Elon Musk unveils ‘bulletproof’ Cybertruck at Tesla event, but window test is a bust
By Noah Manskar, New York Post , November 22, 2019
Fail: Elon Musk's Tesla Cybertruck Shatters
The inspiration for Iron Man is losing his touch.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk botched a test of the company’s first electric pickup truck Thursday night after he asked his chief designer to throw a metal ball through the “bulletproof” glass.
But the glass cracked, drawing groans from the crowd gathered in Los Angeles for the “Blade Runner”-inspired vehicle’s unveiling.
“Oh my f—ing God,” a red-faced Tesla CEO muttered onstage. “Well, maybe that was a little too hard.”
The flap came minutes after Musk claimed the Cybertruck’s hard-edged body is “literally bulletproof” to a 9mm handgun.
“We threw wrenches, we threw everything — we even literally threw the kitchen sink at the glass and it didn’t break,” Musk said. “For a little weird reason, it broke now. I don’t know why.”
The South African founder of SpaceX took the mishap in stride, noting that the ball didn’t go through the window.
“Room for improvement,” he quipped.
Shares of Telsa were down 6.3 percent Friday in afternoon trading to $332.45 a share
The shattering didn’t stop Musk from offering rides in the truck at the launch event. “Don’t mind the glass,” he told the crowd.
The futuristic Cybertruck is made with the same “ultra-hard” stainless steel alloy that will be used in the SpaceX Starship rocket, Musk said. While he didn’t shoot the truck onstage, Musk did have von Holzhausen smack it with a sledgehammer.
“When you say something’s built tough, that’s what we mean,” Musk said in a subtle dig at Ford, a major player in the pickup truck market.
The materials aren’t all that’s unconventional about the Cybertruck. It has an angular design that Musk said was influenced by the 1977 James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me,” as well as “Blade Runner.”
The Tesla co-founder claimed on Twitter that it will be the “official truck of Mars.”
But the blocky look was widely mocked on Twitter. Some commenters said it looked like it belonged in an old video game or an elementary school classroom.
“This looks like some old graphics, what was this made on? Playstation One or the original XBOX?” one observer tweeted.
“We outsourced the styling to a random 2nd grader, and passed on the savings to you!” another tweeter said.
Tesla will offer three Cybertruck models starting at $39,900. The $69,900 high-end model will come with a battery range of more than 500 miles and more than 14,000 pounds of towing capacity, according to Tesla.
Drivers can order the trucks now and configure them as production nears in late 2021, the company’s website says.
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