Remember when they rolled a car down hill because it couldn’t even drive?
It's easy to see through this showmanship when the product is a car. So why not when the product is software?
I think the reason that it's more prevalent with software is that it's easier to hand-wave away stuff, because you can say "well we're creating the market for this field". I don't fall for that stuff anymore, but I did when I was first starting in this field.
Genuinely asking.
Be sure that the fraud is obvious at the time of the post (and not in retrospect), is actively celebrated at the time.
Something, something [..] bulletproof Cybertruck [..]
You have a bunch of people who consider themselves "the smart money" who have been had, and if they pull out, that's an acknowledgment that perhaps they're not that smart.
Ah yes. The Nikola Gravity Drive™ has been a roaring success and is now powering millions of trucks worldwide. This bankruptcy is merely a blip in their continuing success.
The "pusher" truck was not supposed to be EV. It was supposed to be a Hydrogen truck. In reality it was neither.
I have no doubt it's entirely possible to make an electric truck, but you still have to spend a year in the trenches actually doing it and solving all the little design problems before you have something to show off.
Especially if you weren't previously making ICE trucks. Then you have to learn how to make a truck from scratch, instead of just the new electric parts. You can of course buy an ICE truck and convert it for your prototype, which I think is what Edison Motors did, but then you'll be showing off a rusty old truck that won't get any venture capital or journalist attention because it's nowhere near shiny enough.