Cybertruck — Blog — Healy Chen

A moment's notice

I read in the local newspaper the lone surviving passenger in a fiery Tesla Cybertruck crash back in 2024 is finally officially suing Tesla. The lawsuit puts the blame on the manufacturer for creating a death trap. Tesla vehicles famously use electrically actuated door handles, rather than the physical mechanical linkage. Federal safety laws mandate a manual failsafe, but inside Tesla cars the backups are rather hidden. One can understand that in a fiery panic, one isn’t in the best of mind to locate the functioning backup.

Certain model doesn't have manual door releases at all in the rear passenger compartment!

The Cybertruck crash is an absolute tragedy. Notwithstanding the utter lack of wisdom by the teens in getting into a 1,000 horsepower 6,000 pound missile whilst under the influence. At 3:00 AM in the morning. Were the teens in any other normal combustion vehicle, I think they’d all survive. Mangled, sure, but very much alive. A normal car would have had physical door releases that actually work, no matter if the vehicle is in a blaze.

I don’t trust it, these electric actuators. It’s unsettling to be at the mercy of a computer and electricity. Besides, is Tesla even saving any production costs? Rules dictate a secondary mechanical backup. There’s essentially two releases for every door. That doesn’t seem very economical from a cost-of-goods standpoint.

This is why my car is a Volkswagen Golf from 2019. It’s got mechanical everything, down to the emergency brake handle.

I feel bad for the sole survivor. Not only does he have to deal with the long healing process, but he’s also suing (the estate of) his former friend - the driver who is now dead. His entire life trajectory upended by a moment’s folly of late teenager. Who amongst us hasn't done some stupid shit in our time? At that age, no one ever thinks of the downside in the moment.

Electric toy truck

Last week, the big hubbub in the automotive world is the Tesla Cybertruck commencing deliveries to eager customers. After four long years of (purportedly arduous) development gestation, the quirkiest pickup truck ever (surely Doug DeMuro would agree) is finally on sale. For a company that famously does not have a PR department, it was curious to see a select few journalist getting their hands on prototypes (provided by Tesla, obviously) for early review. Maybe you do have to market an electric toy truck costing $80,000 to $100,000 after all?

Judging from the few early reviews, I must say I am very impressed with what the engineering team at Tesla has accomplished. Elon Musk set out to create something cool and fantastical - from the radical design, the unusual stainless-steel body, and various performance metrics - and his team did its best to fulfill the dictum as much as possible. The project inevitably ran into constraints: be they federal regulations, or general laws of physics. (Example: the final product has side-mirrors, where the concept truck did not.) But overall I think the execution is hugely laudable.

The Cybertruck is now the halo product for Tesla: one that increases the prestige of the brand, and elevates every other model in the portfolio. Customers can feel good knowing the same engineering prowess that went into developing the Cybertruck is also present in the Model Y or Model 3. No doubt that some of the innovations in the Cybertruck will trickle-down to future iterations of other Tesla vehicles. Tesla-firsts such as the 800-volt architecture with a 48-volt base, pure steer-by-wire system, and reverse charging. Those are exciting stuff to look forward to in non-Cybertruck applications.

While I give Tesla credit for making a truck that doesn’t look like any other truck on the road, I reckon there’s a good reason that pickup trucks have looked the same for the past many decades. Until future reviews say otherwise, the Cybertruck looks to not have the same sort of utility of a “traditional” truck. Obviously, I don’t think potential buyers care. Honestly, plenty of people buy a truck for style points, rather than truly using any of the utility fully. The Cybertruck certainly has style points up the maximum.