[BtM909]

Quote: Lars Moravy boils it down to two other things: “One, the truck market in the US is huge and two, European regulations call for a 3.2mm external radius on external projections. Unfortunately, it's impossible to make a 3.2mm radius on a 1.4mm sheet of stainless steel.”

[vincnetas]

"3.2mm external radius on external projections" does this translates to "you have to have rounded corners" in plain language?

[FirmwareBurner]

Exactly. You don't want pedestrians and cyclists being impaled or decapitated on the sharp and pointy edges of your car in case of accidents.

This isn't Mad Max or a zombie apocalypse to warrant such design choices on the road.

I'm surprised that it's legal in the US.

[BizarreByte]

> I'm surprised that it's legal in the US.

It's okay, the Cybertruck is for the wealthy and as we all know they are more important. The poors who it will kill can barely be considered people so who cares?

Even better, the truck may on its on volition decide to take some of the poors out without the driver's input.

[ModernMech]

It seems to me like someone is designing these for the war zone in their head.

This all started with the bio-attack mode on the ModelX. Now we have bullet proof windows, armor plating, and sharp edges. What’s next a retractable Gatling gun? Will people bat an eye?

[malermeister]

I wouldn't be surprised if Elon designed these as a getaway vehicle should the poors decide to rise up.

Need a Mad Max car to take you to your escape rocket - now all of his endeavors make sense!

[meepmorp]

> What’s next a retractable Gatling gun?

If you need a high rate of fire and are space/weight/power constrained, you might be better served by using a Gast gun design, like the GSh-23. You don't get to the same max rate of fire, but you also don't need to spin up the barrels or use an external power source to drive the gun.

[benmoose]

Yep

[croes]

So Lars Moravy's second quote is wrong?

[josefresco]

Not only is it a danger to pedestrians "brushing" up against its sharp edges:

"Musk implied that in a crash with another vehicle, the Cybertruck—which weighs 6,603–6,843 lbs (2,995–3,104 kg)—will destroy the other vehicle."

*https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/the-tesla-cybertruck-fi...

[LeifCarrotson]

That's not that different from my Toyota Sequoia at ~5950 lbs curb weight (I was over 6800 lbs loaded with family, dog, luggage, and tools last time I went over a scale to weigh my 7400 lbs travel trailer).

I drive extremely carefully while using that stupidly large vehicle. Please don't honk at me when I don't jump out into small gaps at an intersection, cut me off when I'm leaving a large gap in front of me, or dart around me when I'm not accelerating like it's a drag race - I'm just trying not to hurt anyone.

My Dad was driving his 6800 lbs Super Duty a few years ago, pulling a trailer with a friend's antique car (a Buick about as long and as heavy as a barge) when a little 2500 lbs Honda Fit pulled out of a driveway to turn left without looking. The truck needed the bumper, radiator, and some trim replaced, the Honda was totaled. He applied the brakes fully on all 8 wheels but basically stayed in the lane unperturbed, the Honda was spun into the ditch and the whole left rear was crushed. If someone had been sitting in the back left seat they'd have been dead. Miraculously, no one was killed.

That arms race is why my wife refuses to downsize. We could get a smaller, lighter, newer travel trailer, and pull it with a Honda Odyssey. But she wants to be as tall as the pickups and as heavy as anything else so she doesn't get killed by some idiot.

[Ekaros]

It is fun to think that it is very much closing to gross weight where your normal driving license is not enough. As that limit is 3500kg. Meaning that if you have 6 people in it you would be over the limit. And this does not include any cargo...

[gregshap]

Sure but thats a feature of all large trucks he's just marketing more aggressively.

[cactusplant7374]

What would happen if two Cybertrucks crashed in a head on collision?

[danpalmer]

> Unfortunately, it's impossible to make a 3.2mm radius on a 1.4mm sheet of stainless steel

Cars in Europe are not made from >3.2mm thick steel plating, and yet they manage it. I don't know if this comment was just ignorance or an attempt at gaslighting, but it doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.

[creshal]

Cybertruck uses a different construction technique, one that's been around for decades yet was never adopted by any other car maker. This is probably one of the reasons why.

[digitalPhonix]

You have it backwards - you want something significantly thinner than 3.2mm steel to get a bend radius of 3.2mm. That’s why most cars don’t use sheet steel and have exteriors made with materials that are easier to form

[oxfordmale]

It boils down to pedestrian safety, not the external radius. The high bonnet and bumper mean that a pedestrian would likely be hit by the ultra-hard stainless steel structure of the front bumper and bodywork, where the grille would traditionally be.

[netsharc]

I think the whole thing is a kindergartner being rich enough to design his fantasy car, but I wonder if anyone at Tesla is considering a EU version with different materials and more rounded edges.

Bugattis have to have added bumpers to make them legal in the US[1], although they're easily removable by the owner (at their own risk of fines).. it'd be funny if European Teslas had ugly padding around the edges/corners.. or maybe not funny, as I live there I'd loathe to see these ugly things.

1 https://www.carthrottle.com/news/bugatti-chirons-us-spec-bum...

[34679]

It's perfectly possible if you bend it.

[nativeit]

It’s trivially possible. Is Lars Moravy dumber than most, or do they just think everyone else is?

[rich_sasha]

That's intriguing - you can't make thin sheet of metal rounded?

I know precisely nothing about metal design, but why can't you bend it? Steel pipes can be rounded and be made of thin-ish metal.

[digitalPhonix]

Not by stamping the steel which is what they’re doing