Autoline: Has Cybertruck Changed Pickup Design?

[BillyGee]

I'm replacing a work truck with it, I suspect I'll be seeing a lot of my business friends and customers replacing their work trucks with other EVs in the near future.

Arguing the semantics of the definition of a truck seems to kind of be the point of the design and engineering of the CT. Everyone I talk to about it would love to replace their work trucks with one, so in practice it seems like it's going to actively be a truck despite what dictionaries say.

Tesla is excluding a large portion of the truck market with the bed design. It''s not a viable design for the market who actually need to use it as a working truck and access the bed from the sides.. I would venture a guess that a large percentage of the orders will cancel if it isn't redesigned prior to coming to market.

Having worked out of a truck for years, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to do this.

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[Cybe]

It will for some and it won't for others. It will clearly be fine for the guy who wants to occasionally haul a couple of bags of quick mix concrete from the Home Despot and that's going, IMO, to be far and away the biggest market for these vehicles. It's going to be adequate for the guy that wants to haul his ATV out to his hunting cabin in deer season. If they didn't think that an appreciable market they wouldn't be offering the Cyberquad. It's going to be adequate for the guy who runs a lawn business and wants to pull a trailer full of lawn mowers around town and it going to be plenty for people who want to pull a modest sized camper out to the country from time to time. It is not going to be adequate for people who want to pull a 14,000 lb fifth wheel rig from Florida to Oregon.

As the trucks become available and people start reporting their experiences on forums like this one future potential buyers will become educated as to what one can practically do with them and what he cannot.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. I dont think it will be adequate for either the hunter/sports crowd or the small business owner, be it landscape, lawn, plumbing, electrician or whatever else requires ready access to the contents stored in any area of the bed. The outdoors crowd haul much more than just a quad to their destination as do most who use their truck for work. The option for all those who "use" an actual truck will be to just keep buying a normally aspirated truck that doesnt compromise the main feature until someone designs an electric powered truck for those who know and need a real truck. If you have a truck and dont have the need to get to items in the bed....well, then you really dont need a truck now do you?

 

[Cybe]

I liked the ability to put things in the back short term and reach over and pull it out over the side, but that's because I have a single cab truck, and can't put groceries in the back seat area. When I get gas, (for the mower), I would put it behind the cab, but I am not that lazy, I can take a couple more steps to the back and put it there.

Of course after 30 years of driving trucks, perhaps I'm using it wrong, but as far as it goes, trying to stretch and reach things behind the cab, isn't a deal breaker for me, I'll be happy to have t-track and tie down next to the tail gate.

I suppose "driving" and "using" are obviously the difference.

 

[ajdelange]

The skilled small business owner (plumber, electrician, carpenter, HVAC guy...) doesn't buy a pickup. He buys a van or box truck because he needs a place to store his tools, fuses, TXVs etc. protected from weather and in a way he can easily access them e.g. on racks mounted to the interior sides. The landscaping guy is more likely to buy a pickup and for him, of course, the CT is absolutely fine. Why do we think he can't easily pull a weed whacker or rake out the back of a CT?

Now most of these aren't going to be bought by tradesmen. They are going to be bought by the same people who constitute the bulk of the pickup market today i.e. middle age affluent men in the urbs and suburbs. This is clearly the market Tesla is aiming at but it also seems that the Cyber aspect may draw in some of the under 50 crowd.

My days as a Nimrod are over but I used to haul rototillers, lawnmowers, generators etc. out to my hunting "lodge" and even occasionally haul a deer carcass back home. I can't see anything in the CT that would preclude me from doing that with equal or greater convenience as a ramp is built into the tail gate. No more 2 x 6's. I think the argument is that I can't easily get a 50 lb malt sack or a 30 pound CO2 siphon (these are the things I used to haul in my SR5) over the bed side at the forward end. Well I couldn't get them out of the SR5 over the bed side either so they would be rolled or pulled back to the rear and taken out with the gate lowered. How is this supposed to be different in the CT?

 

[Dids]

I work out of a crew cab pickup daily. My tools are in the back seat along with the supplies. I use the bed to haul anything from leaves to cardboard boxes to gravel. I am a handyman and each job is as varied as it can be. The cybertruck with the sails and rolling cover are perfect for me. I can put tools in the frunk. I can load furniture and if it's not too tall I can close the cover. I have a camper topper which I like to use in the winter due to bad weather but it's always too low to load comfortably.

 

[Cyberman]

Absurd that we're even having this conversation. Is it going to carry my neighbors fridge, or a cord of firewood, twenty eight sheets of plywood or whatever else I stick in it? Of course, it's a truck. And it's going to carry a hell of a lot more once I get my SS lumber rack on it. Then will it be a truck? It was already a truck. It even has "truck" in the name, CYBERTRUCK. It's just there are some malcontents who can't take how awesome it is, and feel the need to tear it apart before even seeing one in front of them. It may redefine what a truck is, for sure, but believe me, it's most definitely, absolutely, positively... a truck. And an urban assault vehicle. Now let's get to talkin' about something a little more serious. Like this whole money for nothing/chicks for free thing.

 

[Bud]

Form equals Function
The stainless steel exoskeleton frame dictated the design.

 

[Ehninger1212]

Yes.

 

[Ehninger1212]

reading through this whole thread.. i realize some people are drastically out of touch with how important "Design" is. It is so much more than just "The color of a steering wheel"... smh..

Tesla designs and engineers amazing vehicles.. Everyone else is either trying to catch up or in denial.

 

[Cybr on]

Absurd that we're even having this conversation. Is it going to carry my neighbors fridge, or a cord of firewood, twenty eight sheets of plywood or whatever else I stick in it? Of course, it's a truck. And it's going to carry a hell of a lot more once I get my SS lumber rack on it. Then will it be a truck? It was already a truck. It even has "truck" in the name, CYBERTRUCK. It's just there are some malcontents who can't take how awesome it is, and feel the need to tear it apart before even seeing one in front of them. It may redefine what a truck is, for sure, but believe me, it's most definitely, absolutely, positively... a truck. And an urban assault vehicle. Now let's get to talkin' about something a little more serious. Like this whole money for nothing/chicks for free thing.

? yup. Definitely a truck.

 

[ricinro]

It may be useful to get a bumper sticker claiming it is NOT a truck so you can avoid moving your coworkers stuff in Phoenix in August.

 

[ricinro]

the original designer/ engineer stuff was weird. We are a diverse bunch with many different talents. Diplomas may be rubber stamped but not people.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

The great thing about the CyberTRUCK is that it is many vehicles in one. There is no point in arguing about how to classify it as though there is a single classification. Like anything else, it can be classified in many ways and sit somewhere in the taxonomy of things according to the metrics or features we choose to classify by. I tend to classify by functional features, myself, and by the plethora of functional features it has the CT can live in several vehicle taxonomies: passenger vehicle, sport utility vehicle, commercial vehicle, cargo vehicle, off-road vehicle, ... so why are any of us fan-people arguing about what to call it? Elon named it, let’s leave it at that.

 

[jerhenderson]

No. No it hasn't. And I have no concept of why they thought it would.
It may impact production and engineering, but the design of the Cyber isn't going to be mirrored.
It isn't even a "truck."

Define how the CT isn't a truck? Is that because it doesn't look like a brick?

 

[ricinro]

Perhaps Elon wanted a cool truck and due to the production hell he was enduring he requested brainstorming to produce designs that were easy to manufacture and required no painting.
So SS was the only option to avoid painting and to simplify manufacturing: minimize stampings/welding/reduce component count and weight. One of the paths to reduce stamping is to make the frame/body the same thing thus the exoskeleton.
Perhaps it could have been some other design path.