Tesla Cyber Truck Test Drive Impressions

[brokencase]

A friend of mine and I did a Cyber Truck Test drive on Saturday. We booked back to back appointments and they let us have the truck for two hours.

The vehicle is amazing. No more dashboard buttons and switches. Dash controls and ergonomics are on the display. Improving the ergonomics is simply a software update away.

The self driving feature works well. Much better than I anticipated. But intervention is occasionally required by the driver, especially on local and high traffic roads.

Power and acceleration are insane. More than needed. I'd be happy with the single motor version when it arrives.

Seating and leg room are very comfortable, even the back seats have good leg room. Interior noise is very low.

But I thought I would list things I did not like.

1) The steering wheel is very compact. It is easy to accidentally bump the buttons on the inner part of steering wheel. But I think I could learn to cope with this.

2) The accelerator pedal surface is grippy. When you let off the pedal the vehicle immediately goes into regenerative braking and slows down significantly. If your initial placement of your foot is not well situated and you need to re-adjust then you have to let off the pedal (because it is grippy). I would prefer a polished pedal surface that would allow me to keep pressure on the pedal while I adjust the placement of my foot.

3) Ford trucks have "O $hit handles" on the a-pillars. The cyber truck needs these as well.

4) When driving on a four lane road with the self driving feature enabled, the truck preferred to stay in the left lane. We had a vehicle pass us on the right side of us. I think it should have stayed in the right lane most of the time, unless it needed to pass. As we approached our destination it did eventually merge left to turn into the destination. Perhaps if we were on a highway at higher speeds then it would stay in the right lane, but we did not test this.

If at the same price point, my choice was between a fully decked out F-150 "King Ranch or "Lightning" and the Cyber truck. The Cyber truck wins.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

I wouldn't want to get a new truck that will get penises spray painted on it when I park at the store.

[brokencase]

Yep, that is a concern.

I think though, that the whole EV market is "unsettled" at this time. The main issue is the rapid depreciation that most of the EV vehicles experience.

Early adopters of the Tesla Cyber Truck especially got knocked up in this regard. It's crazy - like $40K depreciation in the first year. Not to mention a boat load of early problems to be resolved. Lots of youtube videos in this regard.

Tesla's solution to this depreciation problem is to have early adopters agree not to sell thier Cyber trucks for less than MSRP for the first year. But I don't think such an arrangement is enforceable. It is contrary to free market principals. However I think they could deny you from ever buying another Tesla in the future.

They plan to come out this year with a cost reduced Cyber Truck with just a single motor (dual motor was overkill - just an enticer for the early adopters). They will eliminate the hard "roller desk" tonneau and replace with a soft tonneau. There are some other cost reductions. Anyway, this is supposed to go for around $60k, but I think even that will depreciated very quickly.

The self driving mode option cost $8k outright, or you can pay monthly at $200 a month. That won't fly in the long run as other EV manufacturers are offering up self drive that is comparable.

The self driving mode is impressive but I observed it's limitations on my test drive and I still don't believe full autonomous will ever be safely achieved.

[zxr250cc]

Hi all,

In driving around a lot for business in the past I sometimes saw 'test mule' cars on the road with body panels covered or adapted in such a way that the prototype car was not easily recognized. This was more likely near car factory areas of the country. The first Tesla truck I have seen was in traffic in Tulsa last spring and I thought surely this was a test mule vehicle. Well, it wasn't.

I traveled all over the Midwest last spring and summer and only saw about a half a dozen of those on the roads. (Eight states and about 5,000 miles traveled from March to August.) I can only guess as to the reliability or features but they are quite ugly to me. At least the design is aerodynamic in its' way. Not like some of the current pickup trucks now with the hood as high as my head and the headlights shining directly into the eyes of car drivers, it seems.

Pricing and depreciation will be solved when we all lease instead of buying all cars. We will 'own nothing and be happy' as Clause Schwab has predicted.

Cheers

[Ed Lijewski]

Surprising-to some- data re Tesla sales:
.
.https://www.torquenews.com/1083/we-hate ... teslas-new
.
.YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

...and another take on CT sales:
.
.https://finance.yahoo.com/news/musk-fin ... 43961.html

YMMV

[brokencase]

I think your latter article sums up the situation.

It is very nice, but it is just too costly for what you get.

I think waiting a few years for a used one might be the best approach.

In any case, it does not cost anything to take one for a test drive. If you have a Tesla store near you I highly recommend taking the test drive.