CYBERTRUCK 2077
On November 20th, Tesla, Elon Musk’s automotive and energy company, held an event announcing its upcoming products. For those acquainted with Tesla and Elon Musk’s other corporate ventures, you probably know by now that he has a touch for being a bit... eccentric at times; like the time his company SpaceX sent a Tesla Roadster, worth $100K, into Earth’s orbit, making it the fastest car in human history... and then the rocket that took it there landed itself. Or, what about the time he sold 20,000 “Not a Flamethrower” flamethrowers, just for the sake of a joke? Like him or not, Musk is an absolute mad lad, with the right combination of intelligence and recklessness to make him wildly entertaining to keep up with.
At 11PM, the event began and after a brief prologue with intense music and flashing lights, Elon took to the stage. Being slightly awkward as a presenter, he wasted little time in his introductory speech and got right into the matter at hand. After a quick look into how the design of pickup trucks have, for the past century, remained largely the same, and the need for clean, sustainable energy, Musk proposed the company’s solution.
“We need something different, and we need sustainable energy now. If we don’t have a pickup truck we can’t solve it. [The] number one selling vehicle in America, top three, are pickup trucks. To solve sustainable energy, we need a pickup truck. So, I present to you, the Cybertruck.”
With that, the word “CYBERTRUCK” was graffitied on the screen, and, with an assault of smoke, lasers, lights, and pyrotechnics, the new “Cybertruck” drove up the ramp onto the stage. All at once, the crowd erupted into cheers. It looked like something ripped straight out of Blade Runner, Back To The Future, or, funnily enough, Cyberpunk 2077, with its sharp, harsh angles and intimidating light bars in place of headlights. In truth, it didn’t even look like what one calls a “truck,” but more of a utility vehicle that never made it past the prototyping phase. It was edgy, tough, and dystopian all at once, and I must say I fell in love with the thing. Perhaps it was because it looked like an unrendered Warthog from Halo, but the vehicle made me feel - probably by design - like I was finally living in the future that had been written about over the past hundred years.
Once on stage, Musk discussed the specs of the truck, and had some live demos which have since made national news. Firstly, to test the truck’s exterior, an assistant came out with a sledgehammer and brought it, full force, to a traditional truck door, leaving a small dent behind. Then, in much the same way, the assistant lined himself up with the door of the Cybertruck, swung back the hammer, and smacked it into the door, leaving only a small scratch which he, jokingly, buffed out with his shirt. Then, Musk showed on-screen a test wherein a bullet was fired into the material making up the door, and the material from a normal truck door. The Cybertruck was, in essence, bulletproof.
Next, to show off the toughness of the glass (which isn’t really glass at all, but, apparently, transparent metal) Musk had assistants drop a small metal ball onto normal car window glass, which cracked instantly, and then onto a sheet of the Cybertruck’s glass, which reverberated but remained entirely intact. Where things went a bit sour, unfortunately, is when Elon had an assistant toss another ball at the Cybertruck’s side glass, which cracked into a spider web-like configuration. Being the agent of chaos that he is, Musk brushed it off, saying: “Well, maybe that was a little too hard.” In an effort to show that the break was a fluke, the test was repeated on the back window, which also cracked. “Ehh not bad...room for improvement…” Musk then went on to show objects that they had previously thrown at the glass - wrenches, nails, even a literal kitchen sink - and it hadn’t cracked. Quickly moving on with the presentation, Elon went on discussing details for the truck, including the truck’s improved suspension, dimensions, towing capabilities, fuel economy, built-in self-driving capabilities, and the astonishingly low price tag of $39,900. At one point, the Cybertruck is shown having a tug-of-war with Ford’s F-150, and it won by a long shot.
So, that was the Cybertruck unveiling, and what a roller coaster it was. Even looking back now, as I feel after most events with Elon, I don’t even feel like it happened. On paper, even, the event just sounds like utter nonsense. But it is real: The Cybertruck is real, and it’s estimated to be released sometime in 2022. The future that we’ve always dreamed of, with clean energy and crazy, outlandish designs, is almost upon us, and I, for one, can’t wait.
