The stainless steel body of Tesla’s Cybertruck is reportedly leading to issues with gaps in between the panels::The Cybertruck’s steel is made in “coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper,” WSJ reported.
Well, Duh. Everything is over promise, delay, underdeliver. All Teslas have crappy panel gaps. Why would anyone expect anything better?
I wonder how much better Tesla quality would be if they dumped Elon. Is it a systemic problem, or just poor leadership?
dumped Elon. Is it a systemic problem
Don’t you know that the revolution eats its children? The electric cars revolution is over. Tesla was part of the revolution. Now Tesla is obsolete and the others are going to take over.
I saw one of the “RC” release candidates in the wild in San Francisco two weeks ago. It looked like shit in person. Marker lights weren’t aligned, the stainless already had fucked up scuffs and discoloration, etc. Water spots showed up just like my stainless kitchen sink.
You can see the stainless smudges and water spots here. I wish I got the tail lights when the brakes were off.
Also, the brakes flashed at you. Super annoying.
It’s not even smudge free stainless? LMAO
Not a Tesla fan but this article is garbage. Basically all sheet metal comes on coils “that resemble toilet paper” including the metal that other manufacturers use.
It definitely seems like an irrelevant point. All car sheet steel arrives in rolls.
I’d be more concerned about how it is formed into panels, how resistant it is to corrosion, what tolerances parts have, how easy is it to replace parts, whether there are visible production flaws due to it being naked steel, and if construction techniques or material thickness makes it more dangerous to occupants or pedestrians in collisions.
I certainly won’t be surprised if pictures start appearing in a year or two of cybertrucks that have been completely fucked by salt water corrosion, or heat warppage or other issues caused by their design.
“Water? Like out the toilet?”
Please only wash your Cyber Truck with Brawndo™
The missing point is it’s a property of stainless steel that it remembers being a coil and can unflatten itself weeks later if the manufacturer doesn’t know how to work around that.
I’ve worked with stainless steel (specifically 304, 430 and 401) for 15 years and the steel shouldn’t have a memory after being run through a de-coiling machine that is configured properly. Excessive heat in a focused area would definitely cause it to warp but this can usually be overcome by adding geometry to stiffen the parts. It seems like the team at Tesla is missing a step somewhere.
Yeah, but other manufacturers don’t try to origami sheet metal into a car.
That’s almost exactly what they do…
What a surprise! The other well known stainless steel car, the Delorean DMC-12, is FAMOUS for being a huge pain in the ass to work on. Dents and dings are tremendous problems, and stainless steel is super heavy.
Not to mention all of the manual labour it took to make all the panels to fit properly. No 2 delorean were the same
Depending on the grade, the weight difference between stainless steel and carbon steel of the same thickness is not much of any at all.
Don’t most cars use aluminum as well as carbon steel in their frames, to save on weight?
Well, it wouldn’t be a Tesla if it didn’t.
10 micron!
Panel gaps are just a ubiquitous feature of a Tesla. This isn’t a surprise, and the apologists will say it’s no big deal.
I am not a car guy. Would gaps allow water to come in and causes issues as well as act like asail increasing air resistance?
You should see the videos of model Y owners (a model they’ve had many iterations on) roll down their window during rain to get a drive through order and the water pours into the open window directly onto the, you guessed it, button console used to open/close the window and DOOR. I’m sure that won’t eventually cause problems. With OPENING THE DOOR.
And it’s not just falling rain, it literally channels rain from the glass roof directly into any open window. It’s hilarious.
This isn’t even the first time this has happened to a Tesla, at this point this particular problem is just expected.
Much like the wealthy expert who built his own sub, there is a need to listen to other experts. Your employees that aren’t fired will be the “yes” people
Watch what happens when people eventually discover what completely flat panels of sheet metal do in heavy wind.
There is literally a reason why no other auto manufacturer uses flat body panels on cars.
Just so I know, what does happen?
they get real flappy
I assume the flat panels have an aerodynamic effect like the underbody of race cars. They ultimately create forces sucking the surface into a direction. And since on the sides it will be never stable it will flap around all the time. You can see that the most with the vertical fin stabilizer of Formula 1 cars. https://old.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/comments/nd2ayw/alpine_flexible_rearwing/
Here is a lot of wobbling and while the vertical changes are intended, the horizontal ones surely aren’t and they tried to make it as stiff as possible. Certainly nothing a production car would achieve.
Correct me if I am wrong, as I didn’t study this particular area.
Metal does not like to compress at all. But when you make it really thin it will be floppy like a spring you might find in a pen or wind up toy. However you can make it stiff again by making it curved so the sheet has structure/mass going on all directions. Infact believe it or not cars during the 1960/70s had quite a bit of curves dispute being a brick. And that’s because they didn’t want the panels to dent easily. So when a car has flat faces like the Cyber truck. Those panels don’t even have subtle curves to give them structure and they are soo suspectable to dents that a simple brease does the job of denting them.
This is a problem with all of their vehicles lol
Every single thing you’ve ever had that had sheet metal in it came from “coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper”. But it’s the WSJ, I just assume the writer has never met anyone who works for a living.
4x8 sheets are pretty popular, too.
Cybertruck would be the time machine in a Back to the Future shitty remake if they would make one.
A perfect replacement for the DeLorean: stainless steel body? Check. Failed ego-drive project? TBD but it’s not looking good.
I love how this is a joke that just went too far. Elon presented a stupid design, just for attention, as with everything he does. And now they are seriously taking about releasing the ugliest car since the Fiat Multipla.
Fiat Multipla
Damn that’s a goofy lookin car. Looks almost like the car that Homer Simpson designed.
I had to look it up. I was not expecting your joke to be literal. It does look like Homer’s car! Just without the second dome.
Should have just been left as a quirky concept car. Obviously divisive design but I think it looks best under specific lighting conditions.
At this point Tesla customers deserve this crap
If they were smart, they would pursue nitinol body panels or a similar memory metal. Get a ding in a panel? Take a heat gun to it or leave it out in the sun and the dent is gone. Another benefit would be a ~25% weight reduction.
All they would have to do is figure how to make large panels; which is no easy task, but neither is rocket science. The patent licensing could be a major revenue stream.
