It’s Tesla Cybertruck Week right now. Elon Musk says that deliveries to customers will start on November 30th. Cyber tricks with marked areas are starting to show up at Tesla shops across the country. On Tuesday, I went to one in Manhattan to see the much-anticipated pickup in person for the first time. This Cybertruck didn’t look as bad as earlier “release candidate” prototypes that were shown at car shows and on the road, but it did have some strange features and questionable design choices. It is good, though, in the eyes of those who see it. Even though this truck isn’t from the last batch of production, a Tesla worker at the Manhattan store said it looked “pretty much identical” to the ones that customers would get on Thursday. He also pointed to the store’s sign, which said that the vehicle could pull up to 11,000 pounds and carry up to 2,500 pounds. Even though Tesla’s original claim that the Cybertruck could pull 14,000 pounds has been a little overstated, the tow grade is still good compared to the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and Silverado EV. I saw a Cybertruck up close for the first time, and its shape is really cool, especially when seen from the front. It would help if you gave this truck credit because it has some good points and isn’t like any other truck on the market right now or ever. From the front and front three-quarter views, the Cybertruck looks modern and strong. But from the back and in profile, it looks strange and worn out. One reason for this might be that the actors need more secondary stories. Even though it looks silly, the Hummer EV’s big single windshield wiper might be smarter than its triple-wiper design. Tesla had to give up some things in order for it to have its look. There are huge blind spots between the A-pillars, and the wedge-shaped roof of the car must be making it hard for people in the back to see and move their heads. I don’t think cameras will help the Cybertruck see better. Remember that Elon wrongly said that cameras would be used instead of LIDAR in self-driving cars. I know this sounds old-fashioned, but when it comes to something this big, I’d rather see things from my point of view. The Cybertruck’s one-piece front cocoons are snug and well-bolstered, and they’re wide enough to fit everyone from big tech geeks to big farms. (But it might be too much for farmers to buy Cybertrucks.) Tesla employees were supposedly told not to open the truck’s doors, which is why I was able to watch. The truck’s bed was roped off and covered with what I think is a motorized tonneau cover, so I couldn’t open the door or get a better look at it. I did notice, though, that the top tailgate panel needed to be more evenly spaced and crooked. The two pictures show that there is a pretty even distance between the lit center panel of the top tailgate and the left bed surround panel. On the right, there is a lot more space between them, and the top is closer than the bottom. As was already said, the Cybertruck’s rear light array is made up of these three panels. This means that any alignment problems would be much easier to see while moving. I didn’t see the same terrible A-pillar panel gaps that Daniel Golson saw on a matte black Cybertruck prototype that Tesla’s head of design, Franz von Holzhausen, drove to a coffee and cars event earlier this month. With the exception of the door, the truck fit and finished well. The matte black plastic that covered the wheels and side skirts of the car, on the other hand, had some broken and wavy spots. It looked like it was coming off, mostly on the left rear wheel arch trim. The most likely time the damage happened was during shipping. We are still determining how long the trim will last, but seeing it fall apart on the truck that Tesla chose to show off at one of its flagship shops the week before deliveries start is not a good sign. Putting aside how I feel and the facts about how big electric pickups hurt the environment, I’m not here to back or criticize the Cybertruck. This is Tesla’s first completely new model in almost four years, and the company is very well known. It should be praised for being a leader in the electric vehicle revolution, but it should also be held responsible when its products break traffic rules or are behind the times. People who own Teslas are known to put up with flaws and quality problems that most people would find annoying, and the Cybertruck is the same. You can choose if you like the style or not. Still, there was a clear sense of excitement in the store, even at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. No one talked about tow rates, and I don’t think anyone cared that the Lightning isn’t very good off-road. People are paying attention to the Cybertruck because it looks different, even though it came out years late and has always promised more than it could deliver. That’s worth something in a world full of blobs that all look the same.
