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Comment by kiba | Hacker News Reader

I have seen video of it. It's 'bulletproof' for what they shot at it, which includes handgun, shotgun, and a tommy gun.

I wouldn't rely on it as an armored vehicle. If I want extra protection, then I would spend money on uparmoring it.

Depending on the ammunition type, those guns all stand out as having very low penetration.

Starting with the handgun, the two most popular calibers are 9 mm and .45, and if you shoot hollow point rounds, they can even be stopped by a few inches of drywall (hollow points are designed to expand on contact), and lead bullets may also be stopped by the truck if they are shot at an angle, but I wouldn't be sure about high-penetration rounds like full metal jacket. The Tommy gun is also handgun-caliber (assuming they shelled outout a small fortune to rent a real one, .45).

Shotguns have an even wider variety of available projectiles. A shotgun shooting buckshot has far lower kinetic energy behind each projectile than a handgun, and their velocity falls off very quickly with increased range. A slug (a solid chunk of metal) designed for armor penetration, on the other hand, will penetrate 3 mm of steel easily, with similar caveats about range.

Just replying to myself because I watched the video: the Tommy gun was loaded with hollow points, the pistol was a 9 mm Glock and shooting regular lead bullets and one of them penetrated, and the shotgun was 00 buckshot, and even the buckshot had a penetration. Their excuse for both penetrations was "two hit right in the same spot," but that is pretty doubtful. They also used a suppressed MP5 in the mix, which would have lower velocity (and thus less penetration) than the pistol, and shot the same ammunition as the pistol. All in all, a very unimpressive trial.

Suppressors don’t have a significant effect on muzzle velocity [0]. That said, in my experience, most people who shoot suppressed intentionally shoot subsonic rounds, since they are inherently quieter.

If anyone in Arizona gets a Cybertruck and is interested in more testing, I own a (legal) machine gun and I would be honored to test your vehicle’s bulletproofing. I’ll even supply the ammo.

[0] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.05748.pdf

Without tests with AR-15 it is simply half-true marketing. but Tesla is full of such statements, like full self driving or price including gas savings.

Toyota should do same marketing tricks with new Prius.

Perhaps you shouldn’t put so much trust in marketing videos.

https://www.quora.com/How-thick-of-a-hardened-steel-plate-do...

> and a tommy gun

Al Capone hates this one weird trick.

They shot the windows?

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