However - I am interested in neither the rivian and the tesla for their beds -- what I really want is the skateboard from the rivian and the ability to custom build the car I want on it -- if this takes off we can get back to the boutique still car shops of the 20s and earlier.

Since the body of the CyberTruck gradually raises to the roof line, you can’t easily reach into the bed close to the rear window.

and I access from the side more often than I use the tailgate.

Infact my current Truck is a Regular bed, and the one before it was a FlairSide ... I miss my FlairSide that is my one big disappointments in Ford that they stopped making Styleside and FlairSide Beds

I haul every day small items, and home improvement supplies, and other things like that

Sports gear, camping equipment, portable chairs, anything soft that can go on top of other luggage, all go over the side, over the back, however it's most convenient.

More importantly though, is that a lot of this gear is removed from the truck over the side, especially at the beach or on the mountain or at a trailhead, where I'm parallel-parked and can't easily remove items out of the back.

As oft stated, the slope of the bed's walls makes side-loading difficult. This may not seem too significant day-to-day given the bed's volume, but if you're doing commercial work (construction, professional moving, etc), you'll get a lot of items that don't properly fit in the bed's volume. Even the cladding like on the Chevy Avalanche can be obnoxious, if not impossible to work around with some loads.

The body also doesn't look as ammenable to aftermarket modifications as its competitors. Standard racks and bed rails won't be compatible with it, which are pretty much standard mods for any contractor.

On the more elaborate side, you couldn't replace the back end of the vehicle with a domain-oriented work box.

I think a more utility-oriented cybertruck would have gone cab-over like an Isuzu elf, and used a more raditional, if elongated bed-design.

The tonneau cover and specs are nice, but it needs to function more as a modular platform, and have traditional rear end if it wants to compete broadly in the "practical pickup" space.

Great as a lifestyle vehicle, I expect your average truck owner will get more than enough utility from it, and it'll be a dream off-road. But I don't think most of the critiques leveraged against it are being made from the mindset of a consumer who only occasionally needs the pickup portion of their vehicle.