The Tesla Cybertruck
So, the Cybertruck's been out for several months now and it looks like the "I told you so" crowd has already seen themselves vindicated, if the initial reports are anything to go by.
Biggest concern since its announcement was the solid "exoskeleton" exterior and bullet-resistant glass, which raised the question of what would happen to its occupants in the event of a crash or a need to extract them. Well, the first part's been answered: the Cybertruck seems to shrug off collisions while its passengers take the brunt of the crash. A few news stories have already reported on intact Cybertrucks breaking its driver's bones while the other car gets totally wrecked- the driver walking out relatively unscathed. Apparently several decades of research into crumple zones weren't enough to convince Elon of their need. As for the other half, there hasn't been an incident where a Cybertruck driver needs to be pried out of their tank by fire fighters but it's only a matter of time for it to happen.
Another aspect of the Cybertruck that's showing its faults has been the wiring system. Did you know the Cybertruck uses gigabit ethernet cabling with a 48v power + data CAN bus to every component, all on the SAME cable? This reduced total wiring by 77% and used 1/2 the copper it originally did! It uh… also means that if one component fails, multiple other components that were strung to it also fail. In a catastrophic case, the whole car could shut down if the "right" component burnt out. Think about old Christmas lights and how the string would turn off if a single bulb failed. There is ZERO redundancy in its wiring system, and there's at least one report out there of a crash that happened because the steering wheel and brakes failed to respond to controls.
I sincerely doubt we have any Elon fans here, but I haven't been lurking enough to know. That's just an assumption based on the general "vibe" I've been getting off these boards.
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I am a big Elon fan. My brother bought a Tesla 3 years ago and it is a great car.* I installed his charging station in his garage, we used a 240 clothes dryer receptacle from Lowes, works great. We drove all around town yesterday in the Tesla.
*Great for short trips of under 140 miles. No good for long trips. Sorry I don't know anything about the truck.
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Yeah - I have a friend is firmly committed to his Tesla and loves it and brags on it all the time. The under appreciated aspect of EV's, but gearheads get it pretty quickly, is performance - electric motors just put it to the tire much faster and those things have massive acceleration.
As for the "electric El Camino" as I like to call it, I threw down $100 just to have an option to buy the 2wd version due in 2025, but I do that w/something every once in a while and usually test drive and pass. I think Lucid is the best styled EV out there but I don't have any feel for their reliability ratings.
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One can be a fan of Elon and still not believe there is any value in EVs…
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Oh I think there's quite a few Elon fans here, and I'm one. Go X, go SpaceX! As for electric automobiles, see Allen's post above.
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What Ruger said. Musk is a brilliant man, but he has far too many irons in the fire. SpaceX and Starlink are huge successes, Tesla, his Boring company, Neuralink, and other enterprises not so much.
Tesla cars are very good in general, but people are simply not warming up to EVs. And that "pickup" is an unmitigated mistake.
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U G L Y. You ain’t got no alibi you ugly
but, I am an Elon fan
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What's an Elon?
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I kinda like the looks of Rivians truck
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Elon Musk is a visionary with a lot of innovative ideas, and he is willing to take risks. Unfortunately a lot of the ideas and visions for the future for electric vehicles is not obtainable right now.
There was a time when bridges, buildings and other structures seemed futuristic to people, but were limited in scale do to only being able to produce iron at the time. But after we learned how to produce forged steel the sky was the limit it seemed.
Some day maybe if I can go out get into a EV and drive 400 or 500 miles in cold weather with out any problem, I will look into a EV. Until then gasoline vehicles is the most dependable and economic form of transportation.15 -
Good analogy. On our horizon are sodium and sulfur batteries that far exceed the current lithium ones. With virtually unlimited supplies of both elements, too. We'll see.
I've long said that replaceable batteries are the solution to the charge time issue. Drive in to a "filling" station, and a robot swaps your partially discharged battery for a full one in just a minute or two. And you drive off, after being charged for the difference in charge level, just like filling a gas tank.
Supplying the electricity needed is, however, not as simple.
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Monster Garage S05E05
Jesse and team of electric vehicle experts try to turn a 1962 Bel Air into an battery powered car that can do 100 mph in a quarter mile.Visionary?
Let's talk Jesse James slaving 54 Mikita power-packs into the trunk of a chevy and pulling 10 second 1/4 miles!
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Not real good at readin' the room…
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…I'm a big fan of Elon…the guy is cutting edge & takes no BS, and he knows in life that there are far more important things than money…but I've gotta say, the Tesla truck is probably the ugliest truck I've ever seen…how dependable it is, only time will tell…
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The trouble is that it seems to be something co-designed by Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy.
I kinda get the idea to make something really "different" but…
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I stand by my previous statement.
It’s a pretty cool truck, if you don’t need a truck.6 -
That's not a truck. This is a truck:
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Ruger4me: 29938804277147/comments/29938790424219
One can be a fan of Elon and still not believe there is any value in EVs…
Agree.....…
It's been said.......and repeated many times by "someone"........one cannot violate The First Law of Thermodynamics......and get away with it. Never have.....NEVER will.
All the "green stuff" is just a diversion.........for MONEY!!😡
As always......my 2 cents.
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How long before states, after losing all that tax revenue from 'gas taxes', start charging by the mile for your vehicle license.
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EV tires wear down fast, and that’s a pollution problem
Swapping fossil-powered cars for EVs is a win for cutting CO2 emissions, but it may exacerbate particulate pollution from wear and tear on tires.Hey - I know I'm a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness on some of these environmental issues - and I never thought about that because EV's are heavier they are grinding up tires faster, but it's another log on the fire of why this EV value-proposition is jacked up. The ambient rubber dust is an air quality problem - and used tire disposal/recycling is just starting to be viable. Tire-fires are damn near unstoppable.
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jimdeere: 29938804277147/comments/29938827760155
That's not a truck. This is a truck:
https://us.v-cdn.net/6031683/uploads/BPU50J1QL79Y/20231029-182330.jpg
No way! A REAL truck has a bed you can put a full sheet of plywood in! Or pull a 40' container!
Like this one:
:)
Merc
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jimdeere that looks like a truckload of ash firewood. I'm burning some ash right now, very good firewood.
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Yes tire wear is increased because of the extra weight of the electric vehicle. Now since this post has gone off the rails……….THIS is a truck……..
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It is true that the Tesla is hard on tires. I'll have to ask my brother how many miles he is getting.
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Big fan of Elon Musk's but we have no need for a EV let alone a EV "truck"
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This is a real truck. A real hand truck
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MUSK may be a 'visionary' but he went temporarily blind on this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Nothing Musk attempts is "within bounds". The idea of reusable rockets was treated with howls of ridicule by the engineers who designed the Apollo project. Global internet access was a ludicrous idea until Starlink.
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Modern electric vehicles are in their infancy now.There will probably come a time in the future that they are the standard ,everyday vehicle.There are rumors that Toyota has a EV with 750 mile range and 45 minute recharge time.There may come a time when people that know vehicles say"Look, an old gas burner.That guy must be rich to pay 25 bucks a gallon for gas when you can find it.
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^^Not in my lifetime(I hope). I'd rather ride a horse than drive an EV.
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