Is it really impossible to repair this thing after being “sideswiped by an e-scooter”? Like, I’ve known as well as anyone else that the truck is a joke but how is that even possible?
The truck totals itself upon impact. Just about any collision is enough to cause the truck’s deeply ill-conceived stainless steel exoskeleton to stress and damage the adjacent panels, because all of the force of the collision is applied directly to weak mounting points and then every adjacent part basically falls like dominoes.
They made a truck that essentially cannot be repaired, what few repairs that can be made can only be done by the factory stripping the truck down completely and rebuilding a new truck from scratch on top of the original structural battery, and because there is no frame every single trim panel is actually integral.
They made an eggshell out of stainless steel that tears itself apart because it’s too rigid, attached it to a load bearing lithium-ion battery pack, and then just clipped the plastic interior pieces onto the eggshell.
I shit you not, there is no frame. They removed all of the structural components from the vehicle and instead they’ve made all of the parts which would ordinarily be non-structural into structural parts. This was done with the explicit stated purpose of reducing the manufacturing cost of the vehicle by making it non-repairable.
I’m talking about load-bearing Lithium-ion battery cells, structural plastic housings, even the glass window panes in the doors are considered so structurally important that rolling them down fundamentally changes the driving characteristics of the vehicle. It has a crash safety rating of Did Not Finish, it’s not water-tight enough to be driven in the rain or go through any car wash.
The high repair costs and relative fragility of the vehicle are intentional aspects of the design goal for the Cybertruck, passing all possible costs onto the consumer by making a disposable pickup truck and offering OEM mod package installation and a complete factory replacement/refurbishment as the only two after-sales service options on a truck that cannot be serviced or modified by anyone other than Tesla, and will brick itself if it thinks you tried.
They built a car the way you’d build a disposable vape.
It has like, a structural aluminium tub where you’d normally put the frame of a truck. That’s why the tailgate back half of the car rips off when you try tow something heavy with all that torque.
It’s truly the car homer simpson would have designed if he were less intelligent.
because all of the force of the collision is applied directly to weak mounting points and then every adjacent part basically falls like dominoes.
how much of that is due to the aesthetic of the car? Like, could you theoretically build a cybertruck that didn’t have this problem? (meaning it’d still look exactly like a cybertruck from the outside)
A car manufacturer could absolutely manufacture a vehicle using more conventional and safe methods with an industry-average level of attention paid to mechanic access, and which appears more or less identical to the Cybertruck as released from the outside. Likely there would be some minor differences based on tooling, but let’s just handwave away the little stuff like that or “parts bin” items that another manufacturer wouldn’t have access to.
Given that the level of attention paid to safety or repairability of the actual Cybertruck was worse than none, I imagine no other car manufacturer would actually make or sell something with quite the same number of deeply stupid and actively dangerous ideas even for a one-off concept car, so the interior would look quite different, but let’s again handwave that away as well.
The actual problems show up with the interior space. The stupid cost cutting and deliberate disregard for safety or durability did allow Tesla to use a manufacturing method that results in a thinner roof structure and lower floor height than conventional manufacturing methods would allow. A truck made to look like the Cybertruck with conventional manufacturing methods would have a much shorter cabin space and would likely feel more like you’re sitting in a sports sedan or a subcompact. There would also be large intrusions into the cabin (likely both in the ceiling and floor) to fit components that Tesla either skipped or didn’t need to use because of the manufacturing process that they chose to make the actual Cybertruck.
For a normal car it’s repairable, probably be an overpriced fix but not totalled. For a Cybertruck? Would not be surprised if Tesla dealerships are literally not capable of that level of repairs.
To be fairs, they aren’t even capable of reliably making the thing in the first place. Shit’s more jank than a Bri’ish car built in the 70s. Pure vibes based engineering.
How its built, first the air bags went off which are crazy expensive which damages interior panels as well. It looks like both doors were damaged, and back quarter panel. I know the rivian pickup back quarter panel extends to the front of the truck so who knows what this does. The roll down cover for the bed was probably damaged if that back quarter panel was damaged. The bed could also be damaged depending on how its attached to the quarter panel. Stainless isn’t very forgiving, its very rigid so its possible it could damage other things while being damaged. I bet only Tesla repairs these things too. So yes not surprised.
Tbf I’m old enough to have set off airbags on strangers vehicles with a well placed kick to the drivers side headlight when they were first released. They are no longer this way, but they used to be.
That’s the thing most averaged priced cars could easily be totaled when air bags deploy. So either this doesn’t keep value or how its built. Also probably only manufacturer will fix. It’s got to be how its built. Swasticar 😂
Along with the other things mentioned, Tesla hasn’t been good with insurance repairs. They have such a backlog with parts and service that insurance companies have been totalling a lot of vehicles that are repairable because they would take too long to repair.
Especially so with the cybertruck because there’s no way use bondo and paint, there’s only a few specialist Delorean shops that can rework stainless panels. That means only complete panel replacement, which is a complicated procedure on the CT because it mostly uses adhesive rather than fasteners to attach body panels. It’s like a supercar, they don’t design them to be repaired, because they don’t want them to be repaired.
Is it really impossible to repair this thing after being “sideswiped by an e-scooter”? Like, I’ve known as well as anyone else that the truck is a joke but how is that even possible?
The truck totals itself upon impact. Just about any collision is enough to cause the truck’s deeply ill-conceived stainless steel exoskeleton to stress and damage the adjacent panels, because all of the force of the collision is applied directly to weak mounting points and then every adjacent part basically falls like dominoes.
They made a truck that essentially cannot be repaired, what few repairs that can be made can only be done by the factory stripping the truck down completely and rebuilding a new truck from scratch on top of the original structural battery, and because there is no frame every single trim panel is actually integral.
They made an eggshell out of stainless steel that tears itself apart because it’s too rigid, attached it to a load bearing lithium-ion battery pack, and then just clipped the plastic interior pieces onto the eggshell.
There’s no frame?!
I shit you not, there is no frame. They removed all of the structural components from the vehicle and instead they’ve made all of the parts which would ordinarily be non-structural into structural parts. This was done with the explicit stated purpose of reducing the manufacturing cost of the vehicle by making it non-repairable.
I’m talking about load-bearing Lithium-ion battery cells, structural plastic housings, even the glass window panes in the doors are considered so structurally important that rolling them down fundamentally changes the driving characteristics of the vehicle. It has a crash safety rating of Did Not Finish, it’s not water-tight enough to be driven in the rain or go through any car wash.
The high repair costs and relative fragility of the vehicle are intentional aspects of the design goal for the Cybertruck, passing all possible costs onto the consumer by making a disposable pickup truck and offering OEM mod package installation and a complete factory replacement/refurbishment as the only two after-sales service options on a truck that cannot be serviced or modified by anyone other than Tesla, and will brick itself if it thinks you tried.
They built a car the way you’d build a disposable vape.
It’s peak anarcho-capitalism
Check this out, here’s a photo of it. They’re essentially just a pile of plastic parts hanging onto these discrete stainless steel sheets.
fuck, it’s such an ugly piece of shit
deleted by creator
It has like, a structural aluminium tub where you’d normally put the frame of a truck. That’s why the
tailgateback half of the car rips off when you try tow something heavy with all that torque.It’s truly the car homer simpson would have designed if he were less intelligent.
All the Elon Musk fanboys: “Genius move, Good Sir!”
The US military should just drop these instead of bombs
I remember reading about structural battery packs a few years ago. Are any other EVs doing it? I assumed it was standard practice now.
how much of that is due to the aesthetic of the car? Like, could you theoretically build a cybertruck that didn’t have this problem? (meaning it’d still look exactly like a cybertruck from the outside)
Depends on what you mean by “from the outside.”
A car manufacturer could absolutely manufacture a vehicle using more conventional and safe methods with an industry-average level of attention paid to mechanic access, and which appears more or less identical to the Cybertruck as released from the outside. Likely there would be some minor differences based on tooling, but let’s just handwave away the little stuff like that or “parts bin” items that another manufacturer wouldn’t have access to.
Given that the level of attention paid to safety or repairability of the actual Cybertruck was worse than none, I imagine no other car manufacturer would actually make or sell something with quite the same number of deeply stupid and actively dangerous ideas even for a one-off concept car, so the interior would look quite different, but let’s again handwave that away as well.
The actual problems show up with the interior space. The stupid cost cutting and deliberate disregard for safety or durability did allow Tesla to use a manufacturing method that results in a thinner roof structure and lower floor height than conventional manufacturing methods would allow. A truck made to look like the Cybertruck with conventional manufacturing methods would have a much shorter cabin space and would likely feel more like you’re sitting in a sports sedan or a subcompact. There would also be large intrusions into the cabin (likely both in the ceiling and floor) to fit components that Tesla either skipped or didn’t need to use because of the manufacturing process that they chose to make the actual Cybertruck.
For a normal car it’s repairable, probably be an overpriced fix but not totalled. For a Cybertruck? Would not be surprised if Tesla dealerships are literally not capable of that level of repairs.
To be fairs, they aren’t even capable of reliably making the thing in the first place. Shit’s more jank than a Bri’ish car built in the 70s. Pure vibes based engineering.
How its built, first the air bags went off which are crazy expensive which damages interior panels as well. It looks like both doors were damaged, and back quarter panel. I know the rivian pickup back quarter panel extends to the front of the truck so who knows what this does. The roll down cover for the bed was probably damaged if that back quarter panel was damaged. The bed could also be damaged depending on how its attached to the quarter panel. Stainless isn’t very forgiving, its very rigid so its possible it could damage other things while being damaged. I bet only Tesla repairs these things too. So yes not surprised.
https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair-cost-42000-after-just-a-minor-fender-bender/
My next question is are a car’s airbags supposed to go off if it gets “sideswiped by an e-scooter”?
Tbf I’m old enough to have set off airbags on strangers vehicles with a well placed kick to the drivers side headlight when they were first released. They are no longer this way, but they used to be.
Just some perspective.
Haha yeah I remember those good old days. One well placed basketball to the front of a car would be a writeoff. Good times.
My wife hit a concrete mailbox doing like 5 mph, 8 kph and all the airbags went off. All depends on how its hit.
Lot of cars can be a total loss when airbags deploy in general. Internal combustion, or swasticar.
Not $200k cars or, if we’re being more accurate, ~$80k cars
That’s the thing most averaged priced cars could easily be totaled when air bags deploy. So either this doesn’t keep value or how its built. Also probably only manufacturer will fix. It’s got to be how its built. Swasticar 😂
Edit: spelling
Along with the other things mentioned, Tesla hasn’t been good with insurance repairs. They have such a backlog with parts and service that insurance companies have been totalling a lot of vehicles that are repairable because they would take too long to repair.
Especially so with the cybertruck because there’s no way use bondo and paint, there’s only a few specialist Delorean shops that can rework stainless panels. That means only complete panel replacement, which is a complicated procedure on the CT because it mostly uses adhesive rather than fasteners to attach body panels. It’s like a supercar, they don’t design them to be repaired, because they don’t want them to be repaired.