSA doesn't do most testing. The testing must be done and the testing needs to meet NHTSA standards but the OEMs are free to DIY it or outsource.

NHTSA outlawed hood ornaments purely for pedestrian safety, so it’s not 100% correct.

There are more situations than just "a 55mph head-on crash" that need to be considered. What about getting clipped at 5mph when the driver is turning, and on a Cybertruck you've now got a brutal gash dug into you. And a camera that covers a full 360 isn't really all that useful when you're making a normal turn and not looking at the camera, but have your normal vision heavily obscured by the massive frame.

It's not perfectly safe. If it were, it would be legal everywhere and it's not.

What about if you’re hit at 10mph? Of course any crash at 55 is fatal for a cyclist, but most impacts with cyclists don’t occur at highway speeds.

The reason it's not allowed in European roads is that the cold rolled steel is too hard, and the edges are too sharp.

At 55mph perhaps this doesn't matter, but most vehicle-pedestrian collisions occur at far lower speeds than that, and then it absolutely does matter.

I self identify as a Tesla fanboy, the model Y is the best car in the world in my opinion, but even I have to admit the cybertruck has several fatal flaws and just isn't a good vehicle.

On paper it has a bunch of things going for it, for example it is (as far as I know) the cheapest fully electric vehicle with air suspension. In practice it all falls apart (both literally and figuratively)

I wish Tesla would try again and build a new truck, without the cyber and the cold rolled stainless steel. Stick to the design language of the other Tesla models this time. Let Franz do his thing.

> The Cybertruck is perfectly safe and has sensors and cameras with 360 degrees of awareness and a 3D mapping of all obstacles on the road. As for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. it doesn't matter if you're hit by a Mini Cooper at 55mph or a Cybertruck at 55mph, you're not walking away from it. But the Cybertruck has far more anti-collision features than almost any production car in the world, along with the entire Tesla line.

Oh look, another Tesla fanboy using an extreme example to avoid discussing a legitimate concern.

The Cybertruck also bursts into flames, has body panels that fall off, and has an accelerator pedal that can spontaneously disassemble itself into getting jammed in the floored position. (I think they eventually fixed the accelerator pedal thing. Still a super bad look.)

Also, if you get hit by a Cybertruck at 55mph, the sharp angles are going to cut you far deeper than a Mini Cooper would. You're not going to walk away from it either way, but you're probably more likely to perish from the Cybertruck.

(That doesn't stop me from wanting a Cybertruck but that's just because it's cool in other ways. I don't know if I'd want one to be my daily driver, but it is very cool.)

Three years, unless something happens to Trump or he resigns or is impeached and removed. This is still the first of his four years in office, though it feels like longer.

You're awaiting a new president with hopes the Chinese can again saturate the market with more of their cheap junk?

I'm not sure if the USA will allow them in Canada either. Pushing back against China is one of the few things both parties agree with right now.

Canada's auto industry is tied to the US's. As much as BYD coming to the US would hurt all of North America's auto industry. BYD coming to Canada would also hurt the auto industry. They are just too interconnected.

While I wouldn't piss on him to put him out, the Trump administration is not the nucleus of anti-chinese sentiment. It happened way before him. He's just loud and hamfisted about it.

Canada specifically, as a major supplier to US auto manufacturers and a resource economy in it's own right, should be wary of cozying up to Chinese business.

How far did you get, and what do you mean "regardless of cost"? The big issue is going to be getting the vehicle to pass FMVSS, and it looks like no one has successfully done it. Have you talked to an RI to see if they know why?

There are import exceptions for testing purposes which I would imagine is how Ford is able to bring one over.

Like make the integrated voice-activated AI have a setting to swear at and insult you while driving

Call it a model 69 and be done

Or maybe model 6/7 would be better for him nowadays

> You do see glimpses of it in the other models. Eg. The removal of the indicator stalk likely saved <$100 (if that!) but it's a non-starter for many buyers. That has to be Musk's doing right?

"all input is error" - elon musk

wdyt? From where I'm sitting anyone with that position would deprecate the input devices...

He actually shares a lot in common with his former(?) friend Kanye West. Both crave the validation of others, but when they get it, instead of being satisfied, they become even more needy and insecure. So they pursue anything except what they're actually good at because then if they fail at the thing people actually value them for, it would be too painful. And they surround themselves with yes men who tell them how great they are. All these factors make them more and more isolated and insecure. Combine that with drugs, alcohol, and sex and you have a toxic brew.

You may say this armchair analysis is unfair, but both these men have been so candid, veiled by the thinnest layer of irony, that it's impossible not to see how fragile they are.

"No idea" doesn’t sound right.

I’d say he thinks he has many superpowers, but maybe in reality just has one.

His cult is a very specific type of person. The general public finds him repulsive as demonstrated by his time in government.

He's a cult leader with surprisingly horrible political instincts

Come on, he is properly good manager. A bit fascist and authoritarian (or more than a bit) but often delivers, at least when not bullshitting investors and buyers like with FSD. He can drive himself to the ground and then keep himself afloat with cocktail of drugs, ozempic and similar and expects no less from his underlings. Sort of good ol' oil baron of 19th century in 21st century.

His weakness is as you write - thinking he is the smartest and best engineer in the room, when all he has are engineering companies.

The recall for a dealer-installed light bar that gets glued onto the glass windshield isn't the same as panels falling off, yes.

I don't disagree that it happens/happened, just that I disagree with the implied frequency, as I've never seen it in person and I see a lot of cybertrucks at my local chargers.

Also this recall is for the lightbar, the trim piece was recalled in March.

This was genuinely innovative and intriguing. Did the numbers just not work out for manufacturing or some other thing get in the way?

The drivers probably have the mental development of a middle-schooler - these trucks are FIRE with 7-grader boys!

Whenever I see one in the wild, I point and laugh like Nelson from the Simpsons. Ha-ha!

The lightbars mentioned in the article were an optional non-factory addon that were installed at the Tesla dealership. The steel body panels are not glued on.

Love this overconfident armchair mechanical engineering and product design.

Many vehicles with light bars have them mounted onto a standoff bracket. Why not design a standoff that mounts after the apex (back sloped part), using a piece with an angle complementary to the roof slope, providing a flat surface for the light bar to mount on? Pretty straightforward and honestly exactly what I would expect as an official accessory to a $100K vehicle.

Btw, does Tesla pay you for all your white knighting?

> Anyone who really goes off road is looking for a lot of features that are hard to find in a production vehicle. (which is why they often modify production vehicles).

Perhaps this is something that Slate can solve better than Tesla.

https://www.slate.auto

You shouldn't be getting downvoted, you're right. Adhesives can be incredibly strong, and it's common for even larger panels to be glued on. For whatever reason a lot of British cars in particular (range rover, jaguar, etc) use bonded and riveted frames instead of welding for their aluminum framed vehicles, with lots of components just being glued on.

That's a lot of your own judgment you've layered on top of it.

For a more joyful interpretation of cybertruck aesthetics, do a image search for "cybertruck trick or treat". I volunteered to provide my truck for my kid's school Halloween party and decorated it to look like the chomp chomp monster from Mario. Kids loved it.

(sure it's not cyberpunk but it's an example of how the look can be used for family friendly innocent fun)

As is the "likely to hit others while self-driving"..

What's unreliable about the Model Y, other than some fit-and-finish issues? Does it have battery failures or mechanical/electronic problems?

Most MY and M3 owners I have talked to rave about their cars and have very high customer loyalty.