Does the Tesla Cybertruck live up to the promises that were made when it was unveiled?
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Tesla Robotaxi Lies
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Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:14
Bennett Tomlin
I don't know if you all have heard, but Tesla released a truck. The type that Blade Runner would drive if blade Runner was a person. Recently, I decided to go back and watch the unveiling, to reminisce about that hopeful period and to see just how good Elon did at not lying this time. Believe it or not, the things that ended up not being true started with the very first reveal.
00:00:28:16 - 00:00:58:09
Bennett Tomlin
The size of the goddamn truck. Now, I don't think this is the most important thing, but these dimensions aren't right. It's actually like 224in long, 95in wide, 70.5in tall, only seats five and has a six foot long bed. Okay. Cars sometimes change from their concept version. Still wild that somehow it got wider and lost a seat. But hey, here we are.
00:00:58:11 - 00:01:05:14
Bennett Tomlin
Then they demonstrate the very useful feature of being able to hit your truck with a sledge hammer.
00:01:05:14 - 00:01:06:05
Elon Musk
Hit a hot.
00:01:06:08 - 00:01:17:13
Unknown
Hit a hotter.
00:01:17:14 - 00:01:18:18
Elon Musk
Yeah.
00:01:18:18 - 00:01:37:14
Bennett Tomlin
Which, yeah, sure, you can do that. Then they claim it's bulletproof. Which others have decided to test in. Yeah. Doesn't seem to give way to a nine millimeter, though. People who decide to shoot 50 caliber bullets at it bust through. As you would expect.
00:01:37:14 - 00:02:03:18
Bennett Tomlin
Clean wise, not too bad by Tesla standards so far. The car is in the right shape, but at least you can actually shoot at it. Plus, Elon has so far gone the entire presentation without pretending that the Cybertruck will be a money printer. So pretty good by Elon standards. Unfortunately, we quickly end up with the infamous claim about the windows, which Elon says are made of transparent metal.
00:02:03:20 - 00:02:33:07
Bennett Tomlin
Now, I'm not a material scientist and I haven't done actual chemistry since college, but transparent metal is a real thing, which is made with aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen to form aluminum oxide nitride, a transport ceramic. Tesla won't release their formulation, but it's probably something pretty similar. And Elon claimed that the armored glass would be really strong, and they even did a demo to show us all just how strong it is.
00:02:33:07 - 00:02:38:15
Elon Musk
Sure. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my fucking God.
00:02:38:21 - 00:02:42:17
Bennett Tomlin
Well, at least the ball didn't go through.
00:02:42:17 - 00:02:44:23
Elon Musk
It didn't go through. That's. That's a plus side.
00:02:44:23 - 00:03:02:17
Bennett Tomlin
After this, Elon started talking about the bed. As we discussed, the length isn't right and the payload isn't right. And then Elon claims it can tow 14,000 pounds, though in reality it only tows 11,000 pounds. Then he does a little tug of war to brag about the torque from his one gear electric truck.
00:03:02:17 - 00:03:07:07
Elon Musk
do the tug of war video.
00:03:07:09 - 00:03:14:14
Unknown
Both. And. Yeah.
00:03:14:16 - 00:03:16:07
Elon Musk
But it was uphill.
00:03:16:07 - 00:03:37:20
Bennett Tomlin
After this reveal, we get into on road performance. And this is actually the first time that the real vehicle outperforms the promise. Elon says it'll do 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds, but the current cyber beast, the one being distributed, has 2.6 seconds with rollout subtracted a substantial difference and improvement.
00:03:37:22 - 00:04:05:05
Bennett Tomlin
Good for you, Elon. For one of the first times in your life you avoided overselling, even though I know you really wanted to. He claimed a 10.8 second quarter mile time. Other people like car and driver coming in it 11 seconds, which feels close enough to let it be driver, car track and tire variability. Elon during the reveal after talking about this quarter mile time, shows a race against a Porsche 911.
00:04:05:07 - 00:04:26:10
Bennett Tomlin
Other people have done better videos about the problems with this, but despite it seeming to show the Cybertruck winning, that wasn't the full quarter mile race that was only an eighth mile. And when other people have repeated the test, the Porsche still wins. I wish Elon had mentioned that instead of having to get called out for lying again.
00:04:26:12 - 00:04:46:17
Bennett Tomlin
Off road performance Elon makes a bunch of things that I'm not really qualified to test or evaluate. I don't go off road, but it seems that USA today got numbers that are pretty damn close to what Elon was promising. Now we get into range and always test subject for Teslas. However,
00:04:46:17 - 00:04:58:06
Bennett Tomlin
we actually once again see the Cyber Beast with its claimed 320 mile range actually hitting the promised 250 miles when car current driver tested it.
00:04:58:08 - 00:05:22:13
Bennett Tomlin
Now, you might say current driver should get 320 miles because that's what was advertised. But hey, at least they got the 250 he said at the reveal. You know, MotorTrend was slightly less at 224, which is much less than 2020. But I mean, at least it's kind of close to the amount promised here, I guess. You ain't also claimed it would be able to charge it more than 250kW,
00:05:22:13 - 00:05:27:19
Elon Musk
be capable of more than 250kW will reveal the actual number later.
00:05:27:19 - 00:05:29:10
Bennett Tomlin
but that doesn't seem to be true.
00:05:29:15 - 00:05:58:04
Bennett Tomlin
It currently only advertises charging it 250kW. Of course, as Elon explains, it'll come with autopilot standard. And as you see, it lists full Self-Driving, which is currently not available on the Cybertruck. And no, Tesla can get actual full Self-Driving where it can fully drive itself. Guess there won't be any Cybertruck robotaxis yet. There's also supposed to be a trailer docking autopilot mode, which does not seem to exist.
00:05:58:06 - 00:06:26:02
Bennett Tomlin
I'm sure it's coming slightly after the robotaxi network, though. Then Elon announced all three models. There's 0 to 60 times and their prices. Currently only the tri motor one is available and we already discussed it does not hit that range shown here even with optional range extender. It does hit that 0 to 60. So perhaps on keeping that accurate Elon it does seem to hit that speed does not hit that payload, does not hit that tow rating and cost $97,000.
00:06:26:04 - 00:06:32:13
Bennett Tomlin
Way more than promised. But hey, it accelerates dangerously fast. And he somehow made it even more dangerous.
00:06:32:13 - 00:06:51:13
Bennett Tomlin
My favorite part of all of this is that by the end of 2020, there were going to be a million robo taxis on the road, each throwing off $30,000 in profits for their owners. And in 2024, the newest Tesla vehicle still doesn't even have the version of full Self-Driving.
00:06:51:15 - 00:07:07:08
Bennett Tomlin
That's not even good enough for the robotaxi network. But hey, at least it's dangerously fast. And sometimes the accelerator gets stuck and you accelerate 0 to 60 straight into a famous sign in 2.6 seconds or less.
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