Elon Reconfirms Production Cybertruck Will be Around 3% Smaller. Factory Delivery / Pick Up Will Be Available!

[CybertruckAgent]

I wonder why he was so adamant that solar panels would never get more efficient than 25-30%. Increased efficiency seems like the most obvious way to make vehicles with solar panels practical.

Seems like the problem is the Sun, not the panels. He acknowledged there are more efficient panels, but only 5-10% more efficient for 10x-15x the cost. The problem he summarized, was that the Sun only creates a certain amount of energy, no matter how effective we are at collecting it.

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[Diehard]

There is a dramatic difference between knowing there is a threat and taking action against it, and panicking.

The difference may be more dramatic in a dictionary than in practice. It is funny how often when someone else takes an “action” we don’t like, it is all of a sudden “panic”. Me wearing a mask and you buying an EV can both be labeled as panicking or taking action. It is all matter of who is doing the labeling.

 

[LoPro]

Yes, the digging machines 'actually' grind. But this is English, where there are always general wide use words and narrow use words which don't work outside of their original context.

Sorry, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I meant that we usually drill and blast rather than dig, grind or whatever you call it. And there’s never a reusable TBM like maybe the Boring company relies on.

And, yes, some countries have had great success with lockdowns. They work. Maybe even more so in authoritarian states or smaller homogenous nations with great trust in the government.

 

[Crissa]

I think, the issue is more the limit of how much energy is packed in the photons hitting the panels. It seems like it is enough for Aptera though.

The problem he summarized, was that the Sun only creates a certain amount of energy, no matter how effective we are at collecting it.

He's just flat wrong there, and I don't know why. Except light vehicles like the Aptera, sure, you'll never totally drive for free.

But if you have panels on your house, why not have panels on your car? The car already has a battery, so the power always has somewhere to go. And it's square footage you're not using. It doesn't matter if it's not super-efficient, it doesn't have inverter and transmission losses. And your battery car is always using power - be it for communication or battery tending. So you're always losing range.

One 12w panel on my Sentra equated to one mpg. Sure, that's, like, less than 15 miles range, but it meant my car never had a flat battery no matter how long I ran the lights. Running daytime headlights is like 1mpg.

-Crissa

 

[Diehard]

But if you have panels on your house, why not have panels on your car?

I think the juice is not worth the squeeze for CT manufacturing because the largest surface to work with is broken to small moving pieces and it is probably a pain to work with. As a customer, I still would want it on the hood at least no matter how small the charge is (Provided, it does not add too much to the cost). Tesla loses charge overnight. Just getting that back during the day would be nice. I am sure there would be aftermarket solutions.

one after market thought; I think you could have a flexible rolled solar cell at the tailgate. Attach it to the vault cover when you want sun juice. Opening the vault would roll it out for use. That way it does not have to be a part of the vault cover.

 

[Cebliminal]

FYI He doesn't actually say ".....too big for the Boring tunnel"

What he actually said was 79:10

"....it will be a couple of inches too big for the Tunnel..."

Of course we can assume he meant the Boring Tunnel.

Although, do we really think he would build a truck just so it can fit in Boring Tunnels in Las Vegas, and maybe someday Miami? Maybe everyone just convinced him make it a bit smaller so it can fit in a parking space...or most parking spaces....and maybe some garages.

I think the 3% shrinkage to the Cybertruck is the same as a mans shrinkage when jumping into a ice cold pool of water. The Cybertruck is suppose to be a man beast like it’s competitors. At this point its looking like an aerodynamic ranchero. Makes me want to cancel my order.

 

[Diehard]

I think the 3% shrinkage to the Cybertruck is the same as a mans shrinkage when jumping into a ice cold pool of water. The Cybertruck is suppose to be a man beast like it’s competitors. At this point its looking like an aerodynamic ranchero. Makes me want to cancel my order.

If you are a master of your domain with the ”timeless art of seduction“, you can look manly in any size CT.

 

[Dids]

Both use the same batteries, they said the tri just has twice as many of them.



-Crissa

Source please... I have not heard them say that they all get the same batteries...
On battery day they talked about 3 battery chemistries the new form factor. I realize that the slide picture shows Cybertruck only with the semi in the high nickel category.
At 1:10:00
But they don't specifically say that all ranges of Cybertruck would get high nickel. They say long range gets high nickel and that is neccessary for semi. They mention nickel/ manganese as better for medium range vehicles.
300 miles is a medium range vehicle.

 

[cary1219]

Seems like the problem is the Sun, not the panels. He acknowledged there are more efficient panels, but only 5-10% more efficient for 10x-15x the cost. The problem he summarized, was that the Sun only creates a certain amount of energy, no matter how effective we are at collecting it.

I would be VERY happy with a port to hook my own solar panels to. While camping off grid, would be nice to trickle charge the battery for all that physics will allow.

 

[Mini2nut]

I love the roughly 3% size reduction confirmation from Mr. Musk. The news was music to my ears. I think the new size is perfect and it can only help to increase battery range. Hopefully I can park my CT in the garage, my #1 concern with purchasing the Tesla. If the Cybertruck isn't garageable I will be switching to my quad motor Rivian R1T reservation. Bigger isn't always better.

 

[Crissa]

because the largest surface to work with is broken to small moving pieces and it is probably a pain to work with.

All solar panels are small strips of crystals.

one after marker thought; I think you could have a flexible rolled solar cell at the tailgate. Attach it to the vault cover when you want sun juice. Opening the vault would roll it out for use. That way it does not have to be a part of the vault cover.

That's a good idea. But this is why I want Tesla to have their own solar controller: So that these sorts of things can be 'just plugged in.'

Source please... I have not heard them say that they all get the same batteries...

Lots of interviews he's never mentioned any difference and the only article that discussed the engineering of the tri it said double pack, which makes sense, since it it nearly double the range.

-Crissa

 

[Luke42]

Seems like the problem is the Sun, not the panels. He acknowledged there are more efficient panels, but only 5-10% more efficient for 10x-15x the cost. The problem he summarized, was that the Sun only creates a certain amount of energy, no matter how effective we are at collecting it.

As a green energy fanboy, I've looked into this rather extensively.

The sun delivers quite a lot of energy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_insolation

If we could harvest 100% of the energy which lands on a car, solar cars would be fairly practical. However, real-world solar cells tend to run around 12%-27% efficient:
https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html

However, harvesting 100% of it seems nearly impossible. Harvesting sunlight that efficiently would involve engineering a real-world version of a physicist's thought-experiment (like building an a perfect sphere resting on an actual infinite frictionless plane). That thought-experiment is called a "black body", and the resulting photovoltaic panel would be mostly-invisible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body

In practice, real-world PV panels only react to specific wavelength-ranges of light (wavelengths of light can be thought of as colors, except that invisible forms of light are included). In order to harvest multiple wavelengths of light, multiple types of semi-transparent photovoltaic panels are stacked on top of each other.

The economic limit for this seems to be around 25% efficient for any cells you can actually buy, and the record in a lab is around 47%.

You'll know at a glance if we get anywhere close to 100% efficient photovoltaic panels, because photovoltaic panels will start to look like this:
This super-black paint is the closest thing I know of to that physicist's thought-experiment.

 

[Dids]

As a green energy fanboy, I've looked into this rather extensively.

The sun delivers quite a lot of energy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_insolation

If we could harvest 100% of the energy which lands on a car, solar cars would be fairly practical. However, real-world solar cells tend to run around 12%-27% efficient:
https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html

However, harvesting 100% of it seems nearly impossible. Harvesting would involve engineering something which is a physicist's thought-experiment (like a perfect sphere resting on an infinite frictionless plane. That thought-experiment is called a "black body", and it would be mostly-invisible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body

In practice, the PV panels only react to specific wavelength-ranges of light (wavelengths of light can be thought of as colors, except that invisible forms of light are included). In order to harvest multiple wavelengths of light, multiple types of semi-transparent photovoltaic panels are stacked on top of each other.

The economic limit for this seems to be around 25% efficient for any cells you would buy, and the record in a lab is around 47%.

You'll know at a glance if we get anywhere close to 100% efficient photovoltaic panels, because photovoltaic panels will start to look like this:
This super-black paint is the closest thing I know of to that physicist's thought-experiment.

Really cool video! I wonder though if it's black to infrared. If it is it should get really hot in the sun since more than half the energy from the sun exist outside visible. @Newton needs to paint some on a peltier junction and use thermo to create electricity.

 

[KrodEKid]

I wouldn't take anything Elon says on Joe Rogan seriously. However, I am pleased Elon acknowledged a possibility of being able to pick up directly from factory. This is what I want to do.

 

[drscot]

He confirmed that it would be 3% smaller. The main reason for the change was because it can't fit in the Boring Tunnel. Citing that the test drive through with Jay Leno was too "hair raising".

Let me get this straight: It is going to be 5% smaller.....no... 3% smaller.......no... actually it is going to stay the same size ........not smaller.......uh......3% smaller because Jay Leno got nervous ......or was that Elon that got nervous? Or was that "Bill and Ted" style nervous? Was that a "hair raising boring tunnel experience" or a "boring hare raising tunnel experience?" Bunnies are cute! Now that we are well into the "month or so" reveal of the changes in the CT we all know it was a typo. Should have been "Months or so on....." Just teasing! I would not want to have Elon's job, and I would never accept the pay if I couldn't do the job, but that's just me. I was raised by the WWI and WWII generations. Different breeds they were than what we see today.