Four years have passed since Tesla originally unveiled the Cybertruck, an obscenely unattractive electric pickup truck that didn’t appear to outperform pickups or EVs significantly. Rather, the 6,600-pound monster of “stainless super steel” appears to be more the realization of a peculiar desire of a single individual, who just so happened to be the owner of a whole business that he could use to bring that fantasy—complete with pointy corners and superfluous lighting bars—to life.
In a broadcast on CEO Elon Musk’s destroyed X platform, Tesla delivered today’s first of many delayed Cybertrucks to ten buyers. These buyers are the first of an undetermined number of affluent customers who have accepted Musk’s pessimistic forecast for the future. It’s an automobile that offers unrestricted survival from semi-automatic weapons and a blank cheque for vehicular killing, but only to the wealthy. “More utility than a truck, faster than a sports car” is its tagline, and it speaks almost poetically to two different but complementary stereotypes of challenged masculinity: the showboating rich guy and the tactic-cool mil-spec dork.
Since the Cybertruck’s 2019 debut, a “bulletproof” body has been a crucial component; however, Musk acknowledged that it was a design choice without any justification. Musk asked, “Why did you make it bulletproof?” “Why not?” he exclaimed, grinning broadly before guaranteeing anyone who purchases the Cybertruck greater genitalia and symbolically waving his own to the applauding crowd. Musk grinned and asked, “How tough is your truck?”
This statement was made in conjunction with video footage showing shots from a Glock 9mm, an MP5-SD submachine gun (which also utilizes 9mm rounds), and a.45 calibre Tommy gun being sprayed upon a Cybertruck. Though the firm disbanded its PR team in 2019, we would still like to know what cartridges Tesla was using and if they were shooting from inside the effective range of any of these guns.
Musk showed off a foolish but predictable amount of showboating during his long talk. Musk praised the truck’s overall durability just before the gunshot demonstration, pointing out that its low centre of gravity made it very difficult for the vehicle to overturn in an accident. Additionally, a video captured the Cybertruck hardly moving following a collision with a considerably smaller vehicle travelling at 38 mph. In response, Musk said glibly, “If you’re ever in an argument with another car, you will win,” urging owners of Cybertrucks to get into these kinds of “arguments.”
In a nation where gun violence and traffic fatalities have increased recently, Musk’s promotion of his car as a means for wealthy people to survive the end of the world—or even just the annoyances of having their lessers inhabit any space at all—is a little offensive. (Cybertrucks with all-wheel drive start at about $80,000; an RWD model with all-wheel drive is expected to arrive in 2025 for $60,000.) Musk pondered, “There are times when you get these vibes of late civilization like the end of the world could happen at any time, and here at Tesla, we have the finest apocalyptic technology.”
Beyond that, there’s the obvious reality that SUVs and trucks have grown significantly in size and weight over the last ten or so years. Because of their batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) naturally weigh more, but in recent years, automakers have also been increasing the size and height of automobiles’ front ends. This combination increases the danger these cars pose to drivers and pedestrians.
According to research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “whatever their nose shape, pickups, SUVs, and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45 per cent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile.” It further mentioned that, since 2009, the number of pedestrian crash deaths has increased by 80%. It’s a familiar feeling for anyone who rides a bike or walks through a city, so it’s shocking when a truck’s wall suddenly stops short in the middle of the street. Lastly, it’s well known that an automobile’s speed significantly impacts a pedestrian’s capacity to survive, which is problematic given that an incredibly heavy car can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than three seconds.
Now that the Cybertruck is almost ready for general release, it appears that Musk has essentially created a car that, at a high cost, allows American drivers to indulge their darkest instincts and offers them the “freedom” to behave as they like. Smaller car drivers should get out of the left lane regardless of whether the Cybertruck’s lightbar beams cause them to go blind. Who cares if another motorist irritates a Cybertruck driver? It’s best for other drivers just to accept that they are about to lose a very costly and maybe fatal “argument” with the front fender of the Cybertruck.
All of this ought to have been clear from the beginning. The Cybertruck has hinted at a cyberpunk future from the beginning. This is a genre that features great haircuts, hacking, and slightly problematic orientalism, but it also depicts a future where income disparity is far worse than it is now, and those who can afford it are above the law. The Cybertruck has long had the implicit promise of being a car that waives social standards for those who can afford it; today’s spectacle made that promise clear. In light of this, this marketing may be both stupid and brilliant.
Musk once bragged, either promising to raise the dead or ignoring the startling amount of people who use guns for violent crimes. “If Al Capone showed up with a Tommy gun and emptied the entire magazine into the car door, you’d still be alive,” he said. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a society where I have to think twice before purchasing a car because I might get killed by deadly weapons. Perhaps the wealthy survivalists in their Cybertrucks, acting out a scene from Blade Runner meets Mad Max, haven’t considered that the electricity grid will also burn down when everything burns down.