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I agree with all of what you are saying. But, the truck shown lacks wipers or side mirrors, it has a brake light on the tailgate (illegal in the US so the design they ship will need an entirely different rear design due to the 100% width tailgate), they didn't actually test their glass before smashing it twice on stage, the most common pick up designs are single cab, not crew cab but their design is not adaptable to a single cab design, the bed is shorter than the F150's, Rear visibility is much worse than competition(in fairness the AP cameras will help), they are back to the Roadster's Yoke Style steering wheel which has been proven to be unsafe (as it lacks grab points and is uncomfortable for one handed use (you can't 10 and 2 it)). It very clearly is half baked and an attempt to hit every one of a set of crazy goals much like the Roadster 2 when they should be trying to just ship 1.0. This is Model X all over again, it will be late, over promised to the point where they will spend crazy money making it actually happen and when it does ship it will lose money because it costs too much to make.

To be clear, I think it looks freaking awesome and I would love to own one. I also think they still have not shipped the Roadster or Semi, the Model S and X refresh is next year and the Model Y is still a year plus away even though it shares most parts with the 3. This is the same story as Apple's iOS 13 launch, they have packed their schedule with cars to finish while building a bunch of new factories, while just a year ago they were taking all of Tesla Solar's employees and putting them on the model 3 R&D line. I'm bearish on this not because I hate what they have done in the past but because I want them to actually succeed mass market and be stable. Keep in mind, the truck market is supposed to be a larger market in the US (but more than 2X) than the Model 3's segment. Why can't they just ship a good, shippable, profitable truck with Tesla's DNA? It's like the falcon doors, a bit power mad, in a year this is going to be the example people use to say why Elon should not be CEO of Tesla and it sucks, because Elon at his best is probably the best CEO around, at his worst he will trash the company for a cool looking truck.



The prototype roadster v2 when first shown also didn't have side mirrors or wipers. Considering they're currently promising cybertruck delivery in late 2021 (which means mid 2023 in Tesla Time) they'll have plenty of time to fix the design. I doubt the yoke, auto-moving cover, and built-in-ramp will make it to the production base model, too many expensive moving parts.

Re: rear visibility, in the test-ride videos the rear mirror is actually a video feed from the rear AP camera, the same that is done in the Chevy Bolt and has worked well there. Works even better if the cab is loaded.


Isn't it legal to use cameras/screens in place of side mirrors?

For brake lights, they should use Apple's technique of laser cutting the metal, so the LEDs shine through: https://venturebeat.com/2011/11/04/apple-laser-manufacturing...




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