This past week hasn’t gone by without incident, and much has happened around the globe. In the world of electric cars, the unveiling of the Tesla Cybertruck could very well have been the main event, but things didn’t go exactly as scripted.
The event went down just outside LA at the Tesla Design Studio located in Hawthorne. For those in attendance, this promised to be an event to remember, and on that front, it did deliver. Unfortunately, they won’t be remembering it as time well spent.
Bamboozled Reaction
As soon as the Cybertruck drove onto the studio’s stage, the crowd gave a bamboozled reaction. They had definitely conjured up images of what the pickup truck would look like, and what Tesla delivered was certainly nothing like what those in the audience expected.
When you think of a truck, there’s that image that comes to mind, right? Put that aside, because the Tesla Cybertruck looks nothing of the sort. Instead, it has a trapezoid single-form shape, and you would describe it more as a piece of art than an electric vehicle.
The fact that it is silver-gray in color makes it look like an assembly of metal with wheels, a description that doesn’t do it any favors. This metal, by the way, is one of the truck’s talking points.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed that the alloy is the same one used in the assembly of SpaceX rockets, and that it makes his Cybertruck literally bulletproof. We could agree that the metal is indeed strong, but is the vehicle really “immune to bullets?”
To prove his point on the durability of his latest machine, Musk put the Cybertruck to the test in front of his audience. The sides of the truck were repeatedly smashed using a sledgehammer but not a single dent was visible. Impressive, right?
A Promise Not Delivered
Thus far, it seemed that Musk was delivering exactly what he promised. Unfortunately, this was not to go on for long. To prove that the truck’s windows were as tough, durable, and bulletproof, Musk asked his design chief to plunge a metal ball towards them.
Guess what? The first window broke, much to the crowd’s surprise! You can just imagine how embarrassing that must have been for the CEO. To try and salvage the situation, he asked Franz (the design chief) to plunge the ball towards another window.
This one must have bounced right off without causing any damage, right? Wrong. The second window broke too! What was Musk to do? Trying to make the best out of a super embarrassing situation, the CEO sheepishly commented that at least the metal ball failed to go through, which according to him, was the whole point of the demonstration.
Tesla shares dipped after this unfortunate incident, but Musk says that the company has already received 200,000 Cybertruck orders. Truth be told, the electric machine does come with some impressive capabilities, just that being bulletproof isn’t one of them.
The truck’s high-end model has a 3,500-pound carrying capacity, and can also tow an impressive 14,000 pounds. As for speed, it has an acceleration of 0-60 in just about 2.9 seconds, and on full charge, you get to a 500-mile drive.