It's a near-universal sentiment and based on both.
However, you get major successes by taking risks. Evaluating people and businesses, I do so based on successes and not on failures. The best people (and businesses) I know failed more times than successful ones. Cybertruck was a good try, and it takes a few like that to be successful.
Of the problems I have with Tesla, the Cybertruck is not one of them.
Cybertruck owners, on the other hand, you might as well but a dunce cap and a t-shirt which says "I'm an idiot with too much money."
It's wild when you see these kinds of takes, because ultimately Elon has hired smart people and they would have built a R1T competitor, not the Cybertruck.
The idea of making an electric truck is a GOOD idea, but building one that is completely out of left field in terms of design is NOT. Tesla would have had a majorly successful pickup truck had they just built a normal ass pickup truck.
Acting like this was just some sort of "risk taking seat of the pants" maneuver is just absolving him of responsibility.
Quite literally snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Rivian is clearly led by marketing folks who recognized that a successful truck would sacrifice efficiency for looking conventional.
A truly engineering led organization would end up with something like the Tesla & Nikola semi trucks, closer to the ideal teardrop shop that aerodynamics leads to.
It has far less potential to be sold in millions than the Model 3. The cybertruck is built ignoring certification standards in many jurisdictions (no way of legally drive on in Europe). Then the design is super controversial. Compare that to a Model 3 that is sold worldwide and that has a design which is acceptable to many.
Objective metrics have never been the point of SUV-type vehicles. I think the two things that sell them are large and heavy = safe and, uh, the Brawndo factor.
It's clear they burnt through all 1 million pre orders and now you can get them in less than a week. Based on when they reached July 2024 pre-orders and roughly 25k built at the time, it is speculated only 3% of people actually chose to purchase the car, with 97% getting a refund.
Compare that to the ~80% conversion rate of the Model 3 when it launched, it appears the Cybertruck is a massive failure.
Sales seem to have stalled. Q3 2024 was strong, but then dropped off quite dramatically in Q4 2024 with no indication that Q1 2025 will improve, despite price cuts and generous financing deals. Basically there seems to be a small, dedicated, market that loves the Cybertruck, but they've largely all bought one by now, and they're struggling finding new customers.
All that being said I believe the Cybertruck is still the best selling EV pick up on the market, so it's not like the competition is doing any better in this segment.
I found this [0] which claims 39k Cybertrucks sold in all of 2024 vs 33.5k F150s and 11k R1Ts. It also claims 16k Cybertrucks sold in 3Q24, compared to your linked article which claims 7.5k for the same period. So who knows?
However, you get major successes by taking risks. Evaluating people and businesses, I do so based on successes and not on failures. The best people (and businesses) I know failed more times than successful ones. Cybertruck was a good try, and it takes a few like that to be successful.
Of the problems I have with Tesla, the Cybertruck is not one of them.
Cybertruck owners, on the other hand, you might as well but a dunce cap and a t-shirt which says "I'm an idiot with too much money."