![]() I’m surprised they’re not further forward,” Palmer says, after being apprised of the content of the report. According to the report, in January 2022, the Cybertruck’s brake pedal pressure pad was still under design, and so the alpha experienced “excessive pedal travel and inconsistent stop,” and “excessive pitch during friction braking,” braking during turning issues, as well as power braking instability. Tesla’s engineers were aiming for a score of 7, or “fair,” on the Society of Automotive Engineers rating scale, but the alpha version achieved only a 4, or “poor” rating. The EV’s strafe mode, a feature that allows the wheels to turn to allow the car to “crab walk” sideways had “only basic functionality.”īraking performance was one of the worst areas of the report. The report noted a number of issues, including “excessive mid-speed abruptness and chop,” “high head-toss accelerations,” and “structural shake.” It said that the truck experienced “excessive lateral jerk during low-speed maneuvering” and that it needed to address problems with steering refinement and body roll. Handling was also a concern for the alpha Cybertruck. “Body manufacturing and paint shop processes have struggled to seal bodies for optimal NVH performance in the past, and the Cybertruck design presents new challenges,” the report says. Tesla cars have a history of leaking, and the report hints that the Cybertruck’s unusual design may have complicated engineers’ attempts to properly seal it. Data in the report shows that the alpha version was significantly noisier than engineers had projected based on their designs, and that testers had identified 21 potential noise leaks in the body of the vehicle. This is an issue not just for keeping the weather out, but for noise in the cabin. The report says that the alpha version of the Cybertruck had to be hand-sealed, but that “there are a number of areas that we do not have a clear path to sealing” in a production version of the vehicle. “You’d be giving the engineers that wrote this stuff a good bollocking. Palmer says he’s surprised at the frankness of the report. “It’s an alpha-stage vehicle, so it's not surprising that it’s some way off its targets,” says Andy Palmer, the former COO of Nissan and CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda, who has more than 40 years of experience in the automotive industry. In summary, it presents a picture of a prototype vehicle that’s leaky, noisy, and has poor handling and braking. The internal dynamics and NVH-noise, vibration and harshness-report leaked to Handelsblatt contains test results measuring the performance of the alpha version of the Cybertruck against projections made using computer-aided design (CAD) simulations, and against internal benchmarks. The report, dated January 25, 2022, which WIRED has examined, shows that the preproduction “alpha” version of the Cybertruck was still struggling with some basic problems with its suspension, body sealing, noise levels, handling. Among those documents was an engineering report that might give some insight into why the vehicle has taken so long to come to market. ![]() In May, the German newspaper Handelsblatt began reporting on the “Tesla Files”: thousands of internal documents provided to it by a whistleblower. But two years on, the trucks still haven’t been delivered, and for most customers, they won’t be until 2024 at the earliest. The vehicle was supposed to start rolling off production lines in 2021. Since then, an estimated 1.8 million customers have put down their $100 deposits to reserve a Cybertruck. ![]() Not that this faltering start has deterred Tesla’s devoted fans, of course. Musk first swore, then joked: “There’s room for improvement.” That off-the-cuff remark could have been a fitting mantra for the entire project. ![]() Under the glare of the cameras, the demo truck’s windows smashed not once, but twice during a demonstration of their strength. What happened next has entered into public relations folklore. ![]() In November 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stepped onto a stage in California to launch a new kind of EV: the Cybertruck, an angular cyberpunk-styled pickup with bodywork made of brushed stainless steel and “unbreakable” glass. ![]()
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