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Comment by atonse | Hacker News Reader

You couldn't invent a more polar opposite of Steve Jobs than Elon Musk.

VERY disorganized presenting. Badly rehearsed. Awkward speech. Speech is almost never in sync with slides. Demos failed spectacularly. The rest of the event was him with a backdrop of two broken windows.

They didn't show the interior, and barely talked about the bed. Is this even good as a pickup truck? Is there enough storage?

This all seemed hastily put together (probably as a response to the other pickup truck press). But for an Elon presentation, this is pretty normal (high awkwardness).

Signed, Model 3 Driver (who loves his car).

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I had never watched him give a presentation before.

I started at, "This is terrible, this guy is crazy"

By about halfway through though it turned into, "This guy is crazy, and I really hope he succeeds"

Agreed. I continue to want Tesla to wildly succeed. I don’t know anything about actual pickup trucks or why people buy them. Which is why I mainly commented on the presentation style.

Wanting to see him succeed or not aside, I find this far more intriguing and alluring. Apple keynote, especially recent ones, have become so cookiecutter and predictable. The surprise and strangeness factor is what makes Tesla events so irresistible. You truly feel like anything could happen, even the window breaking TWICE.

When he puts a stat on there, it’s a hard friggin stat, not the flowery puffiness of Apple.

And yet I think he’s the closest analogue to Steve Jobs. :)

A passionate person in charge, who tries to make the things he wants to use.

I wonder if the awkward persona isn’t intentional, i.e. to project a certain image, perhaps to appear less intimidating and more approachable, the guy you could nerd out about stuff with.

Wholeheartedly agree. Musk doesn't seem to give a shit about presentations. I won't be surprised if he doesn't even throw a fit at the window breakage fiasco. In Jobs world, that team would have been fired by now.

Musk is a tinkerer and it shows in all the aspects that you have outlined.

Regarding the interior - some 3-4 guys stepped out of the truck implying it must be quite spacious. An ATV could fit in the bed. So this truck is most likely going to sell. Pricing is spot on.

6 people stepped out

I have a feeling he is used to his staff accidentally shattering extremely expensive things at critical moments on camera by now.

Elon keeps screwing up his presentations, and people keep buying his products. He give me hope that a sleek presentation isn't all that matters. That humanity still cares about content, not just the outward appearances.

Can someone that has actually worked closely with Musk confirm: is his thought process and speech as utterly disjointed as happens in most of his presentations?

Or, is this a nutty professor kinda of shtick that Elon thinks makes him seem more personable?

His presentations are painful to watch.

He's not a native English speaker and that has an impact.

He's a native English speaker.

> There were compulsory subjects like Afrikaans, and I just didn’t see the point of learning that. It seemed ridiculous. I'd get a passing grade and that was fine.

https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=zRXjCwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA43&ot...

You know we speak English in South Africa, right?

That either-or choice isn't fair. I'd guess it's a third - his mind races ahead (or off to the side, or the clouds) when he's doing presentations.

Many people have poor presenting skills. Just few of them get to be CEO and still insist on being the public face of the company

I think he's just nervous like your average spaz out nerd is

In the end of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ36Kt7UVg he is more relaxed that I have ever seen. I don't think there is any acting in his presentations

Thanks, you're right. At the end, when he's talking geek-to-geek - so to speak - his thought process and speech seem much more aligned. https://youtu.be/cIQ36Kt7UVg?t=805

I replied to someone else with a very similar response, but I always thought the awkwardness of Elon giving presentations adds a certain level of sincerity. However, I do agree that some more specifics regarding interior, the bed, etc would have been nice.

Signed, not a Tesla owner :(

There's something charming about it - even though it has the performance and characteristics of a cheesy off-strip magic show on talent show night

My question: Can it fit a sheet of plywood in the bed.

in some orientation? most likely. but not flat, the bed is 6.5' long, so no 4x8s.

That’s true of most trucks sold these days. The question is whether it’s 4’ between the wheel wells.

I see 57 inches. It looks like a ridgeline et al. the wells don't look like they protrude into the bed at all.

How wide is the bed?

>Bed is 6.5' long

Such a disappointment personally, I hope they add a chassis option with an 8' bed and two seats, or maybe make the back seats removable? also they need a lumber rack. seriously, pickup trucks have lumber racks. I think they are missing out on a significant market segment of trades people by not offering it with an 8' bed(or a rack), and a foreseeable second-order effect is that it will give the Cybertruck the repute of being a poser vehicle. I like everything about it, except that it has a huge cab and a small bed.

It's not a work truck.

220v, compressed air hookup, and lots of torque. It's a work truck.

Every Tesla has gobs of torque, it doesn't qualify any of them as work trucks.

It's a toy, this is a recreational vehicle hence the ATV. Off-roaders often need compressed air to refill tires after deflating for traction in exceptional conditions like sand and snow.

The decision to have sloped bed-rails prevents mounting toolboxes anywhere on this thing, nor can you place oversized loads across them without sliding off. That alone precludes the vast majority of work truck applications. The 1st gen Honda Ridgeline had the same defect, to a lesser degree.

It's a work truck if that's what someone wants to use it for.

which will be aprox 2% of the people who buy it… and they'll be the dissatisfied ones

Can it haul a "fifth wheel" trailer?

"The Cybertruck is 230.9 inches long and sports a 149.9-inch wheelbase with a 6.5-foot-long, 57-inch-wide bed out back." By comparison, an F-150 has 50.6" between the wheelhouses.

Here's a picture of the bed, just before the ATV drives up to it. Note the wheelhouses don't impinge upon the cargo bed at all.

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5dd768642c8...

So... maybe?

If you can put a 4x8 sheet of plywood in at a slope, the high end would be about 4.66 feet above the bed, if the bed is 6.5 feet long. There probably isn't enough vertical clearance for that, but it would be close. On the other hand, maybe the rear window opens and is at least four feet wide.

You don’t close the tailgate if you’re hauling plywood. It hangs out the back. Just like every other passenger truck out there. Most F-150s sold have a 5’ or a 6.5’ bed.

Thank you. But why is the bed width not listed on the site.

At the very end they brought out an ATV and put it in the bed. With the exception that it looks pretty far out there the specs are certainly impressive.

I'm willing to bet this truck is going to outsell the Model 3 and Y combined. Tesla is getting even further and further from the restrictions of ICE vehicle design.

The core truck buying market won't touch this with a 30ft pole.

If you can fuel your truck with your wind generator "for free", it could have more than a few heads scratched.

Yeah; after living in urban Texas you realize that the core truck buying market couldn't care less about utility. They literally mod their spotless piles of metal to be less efficient. They just want it to fit their definition of what looks cool. And this ain't it, chief.

This looks incredibly cool. It's like a vehicle from bladerunner. It's going to be iconic.

Cool to nerds like us is not the same thing as cool to executives who want to pretend they're ranchers. Although I'm not shocked that Elon Musk wouldn't realize the difference.

Some people will like it, and some people won't. Tesla doesn't need to convince everyone. I expect there's a market for it, but time will tell.

Thanks for speaking on behalf of a huge population of people who buy trucks. Guess will have to see what kind of numbers this thing sells. (it will sell at least one, to me, though)

To be fair, the other large market - actual farmers/ranchers - does care about utility. But I also don't see them spending $50k on this kind of vehicle.

Edit: Others have pointed out my apparent ignorance of truck pricing; turns out this is a normal price

That’s about how much average F-150s cost anyway.

I never see any base model pickup trucks in farming country and even fewer in ranching country. You can see many old beaters, but they're outnumbered by the fancy ones.

Yup. Basic work trucks are predominately bought by construction companies for their crew. After that, they become luxury vehicles.

No need for gas infrastructure could be compelling. Charge at night at home.

You should see what top end work trucks go for.

I'm disappointed they didn't do something more aerodynamic. The incumbents could use a kick in the pants to stop making bricks on wheels. This thing is just for poseurs.

Despite its polygon aesthetic, I wouldn't be surprised if the retractable bed cover thing improves the aerodynamics quite a bit.

I don't entirely trust my intuition when it comes to the behavior of turbulent air, but the tailgate on a conventional truck looks about as aerodynamic as a parachute.

The tailgate in a standard truck actually helps with aerodynamics by encouraging the laminar airflow over the cab to continue rearward rather than mixing with turbulent flow in the rear. While it can intuitively appear more aerodynamic, driving with the tailgate down actually significantly increases drag.

I agree though that the shape of the cybertruck, especially with the cover, should be a significant improvement.

It looks way more aerodynamic than a regular pickup to me. The shape appears largely designed to fix the drag from the turbulent flow over the bed that most trucks suffer from.

They would if it were as bulletproof as it looks.

Edit: Ah. I didn't allow all of the scripts at first, so didn't see the text about "exterior shell made for ultimate durability and passenger protection". They ought to use actual "bulletproof" windows, however. So I wonder if this is aimed at wealthy preppers.

Also, the nose should be depleted uranium, with the batteries just behind and shielded, to facilitate punching through other vehicles in the way.

It is _literally_ bulletproof, according to the demonstration video they showed during the presentation. Well, not the windows; but the truck body is.

I expect the windows will be bulletproof by next month, given the embarrassing demo failure.

I don't think making the windows as tough as the stainless steel truck body is a design goal. I suspect they'll probably improve them so they survive the "hurl a steel sphere at the window as hard as you can" test from the on-stage demo, but I doubt the stock windows will ever be literally bulletproof like the truck body is.

Eh, I'm not sure about that. I drive a Silverado. It's a family thing; I started driving one when I was 16. I put down $100 tonight. I'm not 100% sold, but I actually like that it's different.

I have pig hunting friends who all said they can't wait to stand on the back and hunt pigs with a quiet electric truck

Like they won't touch the Jeep Rubicon or the Toyota Tacoma.

I think there's a bit of an endearing "Oh elon" quality to his demeanor that seems more authentic than a polished CEO.

I've seen Elon say he spends about 1% (or something like it) of his time for marketing/presentation preparation. And I think it included press-interviews/presentation-prep/etc.

And he was planning/hoping to reduce it even more.

From what you say, it seems Elon achieved his goal regarding his time management goal.

And I also remember some saying Apple engineers basically spent their time all year preparing for Jobs' next upcoming presentation. :)

> But for an Elon presentation, this is pretty normal (high awkwardness).

Give me the high-functioning aspie CEO who puts all their energy into realizing a brilliant vision, and has none left over to game their audience with 'charisma' (e.g., Adam Neumann). Not sure that Steve Jobs was much of a normie either - though possibly his meditation practice had some effect to his conduct.

> You couldn't invent a more polar opposite of Steve Jobs than Elon Musk.

Jobs would start off describing a common problem before unveiling the product which inevitably solves said problem. This often brought cheers that felt genuine.

Musk simply shows something bizarre and talks about how they made it, never how it solves your problems (other than a desire for the latest tech). edit Regarding the transition to EV vehicles, that's what Musk always says about new models, it's not a new thing.

Lol it's absurd to say the cheers didn't feel genuine. The crowd was insanely hype about this.

Didn't he start by saying the trucks in this category are number 1 sellers and to move everyone to sustainable energy, trucks need to go electric?

He is wrong, the market won't solve this problem. We need mass transit, not more cars EV or not.

Sorry, I meant to say the market will solve this problem. We don't need mass transit, we need more EV cars. Everyone should have a 7 ton steel EV to carry all the stuff they buy in the abundant future we have before us.

was there a video? not there now

Here you go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwvDOdBHYBw

Rather than a steel ball, I wonder how their glass handles various handgun and rifle rounds.

Thanks, I got second hand cringe from the video so I had to cut it off. I just wanted to see the bed gate open.

Does the presentation really matter? 99% of people who will buy one of these were not watching. They'll just see the pictures online later.

No, but I think a lot of people group Musk and Jobs together. It's not that one is "better" than the other or anything like that, but rather they're very different people.

I watched it, I cringed, I still put $100 down on a top-end model, hoping I'll have the cash when it arrives 2+ years hence.

Thing is: though the glass demo failed, we still know this guy comes thru with great stuff - he'll get that problem fixed, and we'll have videos soon of someone literally shooting up the truck with practically no damage (glass included). The man managed to get rockets to land & reuse; fixing the glass will be resolved next week.

I'm not sure if I'm thrilled or dismayed by the exterior design, but it's innovative and futuristic. It pushes the state of the industry forward.

> I'm not sure if I'm thrilled or dismayed by the exterior design, but it's innovative and futuristic. It pushes the state of the industry forward.

It's unclear to me how an exterior design devoid of compound curves pushes the industry forward.

It doesn't have a 7'x4' chrome grill. That's a major change from other pickups.

Read some of the Motortrend articles that are going up about this. It's all about manufacturing and "The machine that builds the machine".

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