By Colby Buchanan
The other day, Elon Musk responded to a tweet regarding the wading depth of the Cybertruck. It’s a fair question that I was curious about myself since Rivian’s truck can three feet. Musk responded saying, “yes it will even float for a while.” I don’t really know what that means though. Floating could be an inch off the ground or it could be several feet. And I’m not entirely sure I would want my car to float if I’m crossing a deeper river. What if its trajectory got all messed up before you could get control? How long will it last? Is it supposed to float or just hover for a little before sinking?
All I’m saying is that Jeeps don’t float, and if he wants to make a good off-roader he should look generally at what they’re doing. Here’s a link to my full comparison here.
Yes. It will even float for a while.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2020
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day. It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, but it’s also encouraged.
Jeff Glucker
Actually, any Tesla will float, if you launch it into orbit.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs3YvqvCUAE3tls.jpg
Wow… is that ad real? I mean, a woman lost her life in that accident. Surely VW wouldn’t stoop to such levels just to peddle more Beetles.
NVM… I googled it and learned it was a parody ad in The National Lampoon. I guess it’s pretty infamous, but I’d never seen it before.
As I recall things, the Kennedy’s threatened to sue the living hell out of the Lampoon and made them recall and destroy all the copies (which they -could- retrieve) of that issue. However the Internet never forgets.
EDIT: I was wrong – it was Volkswagen who sued for use of the VW logo et al. However, the outcome was the same.
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/30/archives/volkswagen-settles-suit-against-national-lampoon.
In return for the recall of all outstanding copies of The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor and removal of page 29 from 10,000 hard‐cover copies, destruction of printing plates, a “forthwith” press release by the publisher and corrections in the next issues, Volkswagen agreed to release National Lampoon from all claims.
As noted below, it was a National Lampoon parody, but note that it closely imitated the look of VW advertising at the time.
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.arnoldclark.com/newsroom/vw-floating-article.jpg
Well, it’s an electric vehicle, so it has a floating ground. Floating truck, floating ground. Make sense now?
I’m sometimes amazed how well the concepts of hydraulics work for electrics: pipe diameter resistor, pressure voltage, and volume flow current/electron flow.
Old VWs could be made to float fairly easily, so it may be feasible depending on what the final weight is.
Floating away on a ford isn’t a desirable feature I agree!
True that, hard to dodge rocks when you’re floating.
I think Musk’s comment is another subtle indication that the Cybertruck– at least in its current form– isn’t intended for production. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
Why would you wish for that?
Because I think it’s a lousy design. Aesthetically, I find absolutely nothing appealing about the Cybertruck.
Others might. 🙂
Most cars will float… briefly.
Yes, that’s exactly how I read Musk’s comment. A typical non-promise.
Until they don’t.
Beat me to it. […by a long ways…s’what I get for not checking in to the Hooniverse in a while!]
Beat me to it. […by a long ways…s’what I get for not checking in to the Hooniverse in a while!]
I have a bit of fear of poking the hornets’ nest as – although some will say it’s just coincidence – the last time I suggested anything negative about Tesla was the last day the government allowed me to leave my house. They tell me it’s for my own safety, and I believe them. So, if I MUST leave the house, I wear a mask which hides my identity. Just sayin’.
But: I wonder about the impact of current events on Tesla’s future. Of course all car sales are ,uh, DOWN, but Tesla occupies a niche in the market that I suspect is especially vulnerable and the CyberTruck (in my opinion) is in an especially weak position.
To wit:
Tesla vehicles are almost entirely a vanity purchase. Their purchasers are largely, Hell, ALL upper middle class people – a group who are probably still safely employed, but whose savings have largely disappeared into the gaping black maw of the stock market. Certainly OUR household will only be buying turnips and sensible shoes for the next few years.
Now to address the CyberTruck specifically, first we must consider the fact that it doesn’t even exist at the moment. So a company with reduced sales and (electric) train loads of debt is going to have to raise funding to build a production line for what is quite likely to be a niche market vehicle in a shrunken niche. I would think that any available funds would be better spent on updating existing models (when was the last time anything was changed on the Model S?). Still, I’m not Elon. He may just decide that the buzz will be worth the risk, and that does tend to be his fall-back position.
Still, I am of the opinion that, no, the CyberTruck won’t float.
“I have a bit of fear of poking the hornets’ nest as – although some will say it’s just coincidence – the last time I suggested anything negative
about Tesla was the last day the government allowed me to leave my house. They tell me it’s for my own safety, and I believe them. So, if I MUST leave the house, I wear a mask which hides my identity. Just sayin’.”
You’re not allowed to leave your house? Why not? What’s going on?
What’s that? Lokki is secretly being punished? A giant secret conspiracy I shouldn’t be talking about, to keep him locked up? Oh…
Elon Musk is the same guy that said the windows wouldn’t break when you threw a steel ball at them, right?
And that you’d be able to buy a $35K Model 3. So I think the $39K Cybertruck will fall in the same category.