What a garbage article. Elon sucks, the cyber truck sucks, but an article about tweets is less than worthless. Perhaps the article instead of assuming elon just “didn’t have time to run tesla properly”, should dig a bit deeper and demonstrate that tesla was successful despite elon, not because of elon. Same with Space-X or Star-link.
Now as far as why the cyber truck is getting stuck in snow, tires is the low-effort answer, but maybe look at the weight of the truck versus the contact area. Maybe look at how the traction control system works? How about whether the car is front wheel bias vs rear-wheel biased. Does it make assumptions about which wheels have contact to the ground? Does it have a differential or are all 4 wheels independently controlled? (I don’t know the answer to any of these by the way, but if I were concerned about a vehicle getting stuck in the snow, I’d certainly want an analysis that addresses all of the above.)
Welcome to modern “journalism”, throwing together a few sentences based on twitter and reddit posts, without any research or asking experts.
“Another user said…”
It’s so ridiculously low quality journalism it’s embarrassing
But some online commentators have come to the Cybertruck’s rescue by pointing out that the cars being shown didn’t have snow tires or snow chains, and it getting stuck may be due to over inflating the tires or driver error.
The part of the truck that touches the roadway is exactly the same design as the part of any other vehicle that touches the roadway.
There’s a point to be made about the overlap between the people who want a Cybertruck, and the people who aren’t self-sufficient enough to make sure that their vehicle can operate in the winter, but this has no bearing on the merits or not of the Cybertruck as a vehicle.
Also:
“Another storm, another CyberTruck needing a rescue,” they wrote. “It’s like finding a leprechaun that’s constantly getting stuck in a glue trap.”
😆
Well, they advertised it as a truck that does truck things…
And the people with them now, ordered years ago.
It all comes back to range, and the range is horrible. So out of the factory they get “fuel efficient” tires that are great for range and terrible for everything else.
Put on truck tires, let alone winter, and range will nosedive.
Not everyone will drive one in snow, but all of the suckers who bought one know the range.
It also weighs way more than a normal truck. I think.
If it does that would help…
Weighing it down gives traction. Hell, most hillbillies load up their truck beds in the winter because the weight is such a big help, especially in the back.
I think I might have heard something about weight distribution though, like a normal truck has an engine over the front, but Tesla’s weight is in the middle of the axle.
But this is the tires, and probably something about whatever this things equivalent to a transmission is. Like you only need to put your foot on it a little for normal driving. Which means take offs in snow would almost always spin out.
So like the RPMs of the wheels go up to fast? I think that’s the easiest way to say it.
It makes a vehicle seem faster the less you have to push on the gas pedal, it’s a pretty old trick, because most people never floor it, so they don’t notice halfway thru it stops doing anything.
That makes sense
If the traction control is the same as in the model 3, slipping due to pressing the accelerator too hard shouldn’t be a big issue. I can literally floor the accelerator from standstill in the snow and the car barely slips at all and just accelerates slowly until it has better traction (obviously didn’t do that on public roads but on private road). It is has way better traction control than my old car had.
I think shitty tires are a more likely culprit.
Lol I used to keep a bale of straw in the bed all winter to get traction. Apparently I’m a hillbilly.
the fact that you just happen to have a bale of straw handy every winter was a clue…
Lol good point
Weight is not as important as weight distribution. And the CT has significantly better weight distribution than any other unloaded truck.
The part of the truck that touches the roadway is exactly the same design as the part of any other vehicle that touches the roadway.
…you mean the tires? No, no it’s absolutely not. 😂
I see Jersey schmucks up here with their pavement princess trucks getting stuck in the snow all the time. I see locals in a Corolla or fiesta or other tiny light car make it just fine in deep snow. One of my bosses at the ski mountain used to drive a mini Cooper an hour to work every day.
This is a skill issue.
One of the most satisfying things for me is driving my wife’s little Mirage in the snow. With normal all season tires it does great, with proper snow tires it’s completely unstoppable - that is, until you need to stop.
It turns out that accelrating and stopping a 2,000 pound car on ice and snow is easier than it is with a 4,000 pound vehicle.
Nah it’s more of a weight distribution issue. Pickup trucks in general are terrible at this. Engine, cab, transmission, basically everything is over the front axle but they are rear wheel drive.
Cybertruck doesn’t have this problem.
Growing up my mom lived on one of the biggest hills in a town that was basically all hills. She remembers when it snowed they’d watch all kinds of cars and trucks get stuck trying to make it up that hill, and then watch a guy in a little VW beetle go right up the hill like it was nothing, perfectly happy will of that engine weight right over the rear drive wheels.
Years later I’m a new driver borrowing my parents’s cars, a '93 RWD ranger, and a '92 Buick century, and that comparison did a good job of driving home how much difference that weight distribution matters. The ranger had some pretty good grippy tires, but without any weight in the bed, it didn’t take much to make those wheels spin. The buick, on the other hand, handled snow beautifully, it had all the weight of that big boat-like front end over those front drive wheels, never once struggled to find traction, the only limiting factor was that it sat pretty low to the ground so it didn’t take too much snow before that front end was just trying it’s damnedest to plow through snow. If some mad scientist ever thought to lift an old Buick a few inches, I’m pretty confident that 4wd/AWD would become all but obsolete.
Nah, trucks get stuck in snow all the time. The tires are so expensive that a lot of people don’t bother getting winter tires. Rear wheel drive trucks (very common) are notoriously bad because there just isn’t enough weight in the back to get traction (many people put bags of sand in the bed in winter for traction). 4WD encourages more confident driving, but 4WD doesn’t help with braking.
Don’t buy a truck for winter driving, buy snow tires and chains. That’ll help you stop and turn, which is far more important than accelerating.
skill? sometimes. the fact that those corollas and mini coopers only weigh a fraction of those huge trucks probably has something to do with it, too…
Weight and weight distribution are both important, but a pickup will usually perform better in snow with more weight, like 500 lbs of sand in the bed usually does the trick.
How you apply power to the road surface is also very important. Not enough weight and you will just spin tires. Break too aggressively and you lock up. Pedal to the floor and your tires are spinning. Overcorrect your turns when you start to slide and you’ll never get back straight.
My car is a little older and actually drives better in snow with the traction control off.
I’d feel like such an asshole driving one of these things. If someone gave me one for free, I wouldn’t even want to park it in front of my house.
Sell it for some extra cash.
How is this thing still real?
They set out to make the truck version of the Delorean and succeeded.
How do we know it is? I suspect all photos of the thing are AI-generated deepfakes. 😜
I’ve seen them in the wild, I live in the bay area. They look worse than in the pictures. The brushed steel catches every speck of dirt and oil. It’s like they’re driving a damn crock-pot.
The engineers unironically ask themselves the same question. None of them wanted to do the project
https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-engineers-cybertruck-secret-design
I don’t know, it don’t even support to wash it.
Mighty? It was a joke from the start. The only reason for buying it is a novelty for collectors. I don’t think it was ever meant to be driven.
I thought it was sarcasm but then i saw the name of the website
All season tires in snow = a terrible time
All seasons with a tiny sidewall = bad news pretty much anywhere but pavement.
Although I do think Tesla needs to work on their traction control system to better mimic having locked differentials after seeing the hill climb video from a few weeks ago. This should be able to be performed via an OTA update though.
Probably bad tires to be honest. Bad tires for a hideous truck: a loosing recipe.
Too bad the tires are tied to the wheel and can’t just be exchanged
they aren’t tied to the wheel, just the hubcaps. If you want to run it without the hubcaps, you can put whatever tire you want on it.
if only they used something sensible like nuts and bolts to secure them. something which could be easily unscrewed…
They do but the tires are specifically made for Cybertruck and the hubcaps lock in with the tire. If you buy a different set of tires they fit the wheels just fine but the hubcaps no longer do. It just affect aesthetics and probably aerodynamics.
Really?! That is so more shittier than I thought!
And actual human beings purchased those things?
What, pray tell, are you talking about?
I remember MKBHD made a comment about the snow possibly being an issue opening the doors as well. Hoping these things were actually tested in super cold conditions
Tesla and tested?
That’s what “launch edition” Teslas are for.
Tesla claims they’ve tested it with 3/4 inches of ice and should work on an inch. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough either way
Truck built for truck things fails at truck things
Could we assume that if you’re stupid enough to buy that ghastly monstrosity, you’re probably not a very good driver either?
Holy shit that thing is ugly…
Who would have guessed that an offroad vehicle designed in socal only works on bare, dry, triassic limestone.
Maybe if it didn’t weigh 3 tons…
Weight is actually a good thing in the snow. Too light of a vehicle and it’s hard to get any traction without something like tracks.
The struggling in the snow is most likely an issue of tires. If someone put some all terrain or ideally snow tires, I’m sure it’d do significantly better.
But it can’t afford to run less efficient tires because it has too much air resistance and the range would suffer. There’s a reason why other Teslas have no flat panels or straight lines.
It’s a 100,000 vehicle with plastic hubcaps.
I don’t disagree with that at all, it’s a dumb vehicle no matter how you slice it and this debacle only furthers the proof. If it needs low rolling resistance, highway tires, then it’s just a street queen for elon fanboys.
Most SUVs and Trucks now are pavement princesses. I respect the hell out of people who buy minivans now.
Yay, finally someone respects me. :)
Our minivan is older and doesn’t have AWD, but it’s heavy and is much safer than our sedan in the snow. I think it’s incredibly funny when I do a dump run in my minivan and have more stuff than most of the pickups. In one load, I had: 2 mattresses, 3 bicycles, a mini fridge, a TV, some broken down furniture, and a bag or two of odds and ends (ran out of stuff to throw away). I’ve done multiple furniture store runs, hardware store runs, etc, and it works great, just fold the seats down and I basically have a truck bed.
A minivan won’t do everything a truck does, but it does what most truck people want a truck for, and it can move people a lot better. New minivans also have hybrid engines and AWD, so they get fantastic gas mileage and can handle mountain passes for ski runs.
They’re seriously so convenient and if I had kids I’d be more interested in them than anything else.
I have three kids, and we’re debating getting another van vs a smaller car like a Subaru Outback or Rav4. The minivan is super convenient, but we almost never need more than five seats. It’ll mostly be for camping and road trips, and we could do that with our other car (Prius) if my youngest’s car seat would fit.
Weight is actually a good thing in the snow. Too light of a vehicle and it’s hard to get any traction without something like tracks.
Absolutely not true. @6:30
Weight alone doesn’t help. It matters where the weight is. On a rear wheel drive vehicle it absolutely does help with traction and handling if you add more weight on the rear axle. People have been hauling sandbags on their truck beds/trunks in the winter for ages for a good reason.
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Weight alone doesn’t help.
Yes that’s what I said, thank you.
Adding more weight only helps if you put it in the back. Takes those sandbags and slap them on the hood and you’ll just make it worse. You need them over the drive wheels.
Remember how well the Delorian didn’t do? Mush has one that’s going to do 1,000 times worse. Way to go boy genius.
The Delorean might’ve been fine if they hadn’t tried to build it in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and if John Delorean hadn’t been entrapped with drug trafficking charges. Musk doesn’t have those excuses.
No, he doesn’t. I’d say his being in the right place at the right time streak is nearing an end.
There is not a single good thing about the Cybertruck.
