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Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

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Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#51

Why would you need bulletproof glass?

The fact that the truck looks like a Warthog from the Halo video games aside, I feel that this truck is destined for the defense market. Overly sturdy frame, bulletproof windows, no gasoline. Electric vehicles that can self-charge through solar seem to be a massive logistical advantage. You can reduce the need for fuel supply lines.

It could recharge through solar in a day or two, if you have a house's worth of panels, and the clouds cooperate.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#52

This is the truck Howard Roark would build. Function over form for good reason and to hell with the critics. I for one absolutely love it.

How is it function over form? They use electric motors on the door handles, bed cover, and ramp. They made the bed sides super high and hard to access the bed. It has no floor tie-downs. They gave it a glass roof where you'd lean stuff from the bed! This is absolutely form over function, they just picked a form which is controversial. PS - I actually like the Cybertruck. But I'm self aware to know it is due to all th…

Honestly, I see it as more of an FJ Cruiser or a Wrangler that happens to have a very, very large trunk.

I think a lot of buyers will be people who would normally buy a large, 2-row SUV, or truck owners who keep a cap on their bed.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#53
post #30

This is the truck Howard Roark would build. Function over form for good reason and to hell with the critics. I for one absolutely love it.

It looks like in a couple of ways, though, they maybe did go with form over function. 1. It looks the roof over the passenger compartment peaks over the heads of the people in the front seats, and then lowers towards the back. (See photo 42 of the first gallery in the article, or photo 22 of the second gallery, or photo 10 of the third gallery, or the second photo in the Ars article [1] gallery). This could get annoy…

> This could get annoying for tall people in the back seats. For a family car, where the back seat will usually be kids, less headroom there is fine. A pickup is work vehicle and so should assume adults in back and so should have adult headroom back there.

4-door full-size pickups are the modern giant family sedan. Just look at one with a cap on the bed, and it just looks like a giant 1950s sedan, (edit) only taller

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#54
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole stainless steel thing is fascinating to me. The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12.

> The other really famous car made of stainless is of course the Delorean DMC-12. the metallic finish made the entire care near un-repairable. It showed flaws exceedingly well, and the properties of most stainless hinder most efforts at regular dent and ding repair. Aside : I got to smog certify a DeLorean when I was a mechanic in a previous life. It's one of the most memorable cars I have ever had the pleasure of dr…

For me, I like my tools to age with the patina of use - scratches, knocks and dents. I'd love to see this taken up on a larger scale, but sadly can't rationalise the cost or commodity of a Cybertrunk here in London...!

ed -

* Cybertruck, obviously. Although I'm now working on a SAAS solution named 'cybertrunk'.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#55
post #31

Why would you need bulletproof glass?

Why would you need an SUV in urban areas?

Because some of us are tall.

I commute with a 2.5L Golf, I get 25 mpg in urban mountain driving. Stick shift, it's a blast to drive. However, it's also a massive pain in the ass to get in and out of. Especially since my recent abdominal surgery.

When I slip into my SUV I really appreciate the extra space.

When I load all the crap modern children have (car seats, strollers, pack and play, ect) and lug them 300 miles to their grandparents (which I used to do monthly, now once every two months), I also appreciate the extra room.

Speaking of kids, I really appreciate having an extra 1000 lb of inertia (vs. the Golf) protecting them when some idiot on his phone crashes into me. Fellow millennials! Put the phone down!

If (when, really) I move back to CND, I'll appreciate towing 5000 lb trailer worth of stuff to have while the moving companies does their thing.

And you know the best part of the SUV? The Golf doesn't get much better millage! I save more money from the cheaper tires the Golf takes than I do on the gas!

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unconvinced. long, precise, sharp angles are expensive to stamp on thick steel plates. so I've checked around the pictures, apparently the marketing material has seams along the angle, but the car in the presentation has angled plates. something doesn't add up https://imgur.com/a/HO1HnGC

Is there any reason they wouldn't just make those independant panels and weld those joints? It's a little slower than stamping, but cutting and welding panels like this is well within the capabilities of their existing robots.

From what I understand, the outside of this car is bare stainless steel. Can humans or robots make welds that don’t show Up as ugly warts on the outside? If so, can it be done cheaply enough?

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the truck looks like a Warthog from the Halo video games aside, I feel that this truck is destined for the defense market. Overly sturdy frame, bulletproof windows, no gasoline. Electric vehicles that can self-charge through solar seem to be a massive logistical advantage. You can reduce the need for fuel supply lines.

It could recharge through solar in a day or two, if you have a house's worth of panels, and the clouds cooperate.

Imagine deployable solar canvases! Similar to how satellites collect power. In the past two decades, I think this could have been useful. The US deployments were in the middle east (plenty of sunshine) and were mostly fought without a frontline through patrol missions out of bases (plenty of sitting around waiting for something to happen).

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Well, if you're going to build a time machine, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.....watch out!" I always wanted the rest of that line. As though the writers had thought up some way to make 'stainless steel' a necessary part of the the time machine construction.

Brilliant writing, though— hint that the reason is there without actually filling up the script with made-up gobbledygook. Author Sid Fleishman said that if you had a plot hole in your story, all you had to do was point to it and it would disappear: ---- For example, in McBroom’s Zoo I wanted to use the Hidebehind, a fabled frontier creature. No one knows what the Hidebehind looks like because every time you look, th…

Kinda like the lampshade trope. It's interesting to compare to writing/acting in terms of a product like this. The launch is basically a written and choreographed performance - all done live. And in this case, something went seriously wrong (the so-called armor glass shattered during the live test). What does the performer do to hold a mirror to it (or lampshade on it) to make it go away?

It's actually crazy that it would fail so distinctly in the demo that was supposed to show its strength. Was it the first time they used the metal ball? Had all testing just been done with hammers and crowbars?

Maybe they should really highlight how and why it failed.

Re: Tesla's Cybertruck Approach on Auto Manufacturing and Engineering

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are mostly old manufacturing ideas which affect crash safety; repairability, an street legality.

Could you please explain how it affects those things? I'd be very interested in learning about that.

I can't speak towards repairablity and legality, but I know cars are safer now than they used to be back when they were made of steel, because they crumple which absorbs the impact of crashes. Rigid steel transfers the impact to it's occupants.

I'm eager to see how this thing performs in crash tests.

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