Tesla Cybertruck

Rhinocrates said:
Remember the semi?

Click to expand...
Tesla has absolutely no distribution for Class 8 trucks. If they really are serious about the market, an established company like PACCAR has a market capitalization of $50 billion compared to Tesla’s $1 Trillion. As it is, I don’t see any huge urgency regarding electric semis. When Nicola was caught rolling those unpowered trucks down a hill, it probably was the end of investor enthusiasm for the electric Class 8 market.
 
Last edited:
Rhinocrates said:
Adam Something is not a fan either. Neither is physics.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w__a8EcM2jI&ab_channel=AdamSomething


The legal maximum weight for a heavy truck is 36 tons in the US. However the weight of the batteries kills load capacity.

View attachment 772209
Click to expand...
That slide is highly disingenuous.

Yes, the battery weighs 17 tons. But you do not need the engine, transmission, driveshafts, or the heavy differentials. So the vehicle itself doesn't weigh 16 tons.

Admittedly, the only electric semi that seems to be working as intended is the Edison (because they stole Tesla's idea and made it actually work). It's technically a diesel-electric with a big battery pack. IIRC it's got a small Cummins powering the range-extender.
 
klem said:
A chuckwagon designed in 1875 and fully restored.Info and picture are on the web.
Click to expand...
hi klem, I know you doubt this because I think it's a modification by AI.but it's good for a laugh
 
Scott Kenny said:
That slide is highly disingenuous.

Yes, the battery weighs 17 tons. But you do not need the engine, transmission, driveshafts, or the heavy differentials. So the vehicle itself doesn't weigh 16 tons.

Admittedly, the only electric semi that seems to be working as intended is the Edison (because they stole Tesla's idea and made it actually work). It's technically a diesel-electric with a big battery pack. IIRC it's got a small Cummins powering the range-extender.
Click to expand...
Range extenders kind of kill the virtue signaling aspect of any EV. BMW produced a perfectly serviceable range extender based on a motorcycle engine and it was dropped for lack of demand. Of course, this was the same BMW where the carbon fiber space frame was replaced on every car. Talk about a money loser!
 
TinWing said:
Range extenders kind of kill the virtue signaling aspect of any EV.
Click to expand...
Yet they actually make EVs work for long haul trips in the US. That apparently Europeans never do.


TinWing said:
BMW produced a perfectly serviceable range extender based on a motorcycle engine and it was dropped for lack of demand. Of course, this was the same BMW where the carbon fiber space frame was replaced on every car. Talk about a money loser!
Click to expand...
The i8? Yeah, it's too bad I didn't get a job where I could pay for one of those.
 
Michel Van said:
Some Lunatics in Little Britain took Sherman tank and drove over Tesla Model 3
to there surprise the stunt backfire seems Model 3 also robust like a Tank
Show how safe this car is in crash...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1920517601979212043
View: https://twitter.com/Teslarati/status/1920517601979212043
Click to expand...
Bless that old man. Still--that was a waste...that might have been a good car to donate to someone who needed it.

Teslas, the bridge recently struck...AN-225s and Bear bombers---it makes me want to cry to see good vehicles/infrastructure trashed.

Recumbent bikes again?
hackaday.com

Building The Marauder LowRacer From Bike Parts

Thanks to [Radical Brad] for writing in to let us know about his recent project, building a street racing bike from square tubing and old bike parts. In this 50 minute video [Radical Brad] takes us…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
 
Last edited:
The potential customer base for the Cypertruck shrank over night to
- US Pick-up driver
- living in areas with at least decent access to charging stations
- are not hardcore Trump supporters
- having an interest in Climate conservation, like to drive new shiny things or just prefer electric over traditional motor engines.

Looks to me like the end of this model range – but I could be wrong.
 
As a lol moment, after the 5th straight fall in its electric car sales in Europe... Tesla is now being outsold by Skoda. Yes Skoda last month sold 14,920 electric cars in Europe compared to the 14,055 of Tesla. Overall there were 142,776 electric car sales in May up 25%, and 87,301 plug in hybrids.

bmmagazine.co.uk

Skoda overtakes Tesla in Europe as EV buyers turn to cheaper alternatives

Tesla has been knocked off its perch in the European electric vehicle (EV) market, with Skoda outselling the US giant in May amid growing consumer demand for more affordable alternatives and a backlash against Elon Musk.
bmmagazine.co.uk bmmagazine.co.uk
 
Elon Musk is a perfectionist with a tendency towards micromanagement. At Tesla, his whims seem to override every argument – even in matters of life and death. During our reporting, we came across the issue of door handles. On Teslas, they retract into the doors while the cars are being driven. The system depends on battery power. If an airbag deploys, the doors are supposed to unlock automatically and the handles extend – at least, that’s what the Model S manual says.

The idea for the sleek, futuristic design stems from Musk himself. He insisted on retractable handles, despite repeated warnings from engineers. Since 2018, they have been linked to at least four fatal accidents in Europe and the US, in which five people died.

In February 2024, we reported on a particularly tragic case: a fatal crash on a country road near Dobbrikow, in Brandenburg, Germany. Two 18-year-olds were killed when the Tesla they were in slammed into a tree and caught fire. First responders couldn’t open the doors because the handles were retracted. The teenagers burned to death in the back seat.

A court-appointed expert from Dekra, one of Germany’s leading testing authorities, later concluded that, given the retracted handles, the incident “qualifies as a malfunction”. According to the report, “the failure of the rear door handles to extend automatically must be considered a decisive factor” in the deaths. Had the system worked as intended, “it is assumed that rescuers might have been able to extract the two backseat passengers before the fire developed further”. Without what the report calls a “failure of this safety function”, the teens might have survived.

Our investigation made waves. The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, Germany’s federal motor transport authority, got involved and announced plans to coordinate with other regulatory bodies to revise international safety standards. Germany’s largest automobile club, ADAC, issued a public recommendation that Tesla drivers should carry emergency window hammers. In a statement, ADAC warned that retractable door handles could seriously hinder rescue efforts. Even trained emergency responders, it said, may struggle to reach trapped passengers. Tesla shows no intention of changing the design.
Click to expand...

www.theguardian.com

‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing

Elon Musk is obsessive about the design of his supercars, right down to the disappearing door handles. But a series of shocking incidents – from drivers trapped in burning vehicles to dramatic stops on the highway – have led to questions about the safety of the brand. Why won’t Tesla give any...
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Germany’s largest automobile club, ADAC, issued a public recommendation that Tesla drivers should carry emergency window hammers. In a statement, ADAC warned that retractable door handles could seriously hinder rescue efforts. Even trained emergency responders, it said, may struggle to reach trapped passengers. Tesla shows no intention of changing the design.
Click to expand...

It's scarry... And boring. How can such car get to pass regulations? Well generally it's the result of political and public pressure with outsider opinions disparaging years of engineering experience in setting up norms and standards.
 
publiusr said:
An alternative
hackaday.com

Move Over, Cybertruck: Series Hybrids From Edison Are On The Way

It’s been awhile since we checked in with Canada’s Edison Motors, so let’s visit [DeBoss Garage] for an update video. To recap, Edison Motors is a Canadian company building diesel…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DnmCvAZIW38
Click to expand...
I honestly don’t see a serious venture capital business proposal as much as a bunch of guys in plaid shirts sitting around in lawn chairs. Basically it looks like a fantasy camp for bearded hipsters. In all seriousness, gensets aren’t EPA certified for on highway use, which is expensive, and you’d need a company like ZF to actually develop an adequately sized, electric motor powered live axle for a Class 8 truck because of extreme issues with unsprung weight. There’s a reason why mechanical drive is still vastly more efficient than diesel electric until you reach something on the scale of a locomotive. And believe it or not, running a diesel genset to charge a battery underway isn’t all that green in terms of CO2 emissions, if that’s the point of the exercise. Running a diesel at a constant rpm doesn’t offset the massive transmission losses of diesel electric drive and regenerative braking isn’t going to make up the difference in a long haul truck that doesn’t stop all that often. Long story short, this is just some silly YouTube “creator” content, for entertainment purposes only. However, I really do hope that some Simple Simon trust fund nepo babies fund these hipsters to prove the point that well meaning ignorance always fails.
 
Flyaway said:
www.theguardian.com

‘The vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it’: the terrifying truth about why Tesla’s cars keep crashing

Elon Musk is obsessive about the design of his supercars, right down to the disappearing door handles. But a series of shocking incidents – from drivers trapped in burning vehicles to dramatic stops on the highway – have led to questions about the safety of the brand. Why won’t Tesla give any...
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
When JLR was developing the Velar, which also has flush door handles, testing involved ensuring that the handles could break through 4 mm of ice. I'm not aware of the intricacies/redundancy of the power supply though.

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4UvlzolwmiQ

Customers report some problems when water penetrates and freezes.


Meanwhile in Russia... if it's 8 mm, bring a hammer.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...-doesn-t-work-when-covered-in-ice-130808.html

The current Velar's up for replacement by an EV in a year or so and of course Jaguar's new GT is coming out early next, and flush everything will be on both. Hopefully they'll have addressed the issues.

All in all, it shows that small details can be of critical importance and allowing 'perfectionist' or self-declared 'genius' amateurs to stick their noses in the engineering design process is dangerous.
 
This is what a door handle should be—beefy
www.ebay.com

Driver Left Front Door Fits 92-96 LESABRE 168042 | eBay

LESABRE 92-96. We’ll be more than happy to resolve the issue. Parts Grading. Labor and costs associated with part installation are not included in the warranty, parts only. If you have a problem with the part, changed your mind or the part does not fit, simply let us know.
www.ebay.com
 
TinWing said:
I honestly don’t see a serious venture capital business proposal as much as a bunch of guys in plaid shirts sitting around in lawn chairs. Basically it looks like a fantasy camp for bearded hipsters. In all seriousness, gensets aren’t EPA certified for on highway use, which is expensive, and you’d need a company like ZF to actually develop an adequately sized, electric motor powered live axle for a Class 8 truck because of extreme issues with unsprung weight. There’s a reason why mechanical drive is still vastly more efficient than diesel electric until you reach something on the scale of a locomotive. And believe it or not, running a diesel genset to charge a battery underway isn’t all that green in terms of CO2 emissions, if that’s the point of the exercise. Running a diesel at a constant rpm doesn’t offset the massive transmission losses of diesel electric drive and regenerative braking isn’t going to make up the difference in a long haul truck that doesn’t stop all that often. Long story short, this is just some silly YouTube “creator” content, for entertainment purposes only. However, I really do hope that some Simple Simon trust fund nepo babies fund these hipsters to prove the point that well meaning ignorance always fails.
Click to expand...
They do not have to be, by law.
 
TinWing said:
... Basically it looks like a fantasy camp for bearded hipsters...
Click to expand...

Still, ya gotta love "silly YouTube 'creator's" who fund-raise enough buy their own ghost-town in the East Kootenays :D

BTW, this venture also fits in with parts of British Columbia's Clean BC plan (a policy which doesn't get dumped every 4 years).
 
There is a new electric truck called TELO that uses a lot of off-the-shelf components...if their video is to be believed.
Tech_Planet has a video about the "Maglev HyperDrive"
 
Scott Kenny said:
Legally speaking, the Edison diesel generator is a range extender, not motive power.
Click to expand...
Range extenders are regulated the same was as any other on-highway use engines. There’s no distinction to the regulators.
 
TinWing said:
Range extenders are regulated the same was as any other on-highway use engines. There’s no distinction to the regulators.
Click to expand...

Since these assertions spin off from #380 (Bringing Truck Manufacturing back to Canada) just a reminder: At the time of writing, the erstwhile 51st State still has its own laws and constitution. EPA certification and other foreign laws do not apply to this venture.
 
Apophenia said:
Since these assertions spin off from #380 (Bringing Truck Manufacturing back to Canada) just a reminder: At the time of writing, the erstwhile 51st State still has its own laws and constitution. EPA certification and other foreign laws do not apply to this venture.
Click to expand...
Actually, Canadian emissions standards are pretty much harmonized with those of the EPA. You can’t just go around running non-compliant, off highway use only diesels in trucks and a series hybrid is not an end run around emissions standards. The cost of certifying a diesel genset for on-highway use would be considerable and normally would have to be done by the manufacturer. It’s worth noting that even Caterpillar, the most likely source of gensets, withdrew from the on-highway diesel market back in 2010.
 
TinWing said:
Range extenders are regulated the same was as any other on-highway use engines. There’s no distinction to the regulators.
Click to expand...
Edison says otherwise.

Though I will note that most of the stuff I see them doing is dirt road log hauling.
 
I just (very slightly) pity (but mostly snicker at) any fool who sunk money into acquiring one of those garbage bin lookalike trucks in the hope it would be a chick magnet or any other similar self aggrandization. This ain't no Aston Martin...
 
Last edited:
martinbayer said:
I just (very slightly) pity (but mostly snicker at) any fool who sunk money into acquiring one of those garbage bin lookalike trucks in the hope it would be a chick magnet or any other similar self aggrandization. This ain't no Aston Martin...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know how they went from the Roadster and the Models S and X to the dumpster.
 
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8HEjee20V0&t=901s&ab_channel=PatrickBoyle


Why Tesla’s fundamentals are weakening
How Musk’s pay compares to other CEOs
The governance crisis behind the headlinesWhether Tesla is still a growth company—or just a cult stock
This isn’t just about one company. It’s about how corporate governance is bending under the weight of celebrity, and what happens when hype outpaces performance.

Links to this, which looks awfully familiar and applies very well to a lot of startup EVTOL companies. Twenty-six years without delivering a single product to market and investors still paid in!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_0i45gbQUA&ab_channel=PatrickBoyle
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom