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Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

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581–590 of 1001 posts

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#581
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price after rebate seems reasonable: you pay money, get the item, a rebate gives you money back on your purchase. Savings over time is a whole other dimension, you have to wait for it. And it makes huge assumptions about usage and input (gas) prices. It also assumes you’re not already driving an EV so your current gas cost is $0. That seems near illegal.

> That seems near illegal. Oh, come on. Tesla is not hiding this. It's the first thing you see in the pricing section, and it's the last thing you see at the bottom. Maybe it's illegal somehow, but this is certainly not immoral. Tesla is making the case for the efficiency gains of their vehicle based on what most people drive today. This is certainly becoming less relevant/useful as electric/hybrid vehicles become mo…

> We've assumed a fuel economy of 20.0 miles per gallon for a comparable gasoline powered truck.

This is absolutely misleading. F-150, Tundra, RAM 1500, Sierra, every single one of these pickups has a better fuel economy than this. It's not really a comparable economy if you pick "a number worse than every alternative" as your baseline.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#582

Holy mother of dark patterns! The default tab in the table is the “PROBABLE SAVINGS*” tab instead of the actual prices. (There’s actually no actual price, just estimates.) Besides, does anybody believe their estimated prices for “available in 2025”? * From the same trusted salesman who sold robotaxies making $30k/year!

just select the "Purchase price" tab at the top? not every marketing gimmick is a dark pattern

I mean, if the prices listed involve some sort of magic math by default..that is a dark pattern.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#583
post #391
post #167

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There is something quite shocking (pardon the pun) to older car enthusiasts about just how fast off the line dual-motor EVs are. The super coupes of one’s youth are utterly obliterated on the dragstrip, not by EV coupes, but by family SUVs and pickup trucks. That said, just because they can go fast in a straight line doesn’t make them in any way equivalent to a 911. Give me a mountain pass or a racetrack, (and no kid…

I drove a rented SUV a few weeks ago (GMC Acadia Denali) that had quite shocking acceleration -- 310 horsepower or so -- and the handling of a dead fish. It was kind of scary, and overall a really unpleasant experience. I don't understand why the manufacturer would choose that combination other than being able to market the HP. And this was gas, not EV.

Reminds me of this article I saw recently: https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a45688551/2023-tesla-mo...

> The result is terrifying. Both terrifying to drive, and terrifying to realize that these things are out on the road, in the hands of a public I don't trust enough to handle this sort of power. Up on Angeles Crest, the Plaid is incredibly quick, but it doesn't have the chassis, steering, or brakes to deal with the horsepower. Especially irritating is the damping, which is never settled in the Plaid's multiple drive modes. And that yoke steering wheel is just so incredibly stupid.

It is scary. Consumer automobile trends are chasing more and bigger in every dimension and our regulators are either asleep at the wheel or on the payroll. Pedestrian deaths are trending up, we have hard data showing that pickup trucks are 2.5x more likely to kill the occupants of other vehicles in a crash, and there is no sign that anyone gives a single flying fuck about any of these lives that have been needlessly snuffed out—a pile of corpses as a monument to the pigheaded vanity of adult children. It is fucking disgusting.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#584
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh. Actually, let me tell you: Most trades workers don't need full-sized pickup trucks. They do need an 8 foot bed. An amazing number of full-sized pickups come with 6.5 foot beds by default, and cost extra for the 8 foot. They won't put 2 tons of gravel in there; they will put plywood sheets and lumber and power tools; boxes of nails and air compressors; the toolbox that they always want, the toolbox for this job, a…

I think most trades would be better served by a van rather than a pickup truck. Ingress and egress is much easier. It is also easier to load and drive due to lower center of gravity. Expensive tools are out of the elements and generally safer (and so less risk of tools and material making their way onto the highway). Plus, better drag coefficient and so better efficiency. Finally, a roof rack allows for those items y…

I would have preferred a full size work van but I couldn't justify paying 4-5 times more than I did for my truck.

A small truck would not work for me though. And 3/4 plywood on a roof rack is just begging for an injury when I'm an hour or more from the hospital.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#585
post #551

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I've seen a lot of Teslas around the Bay Area with bumper stickers that say "I got this before Elon went crazy".

Gotta virtue signal! I don't know Elon's views - nor do I care. I drive a Jeep - and couldn't care less about the executive's political views & wouldn't be insecure enough to place it on a bumper sticker.

This is the tragedy of Musk’s poor self control: there’s a fair chance a Jeep exec is nutty about something, but they’re smart enough to keep their mouths shut and not turn away customers. If he just stuck with the standard Republican mainstream, it’d be fine - everyone assumes rich dudes are voting for the people giving them tax cuts - but he just can’t stop publicly supporting wildly repulsive things which force people to ask whether they can stomach giving him money. The bar is so low and yet he can’t stop tripping over it…

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#586

Seems like there's been relatively less attention on the 48V/800V architecture and the Ethernet comms/steer by wire setup, but I think those are what make this particular vehicle quite interesting. Up until recently I think 48V power electronics have been fairly rare outside of telecom/other high cost situations, but I suppose one major difference is that at 48V, transformer-based DC-DC conversion is usually a better…

Aren’t basically all modern cars steer by wire? I guess ethernet vs CAN is notable but isn’t that a pretty minor implementation detail?

Nope, you are thinking of EPS. This is a steering wheel that is not connected to the steering rack at all. It is like a racing wheel for a game console and the steering rack is like a car in the game. Just software.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#587
post #561

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Electric power assist already allows that. It's probably cheaper, lighter and maybe safer to have no steering column.

They almost always only vary the amount of power assistance, not the ratio. The ratio is fixed on virtually all electrically power assisted steering racks ever shipped. There is still a fixed mechanical linkage - decoupling this is what allows the ratio to be dynamically adjusted. To date only a handful of Lexus production cars have had dynamic variable ratio and decoupled steering via drive by wire. Electric power s…

Nah, there are variable ratio mechanical systems. On a rack and pinion setup, for instance, you vary the spacing of the teeth on the rack. ZF's been doing this for decades.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#588
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They almost always only vary the amount of power assistance, not the ratio. The ratio is fixed on virtually all electrically power assisted steering racks ever shipped. There is still a fixed mechanical linkage - decoupling this is what allows the ratio to be dynamically adjusted. To date only a handful of Lexus production cars have had dynamic variable ratio and decoupled steering via drive by wire. Electric power s…

Nah, there are variable ratio mechanical systems. On a rack and pinion setup, for instance, you vary the spacing of the teeth on the rack. ZF's been doing this for decades.

Generally speaking almost all mechanical steering systems are not dynamic though, you are missing the point entirely. It can't change the spacing of the teeth on the fly - steer by wire effectively does. The number of turns lock to lock on a mechanical system is almost always the same, regardless of speed.

With steer by wire, you can easily implement say one turn lock to lock at low speed for easier parking, increasing to 2-3 turns at highway speeds for stability. Which is essentially exactly what the recent Lexus model with such a system does. At low speed it can turn its wheels from one extreme to the other in just 150 degrees of steering wheel rotation - no hand over hand turning etc. 150 degrees is essentially unthinkable on a mechanical rack and pinion system, as it would make the car incredibly twitchy on a highway.

> https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2023-lexus-rz450e-steer-b...

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Switzerland, you sometimes see e.g. a Piaggio Ape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape And a number of construction jobs in our house were performed by a gentleman who arrived with a Vespa unless he specifically had to transport something sizeable.

Oh certainly. Trucks inside the USA are their own kind of culture (which I do not feel great about).

Why would anyone downvote this? It's not a minority position.

Re: Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs

#590
post #279
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't need 16gb of ram, or a pickup bed, or more than one bathroom, or...

I think you missed the point? Tesla brag about fast quarter mile speeds which don’t really amount to much, whereas a really nice driving experience via good suspension and weight distribution is truly wonderful. Let’s see Tesla brag about Nurburgring times!

> Let’s see Tesla brag about Nurburgring times!

They do, or try to. But then there's this awkward moment when you ask about lap 2 or 3 where the Porsche or Audi or whatever is still blazing around the track while your Plaid is pulled over in Thermal Shutdown mode.

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