Daccanomics
Well, he did it again. Another very well-thought publicity stunt or just a rookie mistake? Whatever it is, everyone knows the genius Elon Musk is. Tesla just launched their Cybertruck, with Elon putting on a show for the crowd himself. The Cybertruck has arrived and it looks nothing like any pickup truck you’ve ever seen. Elon revealed the long-awaited electric pickup truck at its Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, just outside Los Angeles. It is nothing like a modern-day pickup truck but looks like an advanced Mad Max Fury pickup which you would love to ride on the surface of Mars.
The crowd was stunned to see the truck. When the truck initially drove onto the stage, many in the crowd clearly couldn’t believe that this was actually the truck Tesla made and clearly, this is not what they expected. The Cybertruck looks like a large metal trapezoid on wheels, more like an art piece than a truck. It was not well received by tesla fans and there were many backlashes with the design. But the event went on to become a huge success for Tesla and Elon as it gained huge publicity and free promotions. After the release of the truck, people went crazy and took Twitter by storm. Everyone started writing about it and what happened during the event.
The truck looks like a futuristic vehicle but not enough to please tesla fans. The exterior is made from a newly developed stainless steel alloy, the same metal that’s used for SpaceX rockets, Musk said. That alloy enables the car to be “literally bulletproof” against at least smaller firearms, including 9-millimeter handguns. Elon invited a member of his crew, the lead designer Franz von Holzhausen on stage to give the audience something to cheer about. The guy came in with a sledgehammer and hits the sides of the truck without damaging it. He pounded the truck for quite some time but there was almost no damage at all. Elon also mentioned the window is made of ‘Tesla armor glass’. A special type of glass with high durability which wasn’t supposed to break if it came in contact with a heavy metal ball. To prove his point he told his crew to throw a metal ball into the window of the car. This is where it all went wrong. The glass shattered as the metal ball was thrown at it. The stunt backfired and the crowd went crazy.
“But it didn’t go through, ” Musk sheepishly pointed out.
Elon Musk is a marketing genius. Every time he does something is a piece of news. So when the glass shattered, everyone started talking about the cybertruck. Some are saying this was a well-planned marketing strategy. They knew that the glass would break and it will create a buzz. There is no way that Elon didn’t know that glass would break. While there was speculation all over Twitter, Elon himself twitted what actually happened and why the window of the truck broke.
But Musk says he knows what went wrong, and explained things on Twitter. Right before the metal ball test, von Holzhausen smacked the door with a sledgehammer on stage to prove its durability (and unlike the glass, it was fine), and Musk says this impact “cracked base of glass,” which is why the windows subsequently smashed when hit by the ball.
Yup. Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn’t bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door. Next time …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2019
This seems plausible, especially as Musk also shared a slow-motion video of von Holzhausen performing the same exact test before the event, with the ball bouncing harmlessly off the window.
A repeat attempt on the rear window had the same results, leaving the truck with cracks awkwardly sprawled across its glass for the remainder of the presentation.
In hindsight, Elon says they probably should’ve done the window demo before they smacked the truck with a big ol’ hammer.
“oh my fucking god” Elon muttered as the glass shattered in front of the crowd. But he did complete his presentation in front of the fractured panes.
Franz throws steel ball at Cybertruck window right before launch. Guess we have some improvements to make before production haha. pic.twitter.com/eB0o4tlPoz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2019
Musk also claimed that the Cybertruck would be more capable, in terms of towing and hauling, than a Ford F-150 and perform as a better sports car than a Porsche 911.
