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Comment by taylodl | Hacker News Reader

Stainless steel is a very difficult material to work with and solves no problem not already solved more easily and cheaply. All I can say is woe be to you should you get into any kind of accident - very few auto repair shops can work with stainless steel and you're going to be gobsmacked by the cost of repair. That's going to lead to insane insurance rates for these vehicles.

It'll be interesting to see how quickly Tesla brings out another truck to replace this model. Like the Model X, they'll have learned a lot that they can apply on their next truck.

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My understanding was that the whole design was based on a radical exoskeleton concept in order to reduce production cost. But in development that didn’t work out (NVH was a nightmare among other things) and so it’s a conventional structure with the weird design and stainless steel panels on top. It seems to me that they should have completely redesigned the truck when they found they had to stop pursuing the original concept, but they kept the exterior they originally showed. I think it’s great that they tried something different, but I’m worried that they now have a compromised design, inheriting the compromises of the original design, with the cost, weight, and complexity of underpinning it with a traditional unibody.

It will be interesting to see how the cybertruck turns out.

> It'll be interesting to see how quickly Tesla brings out another truck to replace this model.

That seems unlikely given how much of Elon's ego is tied up in this thing. It'd be the sanest thing for them to do, but I just don't see it happening.

I'd be overjoyed by an electric minivan.

> I'd be overjoyed by an electric minivan.

https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html

I would encourage everyone to remember Volkswagen deliberately and systemically cheated on their environmental emissions, at the direction of the highest levels of the company.

Corporate accountability is consumers not forgetting the bullshit they pull, and making and standing by statements like “Because of their deliberate hostility towards consumers, regulators, and the environment, I will never buy a Volkswagen vehicle and have less respect for anyone who does”.

There are many vehicle manufacturers out there. No one needs a Volkswagen. They’re not even good cars or particularly economical.

True. But: they also are trying pretty hard to recover from that and in spite of what you are saying they are pretty good cars and pretty economical.

A fan favorite for sure. Still no word on range or price from the looks of it though. That will be the deal breaker for most.

Yeah, I've been waiting on updates for a while now. A friend saw one in Europe and said it was smaller than he expected, particularly in width. I'm also not looking forward to a vehicle made entirely of Volkswagen-quality wiring given my past experiences.

Well the Euro model is a 2-row and the US is a 3-row so like many things, it's bigger in the US.

~65k EUR before incentives, 400km range based on the European rating system. You’d assume the US version will be similar. Definitely on the expensive side.

I think a matte black version would work with the vibe they are going for, and it would solve a ton of the problems discussed here.

I think the vibe is explicitly DeLoren tho (right down to the market failure apparently).

Stainless steel is easy to repair as long as you don't try and preserve its finish. Myself I think it looks better once it has developed an interesting patina, but I don't think my tastes are common.

another good point -- what's the cybertruck gonna look like in 10 years?

patina as a sign of virtue and long ownership?

Yes. Also when I drive I don't really care how my car looks. Practicality mattes much more - I don't wanna fix every scratch or dent and steel is far more resistant to this.

I don't get it how people don't understand this.

Cars are status symbols as well as tools. As a tool, a car’s function is not impacted by scratches. As a status symbol, it will become less impactful due to scratches, dings, and dents.

Unless Tesla figures out how to sell these scratches & dents as Wabi Sabi.

Someone who spent $500k on a lambo cares about how their car looks.

How about g wagon?

A G wagon is an overpriced piece of junk, you'd be better off buying the original 60's Land Rover if you can find one. It will run circles around the G wagon everywhere except for the highways. But if you lean towards golden chains around your neck then maybe a G wagon is just the ticket.

Confirmed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtwKO3jIAdk

As they say in the metalworking world: stainless steel isn't hard, it's just hard.

It won't have a high production rate in the beginning anyway, so we'll have time to see how it goes.

I personally think it's great that they are attempting to build such a thing.

EDIT: Media sure tries to put negative stories out around launch time.

The media often puts out negative stories around the launch of bad products. Remember Juicero?

Juicero was a totally fine product except for everything, but media of course hated on it. The owners were very socially-oriented people and imagined homeless people could now have one juice per day at only 10$ a pop at a bar near their favorite sheltering spot, but no, media hated it. They even thought about maintaining brand image and value so they chose to go for 100% vendor lock-in. You can't have more than 100% right but the media, of course, hated on this fine product. The sad but at this point predictable failure of this business is only the down to the media. /s

I commend them for trying, but it should've stayed a concept car or limited collector's item, instead they're trying to mass produce it, they bet a lot on it.

Most popular car company is trying to make most popular car shape. Failure imminent.

> I personally think it's great that they are attempting to build such a thing.

Why? It seems like a novelty and crumple zones were added to cars for a reason - a feature stainless steel likely cannot replicate.

>>> Why? It seems like a novelty and crumple zones were added to cars for a reason - a feature stainless steel likely cannot replicate.

I think it's unlikely that a company that has launched 3 wildly successful, completely new cars already has gone this far with the cybertruck and hasn't thought of crumple zones.

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