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Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
71–80 of 108 posts
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#72> "I make trucks for real people who do real work, and that's a different kind of truck."
I think he's right here just for the Cybertruck having sloped bed-rails. That alone makes it pretty useless in most "work truck" roles.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, speaking as a Texan, that is most truck owners. But I dont think most F150 buyers would be caught dead in a cybertruck.
What about the electric flavor of the F150? Is that acceptable for Texans? I don't mean any snark, I am legitimately curious as to how it's seen / been received?
TBH I have not seen electric F150s around DFW or southern Florida, though I have seen more than one Rivian.
A certain demographic would never buy an electric F150 over a manly, lifted, smoke belching ICE truck. They would aggressively cut off an electric F150 if they saw one.
But most truck drivers I see are not like that... They're just nice people who like a nice truck. Maybe it will take some time to catch on, but I don't think theres an electric truck stigma among AHEM sane drivers.
EDIT: And to be clear, the Cybertruck is unbuyable because its an exotic, expensive, outrageous rolling spaceship, not because its electric.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's pretty easy to find the answers you want with a couple of Google searches. Large trucks are way more dangerous to pedestrians (and especially dangerous and heartwrenching is all the kids who are killed every year when their parents drive over them because they can't see them over the giant height of the front grill). It's also simple physics that larger vehicles will produce more destructive crashes when average…
// The same can't really be said for a suburban parent driving a couple of kids to soccer practice in a giant truck vs. the station wagons of the past. Is it possible that these parents are seeing some utility that isn't obvious to you, and then buy the vehicles based on that utility? As someone who had a compact car in college, then was a car-less New Yorker for 20 years, and now is a dad of two with an SUV, the uti…
I'm not sure you need an SUV to take care of a family of four, but a lot of people in America specifically seem to feel that way. Elsewhere I guess the standards for comfort are different.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The authors find that being hit by a 1,000-pound heavier vehicle results in a 47 percent increase in the baseline probability of being killed in the accident https://www.nber.org/digest/nov11/vehicle-weight-and-automot...
What's the rate of such collisions for trucks and sedans?
The linked article just looked at collisions that happened and compared danger by vehicle weight. If I had to guess, I would assume lighter vehicles generally have a shorter stopping distance and hit pedestrians less.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#76"I don't make trucks like that," Farley said. "I make trucks for real people who do real work, and that's a different kind of truck." You also make trucks that regular people don't need but buy anyway, and make our streets less safe. We need some regulation to only allow vehicles over a certain size to be commercial only.
A solution is to tax vehicles based on the ratio of number of seats to weight, with a massive tax premium for massively heavy vehicles. Obviously at the moment (certainly here in the UK) there are loop holes when trucks and vans are "commercial vehicles" with different tax levels, many not used for commercial purposes. They need to be closed off, maybe include cargo volume in the equation so an oversized heavy pickup…
It sounds like the UK hasn't had its Chicken Tax[1] moment in history yet.
A Chevy Suburban seats up to 9 and has a curb weight of ~6,000 lbs on the upper end.
A Tesla Model 3 seats up to 5 and has a curb weight of ~3,800 lbs on the lower end.
Take a wild guess which vehicle your proposition taxes favorably...something about unintended market consequences comes to mind.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#77"I don't make trucks like that," Farley said. "I make trucks for real people who do real work, and that's a different kind of truck." You also make trucks that regular people don't need but buy anyway, and make our streets less safe. We need some regulation to only allow vehicles over a certain size to be commercial only.
The sad degradation of utes/trucks from vehicles designed for work, to vehicles designed to appeal to townies (in my country, large utes/trucks/suvs in the cities are derisively referred to as " tractors" where X is a wealthy suburb like Merivale or Remuera), affects every vehicle manufacturer.
It's consumer driven, I think - big utes/trucks/SUVs offer various psychological benefits to buyers... intimidation, intimations of a perceived masculinity, and a main driver, perceived safety. Even if your larger vehicle is far less safe for people you hit, and more likely to roll over in hard cornering.
E.g., compare the 1980s Toyota Hilux in this classic advert[0] to the 2022 Hilux[1]. The front is notably bigger, the cabin higher, yet the ground clearance somehow lower.
Notable exception: the new Suzuki Jimny Lite is specifically designed to be a minimalist capable off-roader. [2]
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqwnr2sza_o
[1]: https://images.drive.com.au/driveau/image/upload/c_fill,f_au...
[2]: https://www.drive.com.au/reviews/2022-suzuki-jimny-lite-revi...
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#78> I make trucks for real people who do real work I wonder how much % of F-150 does "real work" and which are just "a big grocery getter that transports a couch once every 2 years".
Here in Texas, it’s a hard working truck if it ever even transported a couch.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not regulate safety instead of size?
Physics dictates that mass has a significant impact on safety. Especially for people outside the big-ass truck.
> Physics dictates that mass has a significant impact on safety
I suspect that once you have enough mass though then it is velocity that determines the impact on safety. Getting hit at 50 mph by a Ford F-150 that has a total mass (truck plus cargo) of 9000 pounds is not going to be much more harmful to a pedestrian than getting hit by a similar shaped truck at the same speed that has half that mass.
Similarly on the other end if velocity is low enough mass won't matter. Consider for example getting hit by a freight train at 1 mph. Unless the collision knocks you over and you fall under the train it probably won't be fatal (and likely won't even injure you). Even though that freight train would have 300 times the momentum and 6 times the kinetic energy of the 50 mph 9000 pound truck it would be fine.
Re: Ford CEO: Tesla's Cybertruck Is Only for 'Silicon Valley People'
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
before the Obama administrations emissions rules[1] trucks and suv's were quite small, blame the rules put out in that ruling for why trucks and suvs are so gigantic, I too am frustrated with how big they are and I own a new truck! [1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-suvs-size...
Trucks were plenty big before Obama. An F150 today is largely similar dimensionally to one from, say, 2005. But it's generally lighter than a comparable version from then.
For a few ones that have absolutely jumped in size, toyota (tundra, tacoma, also the 4runner). 4runners in the 90's were tiny! also a tacoma now feels almost bigger than a early 2000's Tundra which is insane.